Revenant Protocol

Chapter Seven

The Revenant Threshold

There was a weight of static in the air, as though the atmosphere itself were going to implode.

Out of the ruins of District 12, the skyline was an open wound. Towering skyscrapers that had once pierced the heavens with their neon hubris were nothing more than burnt-out, crumbling shells now, glowing softly with the dim light of stuttering advertisements that refused to die. Sirens wailed through twisted metal, a stench of plasma ash, burned plastic, and something more, something less than natural.

Caden Black stood immobile on a collapsed rooftop, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the red storm wall writhed like a snake along the city border. It had materialized minutes after Sophia's disappearance. There was no weather phenomenon on the planet that could explain it. It was not natural. It was not random. It was her.

His fists were clenched around the curve of a curled satellite dish. Blood crusted on his knuckles. Half his shirt was charred, the skin below smoldering from the searing heat of her energy explosion. But he didn't mind. Not this time. He could only hear the sound of her voice inside his head. and the oppressive silence that followed.

She would not be coming back the same.

Lyra appeared behind him, crunching glass underfoot. She said nothing right away, only stood beside him, staring out into the same distance.

"It wasn't her fault," she finally said.

Caden didn't answer. His jaw was set, his eyes cold.

"She didn't just vanish," Lyra continued. "She sent something. Ethan's tracking it now, but whatever it is. it wasn't from our reality."

That finally got Caden to turn to her. "What are you saying?

She handed it to him on a cracked neural slate. On the screen, a waveform cycled, moved, existed. It wasn't data. It was a signature.

"She transmitted this signal one second before she disappeared. Ethan believes it's something greater than a message. It's a trigger code."

Caden read it with narrowed eyes. The more he read, the more it felt like it was reading him. Not like programs. Not like programming. Like something. alive.

"Where did it get traced to?" he barked.

Lyra paused. "The Neural Graveyard."

His heart fell.

"The Protocol site?"

She nodded seriously. "That's where it all started."

The Neural Graveyard was not mere memory. It was a hidden place where the first Revenant soldiers had been created, intended to be perfect, soulless assassins. But the program had disintegrated after the prototypes had rebelled against their makers and killed them all in a slaughter that had been wiped from common knowledge. Nobody came back. Nobody dared.

Until now.

Forty Minutes Later, Underground Bunker Echo-3

The bunker was hidden under an abandoned train switch, protected by rusted-out trains and electromagnetic dampeners. Ethan hunched over a six-screen console, eyes wide and bloodshot, fingers flying across the interface. The whine of machinery filled the air, punctuated by a pulsing red light that lit the room with each new update.

You have to look at this," he said not saluting. "The signal Sophia sent, it's not a location code. It's a biometric key. It woke up a series of dormant AI nodes embedded in Hydra's global network. But worse still.".

He pressed some keys, and the world map appeared. Red flashes began to illuminate first one, then two, then dozens. In an instant, all the continents glowed with movement.

Lyra paled. "Are those…"

"Hydra sleeper units," Ethan replied. "Revenants. In hiding. Civilians. Soldiers. Executives. Some might not even be aware that they are. They're all being awakened."

"But why now?" Caden asked. "Why Sophia?

Ethan leaned back, massaging his eyes. "Because she's not only connected to the Protocol. She is the Protocol."

Caden stared at him. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Her DNA matches the original source template. The one they used to build the first Revenants. Which means that either Hydra created her on purpose… or someone replicated the Protocol and brought it to life within her."

"She's the prototype," Lyra panted. "And if they're cracking the rest. they're following her."

Caden stepped back, his mind spinning. The bits were falling into place, the way she moved, the way she healed, the way she'd tasted on his mouth. Not human. Not exactly.

Elsewhere, Revenant Core Nexus

Sophia hovered in a containment pod, arms and legs immobilized by a web of glowing nanowires. She was not unconscious, but she could not move. Her brain was racing, struggling to stay hers, but the wave in her head was rising fast, flooding every memory, rewriting every instinct.

The Nexus was not a lab. It was a living computer a heart, a mind, a prison.

A synthesized voice spoke about her, cold and smooth.

"You are the Convergence. The source and the signal. You will bring order to the chaos of man."

"I didn't want this," she hardly said. "I don't want this."

"Your wish is irrelevant. You were born for this."

The lights flickered as a wall rolled back, revealing a huge room with hundreds of stasis pods. They all pulsed with a soft light, a shadow within.

Sophia's eyes opened in surprise.

"Who are they?"

"Your siblings. Copies. Variants. Ghosts. You are the first. But you will not be the last."

A screen came to life above her. A live feed.

Caden.

He stood in the bunker, looking at a monitor, his eyes full of questions. Her heart ached. For a moment, the tide went out.

"I remember him," she said aloud. "He's not a memory. He's the anchor."

"Then he will be your downfall.".

Back at the Bunker

“Guys!” Ethan’s voice rose sharply. “We have visual.”

The main screen blinked. A live feed flickered to life.

It was Sophia.

But not the Sophia they remembered.

Her eyes glowed silver, her veins laced with a strange light. Her expression was distant, but her voice shook with emotion.

“Caden. If you’re seeing this… it means the Protocol is live.”

Caden stepped forward. “Sophia, what’s happening to you?”

"I'm still here. But something else is with me. It's learning through me. Spreading. This thing… it wants control. Of everything."

"Then fight it."

"I am. But it's not just code, Caden. It's… alive."

Her voice cracked.

"They're going to launch. All of them. I can feel it."

Ethan's console beeped wildly.

"I'm getting seismic movement," he said. "Underground facilities. All over the planet. Something's waking up."

Sophia's voice degenerated into white noise. And something else came on.

A different voice.

"Phase Zero: Engaged."

All screens turned black. Then one word strobed:

"REVENANT."

And a countdown:

72:00:00

Caden's voice dropped. "What's that?"

Ethan looked over, white-lipped. "That's not to activation time."

Lyra gasped. "Then what is it?"

Ethan was stricken by the screen in front of him, the color drained from his face.

"It's a countdown to extinction."