The footsteps were slow.
Measured.
Unhurried.
Like whoever—or whatever—was approaching didn't need to rush.
Aiden felt his pulse climbing fast, each thump echoing through the narrow metallic corridor. Lyra lifted her rifle with trembling hands, her eyes locked on the far end of the passage where the darkness thickened unnaturally.
The lights above flickered again.
Then went still.
Silent.
Dead.
Aiden whispered, "Stay behind me. Don't fire unless I say."
Lyra nodded, barely breathing.
Another footstep echoed.
Then another.
Not loud.
Not heavy.
But sharp—like the precise tap of something stepping in perfect rhythm.
The dark thickened into a shape.
At first, Aiden thought it was a person.
Then the shape stepped fully into the faint glow of Aiden's blade.
Aiden's blood went cold.
It was him.
Or rather—
It looked like him.
Same height.
Same build.
Same stance.
Same face.
But wrong.
The skin was cracked with thin luminous fractures, like porcelain holding back blinding white energy. The eyes were pitch black—empty, hungry voids that reflected no light. And the expression…
No emotion.
No confusion.
Just silence.
Lyra whispered, "Aiden… what is that?"
He didn't answer.
Because he already knew.
This thing wasn't a copy.
It wasn't an illusion.
It wasn't a glitch.
This was the one the machine had warned about.
Subject Zero.
Aiden tightened his grip on the Darkwave Blade.
Subject Zero tilted its head—exactly the way Aiden sometimes did when analyzing an opponent.
The mimicry was too perfect.
Then it spoke.
Its voice wasn't a sound.
It was a layered whisper, echoing slightly behind the real world—like multiple versions of Aiden speaking half a second late.
"Imperfect."
Lyra gasped and stepped back instinctively. "It's… speaking like you."
Aiden stepped forward slightly. "What do you want?"
Zero blinked once.
Unblinking.
Unbroken.
"Correction."
A chill ran along Aiden's spine.
"Correction of what?"
Subject Zero raised its right arm.
The air around its hand distorted, bending like heat haze.
"Of you."
Aiden moved first.
He slammed his foot down and launched forward, blade arcing in a tight curve. The violet energy ripped through the corridor like lightning.
Zero didn't even lift its hand.
It simply vanished.
Aiden's blade cut through empty air.
A fraction of a second later—
Zero appeared behind him.
Lyra screamed, "Aiden!"
He spun, blocking purely on instinct.
Zero's arm collided with the blade—no weapon, no tool—just pure raw force, stronger than anything Aiden had fought. The impact blasted shockwaves through the corridor, sending Lyra stumbling and tearing metal from the walls.
The echo-voice whispered again.
"Unstable."
Aiden gritted his teeth and pushed harder, but Zero didn't budge.
In fact—it leaned in, almost curious.
Their faces inches apart.
Aiden saw himself reflected in those dark void eyes—and for a moment, he saw something else behind them:
A memory that wasn't his.
Flashes of white rooms.
Needles.
Machines humming.
A figure watching behind glass.
And then—
Aiden screaming.
Except it wasn't him.
Zero pushed forward, hurling Aiden across the corridor. He slammed into a shattered console and fell to one knee, coughing.
Lyra fired at Zero's head.
The bullets hit—
But they didn't pierce.
They passed through Zero's body like it was partially intangible, distorting its shape like static.
Zero didn't even look at her.
It walked toward Aiden—slow, calm, inevitable.
Every footstep perfect.
Every movement precise.
Like it had already calculated the next hundred outcomes.
Aiden wiped blood from his lip, forcing himself up. "Why are you hunting me?"
Zero paused for the first time.
A faint tremble ran through its fractured skin.
Then, in a voice closer to Aiden's than before—
"Because you weren't supposed to exist."
Lyra froze. "What does that mean? Aiden—what is it talking about?"
Aiden didn't know.
But Zero stepped closer, raising its hand again—this time forming a thin blade of condensed white energy, flickering like unstable lightning.
"Return to original parameters."
Aiden inhaled slowly.
Focused.
He struck first.
This time, the blade connected. He slashed across Zero's torso, sending cracks of violet and white energy spraying through the air.
Zero staggered.
Just half a step.
But it was the first time Aiden had seen it affected.
The Darkwave Blade pulsed—strongly, violently.
Zero's whisper grew distorted.
"—anomaly—unacceptable—error—"
Then Zero twisted its wrist, and its blade extended, nearly touching Aiden's throat.
Aiden froze.
The edge hovered millimeters from his skin, humming with lethal intent.
Zero leaned in, speaking directly against his ear.
"You are the fragment that should have been erased."
A shiver shot through Aiden's entire body.
Lyra screamed, firing again—this time hitting a loose panel above Zero. The heavy metal plate fell and smashed against Zero's back, knocking it forward just enough.
Aiden moved instantly.
He drove the Darkwave Blade into Zero's chest.
A burst of violent light exploded between them.
Zero's body spasmed, glitching violently. Its face flickered—Aiden's face—then a distorted half-melted version, then something entirely inhuman.
It whispered one last thing before dissolving into a storm of white static:
"He will come next…"
The corridor shook.
Zero exploded into a vortex of blinding light.
Aiden shielded Lyra as the blast tore through the walls.
When the smoke cleared—
Zero was gone.
Only a scorched mark remained… slowly healing itself as if the corridor were alive.
Lyra grabbed Aiden's arm. "Aiden… what did it mean? Who's coming next?"
Aiden didn't answer.
Because he felt it.
A cold pulse deep inside his skull—like a memory trying to surface, but locked behind something dark and heavy.
Something dangerous.
And for the first time since awakening in this world—
Aiden felt like he was no longer fighting enemies.
He was fighting truth.
And truth was catching up.
[To be continued...]