The abandoned maintenance corridor swallowed Nero and Helia in dim, uneven shadows. The air smelled like burned circuits, and faint vibrations trembled through the metal beneath their feet—as if something massive was shifting deep below.
Helia finally stopped running.
She pressed her back to the wall, hand on her baton, scanning the hallway with sharp, trembling breaths. Nero leaned beside her, lungs pulling in air that tasted too metallic to feel real.
He wasn't exhausted from running.He was exhausted from existing.
"Your dampener's almost dead," Helia whispered.
Nero touched the patch on his neck.It flickered—weak, unstable, losing to the Architect's signal.
"He keeps overriding it," Nero murmured. "Why can he reach me so easily?"
"Because…" Helia hesitated, jaw tightening, "he built the identifier inside your core. He always had access."
Nero looked at her. "Even before I woke up?"
"Yes."
That single word hit like a punch.
Helia looked away first.
She motioned him forward, and they moved deeper into the silent sector—past old holographic projectors that flickered with ghostly afterimages, past broken screens that still displayed pieces of warning text.
"Helia," Nero whispered, "what if the Architect can see through me?"
She shook her head in denial. "He can sense you, not see you. There's a huge differencein it."
"Then why does it feel like he's watching every step I take?"
Helia opened her mouth to respond—
But the corridor lights flickered violently.
A low sound resonated through the metal walls.It grew louder, heavier—until it vibrated inside Nero's bones.
Helia warned Nero. "Don't move. Don't make a sound."
Then—
The corridor speakers crackled to life.
A voice seeped through them—cold, calm, steady enough to make Nero's blood run cold.
"Nero Vale"
Suddenly Nero's breath froze mid-inhale.
Helia's eyes widened in horror. "No—Nero—close your ears. Now."
He couldn't.His body wouldn't move.His body wasn't in his control.
The voice pushed through him like a blade sliding between ribs.
"Do not run."
Helia slammed both her hands over his ears.But the voice wasn't coming from outside.
It was inside his skull.A vibration.A pressure.
"You are malfunctioning."
Nero's knees buckled.His vision blurred around the edges.
Helia pulled him down gently, whispering sharply, "Don't listen—don't let him in—Nero, stay with me."
But the Architect continued, voice as calm and emotionless as a surgical tool:
"Return to me.""Continue your function.""You belong to the Archive."
Something in Nero's chest twisted—an icy pain threading through his heart like wires tightening.
He gasped, clutching his shirt. "Helia—make it stop—!"
"I'm trying," she whispered desperately, brushing her fingers across his neck, searching for the dampener patch."It's failing—dammit—!"
Nero blinked rapidly, the corridor felt like spinning.His pulse synced with the Architect's words.His thoughts tangled, fraying toward something he didn't want to understand.
Belong.Return.Function.
As if he was a robot.Not a person.
Helia gripped his face suddenly, forcing his gaze into hers.
"Nero. Look at me."
He did.Barely.
"You're human. Do you hear me? Human. Not his possession."
Her voice trembled—fragile, breaking—but she didn't let go.
"You are not going back to him. I won't let you.You can make through this."
The Architect's presence swelled, pressing harder against Nero's mind—
"You cannot resist me.Its futile."
Nero squeezed his eyes shut.
"Stop—stop—STOP—"
And then—
The pressure vanished.
Like a switch turning off.
The corridor hummed softly again.Lights flickered back to stable brightness.
Nero collapsed to his knees, panting as if he'd been drowning.
Helia dropped beside him, pulling him into her arms without hesitation. She pressed her forehead to his temple, breathing fast, almost shaking.
"Are you with me?" she whispered.
Nero nodded weakly. "Y-yeah… I think so."
Helia let out a shaky breath. "Good… gods, Nero. He's never reached you like that before."
Nero swallowed. His voice cracked. "Why did it feel like… like he could take my thoughts?"
"Because he designed the core inside you," Helia said softly."He made the rules—and now he's trying to enforce them."
Nero leaned back against the wall, hugging his arms around himself.
"Helia… what if he can pull me back? What if I can't stop him next time?"
She grabbed his hand instantly, squeezing it.
"That's why I'm here. To make sure he can't."
Nero looked at her—really looked at her.Her eyes were fierce but terrified.Her grip was steady but shaking.
She wasn't afraid of the Architect.
She was afraid of losing him.
Helia stood and pulled Nero up with her. "We need to move. Security from this sector will be here in any minutes. And if the Architect contacted them directly—"
"He'll know exactly where we are," Nero finished.
"Exactly."
They hurried down the corridor. Pipes ran overhead like rusted ribs. A faint draft whispered through cracks in the walls.
Helia slowed near an old maintenance terminal.
"Nero… stand still."
She pressed her fingers to his pulse.
His resonance throbbed faintly—unstable, leaking through the cracked suppressor.
Helia drew a sharp breath through her teeth.
"That's why he found you. The core flared when he spoke."
Nero touched the cracked device on his forearm. "We need to fix this."
Helia nodded. "There's a repair hub two levels down. If we can reach it—"
A booming metallic impact echoed behind them.
Helia snapped around, baton in hand. "What was that?"
The lights flickered again—once, twice—and then a harsh red warning strip lit the ceiling.
Nero whispered, "Something followed us."
Helia pulled him back a step. "That didn't sound like a C-Unit."
Another impact.Closer.Heavier.
Something massive was moving through the ducts.
Then—
A voice, not the Architect's, but mechanical and emotionless, echoed through the sector:
"Reconstruction Unit activated.""Prototype detection: CONFIRMED.""Retrieval protocol engaged."
Helia's blood went cold.She grabbed Nero's arm.
"Nero, I think we need to RUN. NOW!"
Nero didn't hesitate.
They sprinted down the passage as heavy metal limbs tore open the corridor behind them, crushing pipes and ripping apart steel like thin foil.
For the first time since waking in the Archive—
Nero wasn't running from confusion.
He was running from the truth.
And the truth was coming for him on iron legs.