The word instability echoed through the corridor long after the voice faded.
Helia stood like someone had pressed pause on her. One hand hovered near her weapon, but she wasn't drawing it—she just… froze. Nero had seen her face when the R-Unit appeared. He'd seen her furious, scared, determined. But he had never seen this.
Her expression wasn't fear.
It was dread.
"Helia?" Nero whispered.
Her jaw clenched. "We have to move. Now."
Before he could ask why, she grabbed him by the wrist—not his hand this time—and pulled him toward the stairwell. She was walking faster than before, almost to the point of running.
Nero stumbled to match her pace. "What does that mean? Bond instability?"
"No talking," she hissed. "Not here."
Her voice wasn't angry.It was scared.
And that scared Nero more than the Reconstruction Unit ever had.
They reached the narrow metal stairway spiraling downward. Helia checked the shadows, glanced over her shoulder twice, then motioned Nero to move first.
He hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"I said move."
Nero didn't push further. Something was wrong with her—wrong in the way someone looks after seeing a ghost from their past.
As he descended, Helia stayed three steps behind, her head turning sharply at every echo, every distant sound. She wasn't watching the environment.
She was watching for something else.
They reached the bottom on a hard,solid floor after what felt like ten minutes of silence. The stairway opened into a small, circular chamber filled with old pipes and flickering lights. A worn-out maintenance door hung crooked on broken hinges.
Helia finally spoke.
"Nero… listen carefully."She was about to reveal the truth, the cause for her impatience or her fear.
Her voice was low, almost whispering.
"That message we heard? That wasn't a warning."
"If not warning than what was it ."Nero asked
She swallowed hard. "It was a classification."
Nero frowned. "Classification?"
Helia nodded slowly.
"The Archive monitors every emotional change inside you. Stress spikes, fear levels, adrenaline output, even… even attachments." She looked away at the last word. "When it detects something conflicting with your 'design,' it marks it as instability."
Nero felt ice spread through his chest. "Why?"
"Because the Architect doesn't want you to form bonds." Her eyes flicked up to him, guilt buried under the surface. "Prototypes weren't meant to form bonds. They weren't supposed to get attached. Attachment leads to conflict. Conflict leads to deviation. And deviation…" She tightened her grip on her sleeve. "Deviation leads to erasure."
Prototype Eleven's final pleas flashed in Nero's mind—I don't want to disappear… please…
He felt sick.
"So because I—" He almost said care about you, but the words stuck in his throat. "…because I didn't run alone… they consider that dangerous?"
Helia didn't answer immediately.
When she did, her voice was barely audible.
"Yes."
The pipes above them rattled as if the Archive itself was listening.
Nero took a shaky breath. "But I didn't choose that. I wasn't thinking—"
"Exactly." Helia's eyes locked onto his. "Instincts matter to the Architect. They reveal what you'll choose when pressure hits. You chose me."
Nero opened his mouth—then closed it.
Because she wasn't wrong.
Helia took a step back as if trying to put emotional space between them, but the chamber was too small for that.
In his mind Nero started to blame himself for pushing her to danger, but a small part of him was happy, as due to current circumstances he met her.
"I told myself it was because you needed my help," she said quietly. "Because you're the only prototype left. Because you can't survive alone yet."
Nero stared.
"And now?" he pressed gently.
Helia's throat worked, trying to force words out that didn't want to come.
"…Now I don't know."
Silence fell like a heavy blanket.
Nero wanted to say something—anything—to ease that tension. But emotion was a fragile thing between them. Too little, and nothing changed. Too much, and the Archive noticed.
"So," Nero whispered, trying to steady his voice, "what happens now?"
Helia exhaled slowly.
"We hide it."
Nero blinked. "Hide what?"
"The bond."
The word hung in the air like a ticking clock.
Nero was confused, he didn't know what to do with it. He didn't know whether to feel relieved or terrified. He didn't even fully understand what the bond meant yet, only that the Archive hated it.
Helia continued, her tone firming again.
"We can't show reactions around each other. No panicking. No emotional spikes. No hesitation. The Archive measures everything."
Nero nodded slowly. "Then we'll be careful."
Helia hesitated… then she stepped closer—not close enough to touch, but close enough that Nero felt her presence steadying him.
"I need you to stay alive," she murmured. "That's all this is."
Nero swallowed, meeting her eyes. "I know."
They stood there for a beat, the air tight with words neither of them could safely say.
Another rumble traveled through the floor.
The R- Unit had found a new route.
Helia immediately straightened, mask slipping back into place. "We're leaving. Maintenance door—now."
Nero pushed the crooked door open. A blast of cold air rushed out—a narrow tunnel filled with dullness lianed with dim blue emergency lights, stretching into the dark till the end of tunnel.
Helia glanced behind them one last time before stepping in.
Meanwhile, the R-unit was serching every corner of the labs,all the storages,vents.They were searching for them in every possible areas.
The metal groaned above Nero and Helia, as if the Archive whispered something like:
"INSTABILITY CONFIRMED."
Nero clenched his fists gathering his wit.
Helia didn't look back.
Together, they stepped into the tunnel—closer in silence than they had ever been in words.
Not lovers.Not partners.Not yet.
But something dangerous.Something the Archive shouldn't have noticed.
The destiny was not in favour of them.It had planned something different for them.Sometging not in favour of there bond.
Something that might break both of them later.
They just didn't know it yet.