I sat on the steps across from the recruitment office. People moved past—other recruits entering and leaving. Their faces carried the same hollow look I imagined mine wore. None of them looked at me. None of them spoke.
Hours passed while the sun bled out over Acheron's skyline. Glares of rust, copper, and old blood passed over and through the city. A new generation survived the testing. A new generation stepped up. A new generation doomed.
I started walking. No direction. Just movement.
Holobanners flickered overhead—Wei's face, Alexei's face, and a dozen others who had tested A-Grade. Purple and gold letters blazing through the sky, cutting through the orange hue.
A family pushed past. Parents beaming. Their daughter wore a C-Grade sash over her Commons uniform. They didn't notice me. Why would they? I was just another body. Just another F-Grade.
"Where am I going?"
Home was gone—the word now felt foreign, like something said so often it had lost all meaning.
I could still picture my room: the achievement certificates on the walls, the graduation photo, Lydia's datapad still hidden under my pillow. All awaited Marcus Tiernan, a boy who no longer existed. Mother would be there. Probably waiting by the door. I couldn't face her. Not yet.
Father would be there too. Or not. Maybe he had already retreated into his office to pore over Grade reports, adding my name to the list of expendable soldiers. Already drafting the announcement:
"The Tiernan family regrets to inform you that Marcus Tiernan is no longer affiliated with—"
I stopped walking.
Where do I go?
Not ho— Not the Tiernan house. Not the arena, they'd have locked the Legacy halls by now. Not Wei's compound or Alexei's; they'd both be drowning in either handlers or recruiters. Too busy for a nobody. The thought landed heavy in my chest.
Nowhere.
I had nowhere.
The realisation should have hurt more than it did. But the numbness from the arena lingered inside me, dulling everything like a painkiller. I knew the wound was there—I could trace its edges—but I was spared from its consequence.
My feet started moving again. Slower now, but with direction.
There was one place left. One place that didn't belong to the Tiernans or the Federation. One place that was real, even if it lasted only one night. It wouldn't fix how I felt, nor would it change what was coming. But at the very least, it was mine.
-
A hand here, a foot there, swing wide around the broken section, then, finally, at the top. My body remembered the movements, the muscle memory of a boy who once existed, carrying a foreign mind.
The platform materialised beneath me: the same rusted metal, the same view of Acheron, the same amber glow, the same twin moons. I stood in the same spot as last night, the same spot where Chen Wei had pressed up against me, the same spot opposite where Alexei sprawled. Same—everything.
Yet it felt wrong, it felt alien.
It felt as if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I expected copper to flood my mouth; instead, there was nothing.
My commlink buzzed, interrupting my thoughts. I didn't look, knowing who it was.
It buzzed again.
And again.
And again.
Probably Mother. Trying to reach the distance I'd put between us, her calls a never-ending reminder of my cowardice. Each vibration a question that I couldn't answer.
Where are you? Are you safe? Please, Marcus, just tell me where—
I pulled the commlink from my pocket; her name glowed against the dark. In that moment, the distance between us felt insurmountable. The commlink's soft light, a reminder of everything I was losing. A reminder of everything I couldn't face.
[INCOMING CALL: SOPHIA.T]
It pulsed. Once. Twice. The call ended.
[INCOMING CALL: SOPHIA.T]
My hand hovered over the answer button; all it took was one tap to hear her voice again. One tap and she'd tell me to come home, that Father didn't mean it and that they could fix this. One tap and I'd have to explain why I couldn't, why home wasn't home anymore. Why I had already walked into a recruitment centre and signed my own life away.
Anxiety began to bubble, and before I realised it, I had tossed the commlink over the edge of the observation tower. It fell, spinning end over end, still glowing with her name, into the darkness below.
For a moment, the world was quiet; I felt at peace. The questions and voice in my head stopped—just silence. But as that clarity faded, a flare of realisation cut through.
The message.
The notification from before the testing, the one I didn't open. The one sent by Wei, Alexei, and Diana—their words that waited for me.
Gone.
"Fuck!"
The word tore out of me, sharp and loud. My hands balled into fists.
"FUCK!"
I slammed the railing. Pain flared through my wrist. I wanted to hit something. Break something. I wanted to scream until my throat gave out.
But who would I be screaming at?
Father? The Machine? The Federation? Wei? Alexei? Diana? Mother? The entire damn city?
I turned, looking for something—anything—to blame. The universe offered nothing; just rust, moonlight and an empty bottle. I stopped, my breath catching in my throat.
I did this.
This one thing, this small and irretrievable thing, was— my— fault.
The anger drained out of me, replaced with something worse. The flat recognition of someone who's run out of people to blame. It finally hit me. Everything. All at once. My legs buckled, and I fell. Knees hit metal, palms flat against the cold platform.
Something in my chest cracked open, and my shoulders began to shake. I drew in shaky, uneven breaths that could not find a steady rhythm. A sob slipped out—small, almost silent. Another followed, then another in quick succession. I wasn't screaming; instead, the grief trickled, slow and quiet.
F-Grade,
The word surfaced.
Forty-one generations,
I pressed my forehead against the platform. My tears hit the rust and disappeared.
I won't sign yours,
His voice. His face.
Then disown me,
Had I really said that? Stood there like it didn't matter?
I stopped fighting it, and tears began flowing.
I cried for the promise he broke.For Wei's face blazing fifty feet tall. For Alexei's terror beneath that laugh. For Diana, already gone. For the message I'd never read. For a life doomed before it could even start.
The tears came steady and silent like the heavy release of someone who's finally stopped holding on. I lay there long enough that my face went numb. Long enough for the sobs to thin into shudders, then into stillness.
-
-
-
Light pressed against my eyelids.
I opened my eyes. The sky had shifted from black to grey to pale amber. Acheron sprawled below, already stirring. Transport shuttles traced their routes. Workers moved through distant streets. Life continuing as though nothing had changed.
I sat up slowly, struggling to remember when I'd fallen asleep. My whole body ached. My neck was stiff, my knees bruised, and rust was imprinted on my cheek. The expensive testing costume now ruined with blood, tears, and rust.
I felt... nothing.
There was no anger, grief or tiredness. I just felt empty, but I knew what I had to do.
Processing Centre Seven. 0600.
The clerk's voice echoed in the back of my mind. But knowing and understanding were different things. I could see the path ahead, but I couldn't find the reason to walk it.
Why enlist? Why fight? Why do anything at all?
Something thrummed in my subconscious. That presence— it was still there. Coiled in the back of my mind.
|| ||
[STATUS: WAITING]
|| ||
I hadn't imagined it, I hadn't gone crazy. Whatever fought back against the machine yesterday, it was real. Sitting there and watching. Waiting for something that I didn't understand. The thought should have frightened me. Yet it didn't. Fear required something left to lose.
I was free.
The realisation settled in my mind. There was no more Tiernan legacy. No more forty-one generations of expectation. No more Father measuring me. The machine had severed chains that I didn't even know existed. I was nobody. The only thing holding me back is my F-Grade talent. Yet, it felt like the first thing I ever truly owned.
So what now?
I looked out over Acheron. Somewhere down there, Wei was waking up to handlers and recruiters, and Alexei was drowning in the same. Diana had already vanished into whatever future resonators were given. And Marcus Tiernan? Marcus Tiernan was dead.
But me? I was still here. Still breathing.
Even if I didn't know who I was, I knew one thing with absolute certainty:
I wasn't finished. Not yet.
Let them write me off. Let them add my name to their statistics. Let them assume I'd die in some meat-grinder deployment. I'd prove them wrong. I'd prove them all wrong. Not for some stupid legacy, nor for James Tiernan's approval. I refuse to let some stupid fucking machine decide who I am.
"I am Marcus!" The words tore out of me. "First to break this stupid galaxy's rules! First F-Grade to reach Luminary! The first—"
I paused, the anger and hope turning into something true.
"I am Marcus. And I'm not done yet."
I looked at the Nest one last time. Then I climbed down.
My feet hit solid ground. The sun was fully rising now, burning away the last of the night. My shadow pooled at my feet, then stretched forward as I turned toward the city. Toward Processing Centre Seven.
Funny thing about shadows. You can spend your whole life running from them. Convince yourself that forward motion means escape. But they're always there, stretched out, cast by the same light that lets you see. Following the same path.
I started walking.
My shadow led the way.