The voice cut through the forest like a blade—smooth, calm, and terribly certain.
Ash froze.
Palo stepped in front of him instinctively.
Silva trembled so violently her knees nearly buckled.
Another footstep.
Then another.
Branches shifted as a tall figure stepped into view.
He wasn't what Ash expected.
No lab coat.
No mask.
No monstrous appearance.
He looked… ordinary.
That was the terrifying part.
A man in his late forties, clean-shaven, dark hair streaked with gray, wearing a long, dark coat that brushed the fallen leaves.
His eyes were the only unusual thing—sharp, observant, too still.
Eyes that looked like they remembered everything and regretted nothing.
He stopped only a few feet away.
"Ash," he said warmly, as if greeting a long-lost child.
"I'm relieved you survived this long."
Palo clenched his fists.
"What do you want?"
The man smiled gently, ignoring the question.
"You must be Palo. Loyal. Protective. Predictable."
His gaze slid past him to Silva.
"And Silva… you ran far. You lasted longer than I anticipated."
Silva took a shaky step backward.
Ash stepped in front of her, surprising even himself.
The Founder's smile widened.
"So much emotion. Just like the original coding baseline predicted."
Palo snapped,
"Stop talking like he's not a human being."
The Founder tilted his head thoughtfully.
"I never said he wasn't. Ash is many things. Extraordinary, even. But human?"
A soft shrug.
"That remains debatable."
Ash felt something twist inside him—anger, confusion, fear.
"What do you want from me?" he demanded.
The Founder's face softened with an unnerving kind of pity.
"I want to correct the mistake."
A beat.
"The mistake of letting you exist without control."
Palo stepped forward, furious.
"You're not taking him."
The Founder didn't even look threatened.
"I don't need to take him," he said softly.
"Your friend already carries the program key."
Ash stiffened.
Palo blinked.
"What?"
The Founder smiled faintly.
"When you touched the symbol, Palo… you activated a sequence. A bond. It tethered your life to Ash's code."
His voice lowered.
"So if I erase Ash, the sequence collapses. You vanish with him."
Palo's blood ran cold.
"What—what are you talking about?!"
Ash grabbed Palo's wrist, panic rising.
"No. That's not true. He's lying."
But the Founder's calm expression didn't change.
"Palo, you've likely felt it already. The exhaustion. The dizziness. The strange moments your vision glitches at the edges. That is the tether. Ash's system is writing into yours."
Palo swallowed hard.
He had felt strange. But he'd ignored it.
The Founder held up a small device—sleek, silver, humming faintly.
"This is the extraction module. A single command, and Ash's core code reverts. He goes offline."
A pause.
"And so do you."
Silva gasped softly.
"You said you wanted to end the project…"
The Founder nodded.
"Yes. By deleting all traces of it."
Ash stepped forward, voice shaking with a mix of anger and desperation.
"Why me? Why make me? Why create any of us if you planned to erase us?"
The Founder's expression finally changed.
Just slightly.
Enough to show something cold beneath.
"Because perfection requires iteration. You were the prototype. The most stable. The most… human."
His eyes narrowed.
"But you began wanting things. Forming attachments. Questioning your purpose. That was the flaw."
Palo spit out,
"That's not a flaw. That's what people do."
The Founder's gaze sharpened.
"And that is why I'm here. To remove those… complications."
Ash felt something inside him ignite—fear mixing with fury.
"You can't control me anymore."
The Founder smiled.
"Oh, Ash. Control was never the issue. Containment is."
He lifted the device.
A soft chime filled the air.
Silva screamed,
"Ash, move!"
Palo grabbed Ash's arm, yanking him backward—
And the forest around them erupted with a pulse of white light.
Silva fell to her knees.
Palo staggered.
Ash felt something inside him react—like a lock clicking open.
The Founder's voice was calm, almost gentle:
"The reset begins now."
Ash felt his vision flicker.
His heartbeat stutter.
His mind glitch.
Palo shouted his name, but the sound stretched, distorted.
Silva's voice echoed in pieces.
And Ash realized—
The Founder wasn't deleting him.
Not yet.
He was unlocking something.
Something Ash had never known was inside him.
The light dimmed.
The Founder lowered the device, expression satisfied.
"There. Now we can begin."
Ash gasped for breath—
Because a new symbol had appeared on his skin.
Glowing brighter.
Stronger.
Alive.
And he had no idea what it meant.