The shaft expelled Nero and Helia into the lower engineering passage with brutal force, as if the Archive itself was eager to be rid of them. Both lost their footing the moment they hit solid ground and slid across cold metal before colliding with a tangled cluster of disconnected cables. Emergency strips embedded along the walls pulsed in dull red intervals and cast the corridor in an anemic glow that barely reached beyond a few meters.
Nero lay there for a second longer than necessary with his chest rising and falling unevenly. His body hurt, but the pain wasn't what anchored him to the floor.
It was the recording. The child's voice. Prototype Eleven's fear.
It clung to him, heavy and invasive, replaying in fragments no matter how hard he tried to push it away.
Helia was at his side almost instantly. She knelt beside him and gripped his shoulders firmly while forcing his attention back to the present. "Nero. Look at me. Look at me."
He did.
Her eyes searched his face with sharp urgency while her hands moved quickly to check his arms, ribs, and shoulders. "Are you hurt?"
"No," he whispered while swallowing hard. "Just..."
"Shaken?" she finished quietly.
He nodded once.
She squeezed his arm with a grip that was grounding and steady.
Nero clenched his jaw with fingers digging into the metal floor as another distant tremor rippled through the passage. "If I stop to feel everything," he said, his voice tight, "that Unit will catch us."
Helia hesitated, then nodded slowly. "You're right. But you're not carrying this alone."
Before he could respond, a deep metallic roar echoed through the ducts overhead and vibrated the walls while sending dust drifting from unseen seams. Helia's head snapped upward.
"It's tracking the residual energy from your core," she said. "Your last flare didn't go unnoticed."
Nero pushed himself upright. "Then what do we do?"
"We move," Helia replied. There was no panic in her voice, only resolve.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him into motion.
The engineering passage twisted and narrowed with pipes running overhead like exposed ribs while grated sections of flooring rattled beneath their boots.
Emergency lights flickered erratically and strobed with each distant impact. Nero's footsteps echoed too loudly in the confined space with every sound feeling like an invitation to be found.
As they rounded a corner, a soft mechanical beep pulsed from above.
Helia reacted instantly and shoved Nero back against the wall. "Don't move."
A small surveillance drone drifted into view at the intersection ahead with its single red optic cycling through scanning patterns as it hovered silently. The low hum of its engine vibrated through Nero's bones.
He held his breath.
The drone paused with its light shifting through detection modes. A warning tone chimed softly.
Helia's grip tightened around his wrist.
Then, mercifully, the drone drifted on and disappeared down a branching corridor.
Nero exhaled shakily. "That thing almost..."
"They're tightening the net," Helia said while already pulling him forward again. "The R-Unit will reach this level in under a minute. We need an exit."
Nero glanced down the passage ahead, then back the way they'd come. "This section's mapped as a dead end."
Helia smirked faintly. "For most people."
She dropped to one knee beside a sealed hatch in the floor and began prying at its panel with practiced movements.
Nero crouched beside her with his heart hammering as another tremor shook the walls.
"Do you know where it leads?" he asked.
"No," Helia replied. "Which makes it perfect."
"That's not comforting."
She shot him a quick look. "Do you want comforting, or survival?"
He huffed a breath. "Survival. For now."
The hatch gave way with a metallic groan and opened into a narrow vertical shaft that vanished into darkness.
Before Nero could say another word, a deafening crash exploded behind them. The far wall of the passage dented inward as warped metal screamed under the force of something massive striking it.
Nero's heart lurched.
Helia grabbed the front of his jacket and shoved him toward the opening. "Down. Now."
He dropped without hesitation and slid into the shaft just as Helia followed while slamming the hatch shut above them. The moment it sealed, another impact thundered through the corridor as the Reconstruction Unit tore into the passage they'd left behind.
They slid down the chute at a dangerous angle as sparks flared where their boots scraped against the walls. Nero braced himself and crashed into a basin filled with fine metallic dust that puffed up around them like smoke.
Helia coughed while pushing herself upright. "What is this place?"
Nero wiped dust from his face and scanned the circular chamber. Tall filtration pipes ran into the walls while humming faintly.
"Feels like residue collection. Old filtration output."
A soft teal glow pulsed behind a nearby panel.
Helia froze. "Nero."
He followed her gaze.
A vague humanoid silhouette flickered behind the panel, still and watching.
His breath caught. "Is that..."
The panel flickered again. The figure vanished.
Helia exhaled shakily. "Residual echo. Old data bleed. Not a person."
Nero wasn't convinced.
Before he could dwell on it, the shaft above them shuddered violently. Metal screamed as something enormous forced its way downward.
"It followed us," Helia said sharply. "Move!"
They sprinted across the chamber and weaved between pipes as dust swirled around their legs. A half-rusted door appeared ahead with its hinges barely holding.
Together, they slammed into it again and again until it finally gave way.
"Inside!" Helia shouted.
They burst into a long chamber lit by flickering overhead panels. Thick cables snaked across the floor like roots.
Nero's stomach dropped.
At the center of the room stood a large terminal with its interface cracked but active, and connected to it was a cylindrical container with shattered glass.
A stasis unit. Another one.
Helia stopped short. "No..."
Nero stepped toward it as if pulled by gravity.
The label was faded but readable.
PROTOTYPE 11 — REMNANT STORAGE
His chest tightened painfully. "This is where they kept him," Nero whispered.
Helia stood beside him with her voice trembling. "After the collapse, they didn't dispose of him. They preserved what remained."
"To study the failure," Nero said bitterly. "To make sure it didn't happen again."
Another heavy impact shook the chamber. The Reconstruction Unit was closer now, much closer.
Helia turned with panic flashing across her face. "Nero, we have to go now."
A whisper cut through the air.
Soft. Broken.
"...don't... make me..."
Nero froze.
Helia's face went pale. "That's a remnant echo. Corrupted memory data."
The whisper repeated with more distortion. "...I don't... want to disappear..."
Nero's vision blurred as tears burned behind his eyes, hot and furious and unwanted. "He was just a kid," he said hoarsely. "Just like me."
Before Helia could respond, the wall behind them exploded inward. Shards of metal flew as the Reconstruction Unit emerged through the smoke, towering and relentless with its optic blazing blue.
"PROTOTYPE TWELVE DETECTED."
"RETRIEVAL PRIORITY: CRITICAL."
Helia grabbed Nero's hand. "Listen to me. You cannot let it take you. If they return you to the Architect, there won't be a second chance. Not for your memories. Not for your will."
Nero met her gaze.
The fear was still there. The pain hadn't faded.
But beneath it, something else burned now, hard and sharp and unyielding.
"I'm not going back," he said.
The Unit lunged.
Helia shoved him aside as a claw tore through the floor where he'd been standing. She raised her baton.
"NERO....DON'T...!"
But he stepped forward instead.
For the first time, he didn't hesitate.
The Veyra inside him pulsed, not wild and not chaotic but compressed into a single, focused point. A sphere of teal light erupted from his chest and slammed into the Unit's armored core.
Metal screamed. Circuits burst in a shower of sparks.
The Reconstruction Unit staggered back for the first time.
Nero's legs shook, but he stayed upright.
Helia stared at him, stunned. "You... Nero... you did that."
The Unit steadied itself with smoke rising from its cracked armor.
"RETRIEVAL: NOT OPTIONAL."
Nero grabbed Helia's hand.
"Let's finish what Prototype Eleven never got the chance to."
They ran, and the Unit roared behind them.