They ran.
Gas hissed from the overhead vents, spilling pale clouds through the corridor. Daniel ripped a discarded lab coat from the floor and pressed it over Mara's face as they sprinted.
"Don't breathe it!" he warned. "Omega gas knocks out anything with neural implants."
Evelyn choked on a breath. "Including prototypes. Especially prototypes."
Ten coughed hard, leaning against the wall for a moment. "I can filter it… but not for long."
The corridor ahead was dark—lights dead, screens smashed, emergency lamps flickering like dying fireflies. The deeper they ran, the colder it became.
Not physical cold.
A memory cold.
Mara felt it seep into her bones, familiar in a way that twisted her stomach. She had never been here—she shouldn't remember this hallway.
But she did.
"Mara?" Daniel asked softly. "You okay?"
She nodded, but her voice was thin. "I've walked this path before."
Evelyn shook her head. "You were unconscious when we moved you to the Core."
"I wasn't," Mara whispered. "Not all of me."
Ten looked over sharply. "The voice you heard… she's calling you back."
Before Mara could answer, a mechanical whir echoed from behind them.
Daniel spun. "Drones!"
A swarm of spherical machines rounded the corner—black, fast, each with multiple mechanical limbs tipped with sedative needles and taser spikes.
Omega drones.
"Keep running!" Daniel shouted.
The hallway split ahead: left into a stairwell, right toward a heavy blast door with CORE ACCESS stenciled in peeling paint.
Ten pointed right. "That way!"
Daniel didn't argue.
They sprinted toward the blast door, but as they neared it, metal shutters slammed down in front of the entrance—one after another—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—sealing the way shut.
Daniel skidded to a stop. "How the hell—?!"
Evelyn's voice cracked. "Voss is funneling us. There's only one unsealed route left."
Mara's skin prickled with dread. "Where does it lead?"
Ten swallowed. "To the observation deck. The overlook room above the Core."
Of course.
Voss wanted her to see something before she arrived.
Behind them, the drones accelerated, metal limbs clicking.
Daniel lifted his rifle. "Go! I'll cover you!"
"No," Mara said, grabbing his wrist. "We stay together."
Before Daniel could argue, the drones opened fire—
not bullets,
but nets of electric threads.
One slammed into a wall near Daniel's head. Another nearly wrapped itself around Ten.
Mara's power surged, reacting on instinct.
A pulse rippled outward—not as explosive as before, but controlled, targeted.
The first row of drones jerked violently, sparks cutting through their chassis as they crashed to the floor like puppets with cut strings.
Daniel stared. "You're getting better at that."
Mara didn't feel better. She felt… pulled. Like her abilities were responding not to her commands but to a signal.
A call.
Ten grabbed Mara's hand. "We have to go—now!"
They darted up a narrow stairwell, drones scraping up the walls behind them. One reached through the railing and nearly grabbed Evelyn's ankle before Daniel crushed it under his boot.
They burst through the door at the top into a large circular room lined with reinforced glass windows.
The Observation Deck.
From here, they could see the Core…
but the Core could also see them.
Mara approached the window.
The Core chamber below was massive—
a cathedral of machinery,
tangles of cabling,
glass pods,
surgical arms.
And at its center—
A single upright containment capsule.
Empty.
Wired.
Waiting.
Mara's stomach twisted. "That's where I was born."
Evelyn touched her shoulder. "Grown. Not born."
Mara flinched away from the correction.
Daniel stepped up beside her. "We're not letting him put you back in there."
Before she could speak, the speakers crackled.
Voss's voice filled the room.
"Mara."
Daniel aimed the rifle at the ceiling. "Show yourself, coward!"
Voss ignored him.
"You are not complete yet."
Mara's pulse kicked.
"Return to the Core, and I will explain everything."
"No." Mara's voice was low and furious. "You're not controlling me anymore."
A soft chuckle.
Cold.
Confident.
"You misunderstand, my dear. You're not here to be controlled."
A beat.
"You're here to be activated."
Evelyn's face drained of color. "No. No—he couldn't have—"
"Activated?" Daniel echoed. "What does that mean?"
Evelyn backed away from the window, trembling. "He didn't build Mara as a template. He built her as… as a key."
Ten gasped. "For what?"
Evelyn swallowed hard. "To wake something older."
Mara felt the voice whisper again.
Find me…
Voss continued.
"Prototype Zero."
Mara's heart stopped.
"What?" she whispered.
"Your predecessor. The first successful neural lattice."
A pause.
A smile in his voice.
"Your mother, in every way that matters."
Daniel cursed under his breath.
Ten's hands trembled.
Evelyn whispered, horrified: "Zero is alive?"
A hum echoed beneath their feet.
The Core was powering up.
Lights flickered.
Machines awakened.
And the voice in Mara's mind grew stronger.
Find me, child…
before he does.
Mara stepped back from the window, trembling.
Daniel took her hand. "Mara. Hey. Stay with us."
Her voice shook.
Barely audible.
"He didn't just make me."
She swallowed.
"He made me to release her."