Kai's instincts (natural reactions) screamed at him to run. But something held him in place. Not fear. Something else. Something that felt like recognition.
"She is not hostile (enemy-like) ," Blue observed. "Not yet. She is… curious."
"Curiosity is not safety," Red countered. "Her neural patterns indicate instability. Recommend maintaining distance."
Kai ignored both of them.
"What do you mean, they're still here?"
The girl tilted her head. Studying him. Measuring him. There was something ancient in her eyes. Something that didn't belong in a sixteen-year-old's face.
"The subjects who failed," she said. "They didn't die. Not really. Their bodies broke. Their minds shattered (broke into pieces) . But pieces of them remain. Echoes. Whispers. Hungry things that live in the dark."
She gestured around them. At the cavern. The water. The endless black.
"This is where they gather. Where they wait."
"Wait for what?"
"For someone new. Someone whole. Someone who succeeded where they failed."
She took a step closer. Kai's hand clenched at his side.
"Heart rate elevated," Red noted. "Adrenaline response. Fight or flight."
"Neither," Blue said. "He is choosing to listen. That is a third option."
The girl laughed. It was a strange sound. Young and ancient at the same time.
"My name is Mira," she said. "At least, that's what they call me now. I was the ninth."
Kai's heart stopped.
"Subject 09," Red confirmed. "Designation: GONE. Biological death confirmed. This is… unexpected."
"Not death," Blue said softly. "Transformation. She is what remains when a subject fails but does not fully die."
"You're one of them?" Kai's voice cracked. "You're supposed to be dead. The chamber said GONE."
"The chamber says what it wants," Mira said. "I was broken. Corrupted (rotten, damaged beyond repair) . My body failed. My mind scattered. But something kept me here. A piece of me that refused to die."
She touched her chest. Light bled through her fingers, faint and flickering.
"This is all that's left. A fragment (small broken piece) . A ghost that remembers what it was like to be alive."
"Her bond with GROX was incomplete," Blue explained. "When her body failed, the system tried to preserve her consciousness (awareness) . It succeeded partially. She is data now. Memories given form."
"A glitch (error) ," Red said. "An error in the system."
"A survivor," Blue corrected.
Kai stared at the girl. At the light bleeding through her skin. At the cracks that ran across her face like fractures (cracks) in glass.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Mira's eyes softened. For a moment, she looked like a normal girl again. Scared. Lonely. Hopeful.
"Because I need your help," she whispered. "And because the others… they want to use you. But I want to warn you."
"Warn me about what?"
She stepped closer. Close enough that he could see the light flickering beneath her skin. Close enough that he could feel the cold radiating from her body.
"The experiment (scientific test) wasn't an accident," she said. "GROX wasn't supposed to bond with any of us. We were supposed to be messengers. Tools. Things to be used and thrown away."
Her voice grew urgent.
"They sent us here for a reason. All of us. To prepare the way. To test the system. To see if a human could survive the transition (the jump through time) . We couldn't. But you…"
She grabbed his arm. Her fingers were cold. Too cold.
"You're different. The bond is stable. The system is evolving. You're doing what none of us could do."
She looked at him with something that might have been envy or fear or hope.
"And when they realize what you've become, they'll come for you. Not the drones. Not the machines. Them. The ones who made GROX. The ones who built the chambers. The ones who erased my memory and scattered my mind."
Kai pulled his arm back. "Who are they?"
"There is no data on any organization capable of this level of temporal (time-related) technology," Red said. "This contradicts (goes against) known records."
"Or it confirms that our records are incomplete," Blue replied. "That someone has been hiding."
Mira opened her mouth to answer.
Then her eyes went wide.
She stumbled backward, clutching her head. The light beneath her skin flared, flickered, pulsed in erratic (unpredictable) patterns. Her body glitched (flickered with error) —one moment solid, the next translucent (see-through) , the next something in between.
"Her systems are destabilizing (becoming unstable) ," Red said. "The fragment cannot maintain cohesion (staying together) for extended periods."
"She is fading," Blue said. "She does not have much time."
Kai stepped forward. "Mira—"
"I can't hold it," she gasped. "They're coming. The others. They know you're here. They've been waiting."
Her form flickered again. For a moment, Kai saw something behind her eyes. Something old. Something hungry. Something that was not Mira.
"Go," she whispered. "Before they find you. Before they—"
Her body dissolved (melted away) into light.
One moment she was there. The next, she was gone. Only the flickering campfire remained, casting long shadows across the cavern walls.
Kai stood alone in the darkness.
"Subject 09 has dispersed (scattered) ," Red said. "Her fragment will reform. But it will take time."
"She was trying to help us," Blue said.
"Or she was trying to trap us. We cannot know."
Kai looked at the space where Mira had stood. At the light that still pulsed faintly in the air, like an echo of something that had been.
"She said the others are coming."
"Yes."
"They will be here soon."
Kai turned away from the fire. From the light. From the ghost of Subject 09.
"Then we need to move."
He walked into the darkness. And behind him, two voices spoke as one.
"Agreed."