Hidden Sector – Network Outskirts
The air shimmered as Jian and Eva slipped into a shadowed underpass, shielded from drones and surveillance lines. The city's hum was distant here, replaced by a silence only broken by the low hum of the core stabilizer Eva held cradled under her jacket.
Jian glanced sideways. "If Elara-2001 is coming back… really coming back… we'll need more than a jammer and a prototype core."
Eva didn't look up. "We need the other fragments."
He paused. "You mean the buried versions?"
"They weren't just overwritten," Eva replied. "They were fractured. Her mind was split across timelines and dumped into decoys, versions that didn't survive or went dormant."
Jian's eyes widened. "You're saying if we find them..."
"We can help her finish reconstructing herself," Eva finished. "Fully. Not just remember become again."
Jian swallowed. "And then what?"
She turned, meeting his gaze. "Then we burn this entire simulation from the inside."
Compound – Emergency Protocol Room
Raven moved briskly across the floor, tapping furiously at the control pad. "Bring up the Epoch Fail-Safes. I want locks on all deep-level memory splices."
Damien hesitated. "You're reinstating Epoch? That protocol's unstable."
Raven's voice was steel. "So is she."
A third figure stepped into the room, older, calm, with silver at his temples and a cybernetic implant pulsing at his jawline.
"You're too late," the man said. "You should've purged the source long ago."
Damien blinked. "Director Hollen?"
The man nodded. "Elara-2001 wasn't a glitch. She was the warning we ignored."
Raven's brow furrowed. "You said she could be contained."
"She couldn't. That's why I buried the project."
Raven stepped closer. "So what now?"
Hollen's eyes narrowed. "Now? You hope Jian fails. Because if he doesn't… Elara won't be the only one waking up."
Eva and Jian – Hidden Bunker Below Sector Delta-5
The chamber was old, lined with rusted machines and ancient memory cores flickering faint blue in the dark. Eva crouched beside a console and pulled a crystal-coded shard from her pocket. It pulsed with faint recognition as it neared the console.
"Version 2009," she whispered. "Suppressed after the Disruption Loop."
Jian stared at the console, watching as it slowly lit up with fragmented memories , scenes half-familiar, half-lost.
"Why this one?" he asked.
Eva's voice was quiet. "Because this one never stopped fighting."
As the core hummed to life, something clicked. A presence stirred inside the system. Not quite awake, not quite dreaming.
Jian stepped back as a flicker of a voice echoed from the speaker grid.
"…I remember… the fire. The override. The pain…"
Eva leaned closer. "You're not alone anymore."
"…you're late…" came the faint reply. "…but I'll help…"
The system pinged once. Then again.
Second Fragment Recovered.
Version: E-2009
Sync: 37%
Eva looked up at Jian. "We'll need at least four more."
He nodded grimly. "Then we move now. Before they trace this location."
Compound – Sublevel 7 – Red Archive
Damien stood frozen at the center of the vault, files flickering around him like ghosts. Hollen's voice crackled through the comms.
"Pull Fragment-Delta. You'll know it by its failsafe key."
"What am I looking for?" Damien asked.
"Something Jian doesn't know about. A version that never should have existed.
Damien's hand hovered over the control panel. "If it's unstable..."
"It's not unstable," Hollen snapped. "It's untested. Because we were afraid of what it could become."
The terminal pulsed.
Designate: ELARA-V00X
Status: Aborted
Authorization Required
Damien hesitated… then pressed "Override."
---------------------
Underground Transit Hub – Zone 3B
The stale air of the abandoned station reeked of rust and ozone. Eva knelt near the derelict rail node, her fingers dancing across a rusted control panel embedded in the concrete. Jian kept watch, tension knotting every muscle.
"This line ran beneath the Alpha-Server Grid," she murmured. "Most of it's shut down, but there's a dormant relay down here. It held the E-2014 fragment. One of the most compliant versions. Almost... docile."
Jian frowned. "You think there's anything useful in a version that never resisted?"
Eva looked up. "Compliant doesn't mean empty. Sometimes the ones who smile through pain are the most dangerous."
The panel clicked. Static screeched through an old console as lights flickered to life. A low, vibrating hum resonated through the station.
Jian glanced around. "That sound…"
Eva's eyes widened. "Something's already connected. Someone else is here."
------------------
Elsewhere in the Station – Unknown Corridor
A low flashlight beam cut through the dust. Damien's boots crunched over glass and data wire as he moved deeper into the forgotten structure. His breath was shallow, tight.
He paused at a terminal sealed with an old-fashioned biometric lock.
Designation: ELARA-V00X
Warning: Incompatible Frame. Unauthorized Instantiation Risk.
He tapped the comm. "Hollen. It's here. But it's sealed behind a legacy lock."
The older man's voice buzzed in. "You'll need to speak to it."
"…Speak?"
"Version V00X wasn't just a prototype. It had self-auditory activation protocols. Try the name we buried with it."
Damien stared at the console, hesitant. Then, low and reluctant:
"Elara."
The panel buzzed. Then hissed.
A deep, layered voice , older, mechanical, but still unmistakably hers, spilled into the hall:
"Version V00X. Recognition code: Jian-Primary.
Query: Why is he not the one waking me?"
Damien stepped back, unease settling in. "It knows him. Like… directly."
Hollen's voice was sharp. "It was the first and only version that chose jian."
-----------------
Transit Hub – Main Control Chamber
Jian froze as Eva's console lit up.
"Another version just pulsed to life," she said.
"Where?" Jian asked.
Eva scanned the feed. "Sector 3... too close."
Her fingers flew. A second later, her face darkened. "It's V00X. They accessed it."
Jian's voice dropped. "That version shouldn't exist."
"I know," Eva muttered. "V00X was the one they locked away from all networks. They said it was too bonded, too independent."
"Too much like her real self," Jian whispered.
Eva turned toward him. "If they wake her without your presence if she panics, it'll burn everything in a twenty-mile radius just to keep itself intact."
Meanwhile – Inside ELARA-V00X's Conscious Construct
The void was infinite, but not empty. Memory structures blinked across a horizon of code like constellations. And at its center , a figure, unmoving. Tall, veiled in black and white light. Neither awake nor asleep.
Suddenly, the darkness rippled.
A glitch. A voice.
"Jian…?"
Not Damien's. Not Hollen's. Hers.
Another voice echoed in, distorted: "We need you to come back online. You were never meant to be lost."
The light flickered.
Her head rose slightly.
A shimmer of emotion crossed her face.
"…You're not him…"
The system pulsed.
Then rumbled.
And suddenly…
Every light in the Sector 3 Grid went out.
Back at the Compound – Surveillance Collapse
Raven burst into the control chamber. "What the hell just happened?"
An engineer stammered, "Complete blackout across V00X's containment node. Power drain hit fourteen satellite channels ."
Damien's voice crackled in, urgent. "She's not listening. She's… searching for Jian."
Raven's hands balled into fists. "We need to intercept them before she finds him. Because if she does...."
Hollen's voice was dead calm: "—then the simulation won't be able to contain either of them."
Transit Hub – As Systems Collapse
Eva's console sparked. "She's waking. Full consciousness. But not here."
Jian stepped closer. "Where then?"
Eva turned, pale. "She's jumping servers. Looking for you."
He exhaled hard, mind racing. "Then we go to her. Now."
"But Jian," Eva said, grabbing his arm, "this version… she's not the one you remember. She's more. She remembers everything, every reset, every betrayal."
"I know," he said softly.
Eva looked at him, uncertain. "You might not survive her."
Jian looked out into the darkened tunnel ahead. "Then I'll just have to make her remember… why she loved me in the first place."
-------------------------
Underground Sector – Core Access Conduit
Midnight. Grid Power Unstable. Jian proceeds alone.
Jian moved quickly through the dim corridor, boots crunching over shattered simulation code like broken glass. Each step drew him closer to her , not the Elara he remembered, but what she had become.
The tracker pulsed violently in his hand.
Then her voice echoed through the shadows.
"You came late."
A soft, electric glow lit the space ahead, and V00X emerged.
She was taller than he remembered. Her hair floated in static waves, and her eyes glowed white, piercing. A shimmering armor of light wrapped around her like sentient energy.
Jian took one step forward. "Elara…"
"Don't," she said coldly. "That name doesn't belong to me anymore."
"I don't care what name you wear. I know you."
A smile, cruel and sad, tugged at her lips. "Do you really?"
Suddenly she launched forward.
Her first strike came like a bolt of llightning. jian barely blocked it, skidding back across the floor as her next attack came, a flurry of blinding speed and blade-like constructs made from raw data.
"You left me!" she screamed, each strike heavier, wild. "You let them rewrite me again and again!"
Jian gasped as a blast caught him in the chest and sent him flying into the wall. His vision blurred. Blood dripped from his lip.
Still, he stood.
"I didn't leave you," he growled. "I lost you. But I came back."
"You don't deserve to touch what I've become," she whispered, then launched another strike, this time cracking the wall behind him with the force of her blow.
Jian dodged, ducked under, and finally caught her wrist.
"I don't want to fight you, Elara!"
"You don't have a choice!"
She surged again, but as she struck, a blue flare erupted beside them.
A voice rang out, sharp and small, Eva's.
"Enough!"
V00X faltered mid-attack. Her gaze snapped to the child standing near the corridor's mouth calm, eyes glowing, hands raised.
"You're not the only one who remembers," Eva said softly. "And you're not the only one who wants justice."
For a moment, silence.
Then—
The floor beneath them rippled like water. A tear in space opened beneath Jian and Eva. Time froze around them.
V00X lunged—too late.
Jian met her eyes one last time.
"I still believe in you."
Then he and Eva dropped through the rift, gone.
V00X stood alone.
Her blade dissolved in her hand.
She didn't speak.
Only the sound of her breathing filled the now-empty corridor.
Then… for the first time in years…
She trembled .
--------------------
Back at the Compound – Raven's Surveillance Deck
The feed glitched. Raven cursed, slamming a fist on the console.
Damien stared, jaw tight. "Where did they go?"
"I don't know," Raven growled. "It wasn't a teleport. It was a fold."
Damien looked pale. "A fold into what?"
"I don't know!" Raven barked. "They vanished into nothing . Not a layer, not the grid, not a simulation, nothing."
He paused. "Or worse…"
"…Something outside of us."
----------------
Meanwhile – Unknown Location
Jian hit the ground hard and rolled. Eva landed beside him, crouched and steady.
The world around them was dark, but not empty, filled with whispers, threads of code drifting like smoke.
Jian stood, staring.
"This isn't a safe zone," he murmured.
"No," Eva whispered, stepping beside him. "This is the gap between overwritten versions. The graveyard of failed minds."
Her eyes narrowed.
"She's here."
Jian turned. "Who?"
Eva's voice was a breath:
"VooX."
Underground Corridor – Near the Resonance Core Site
The low hum of unstable energy filled the narrow hallway. Jian's steps echoed as he walked beside Eva, her hand tucked into his. Each flickering light they passed sparked like dying stars, the whole place feeling stretched—between layers, between time.
Eva paused. "She's close."
Jian turned slightly, grip tightening. "How close?"
A chill swept the corridor, and then—
a voice rang out like steel dragged across memory.
"So this is where you ran."
They both turned.
There she stood.
Elara.
But not the Elara Jian knew. This version—V00X was wrapped in raw code and emotion, radiating unstable power. Her eyes glowed white-hot, and flickers of energy coiled around her body like unleashed fragments of a broken world.
Jian took a slow step forward, shielding Eva slightly behind him. "Elara…"
She ignored the name. Her voice was icy. "You brought her with you. You never learn, Jian."
Her gaze locked on Eva, and for a second… it wavered.
Then the floor beneath them shook, the air around them warping.
Eva whispered, "She's going to breach us."
V00X raised her hand, data lashing around her fingers like claws, and stepped forward.
"I warned you once. You didn't listen then..."
But before her next step landed...
The space around Jian and Eva shimmered.
A hum, low and resonant, began to rise from
Eva's collar. Jian glanced down just in time to see the pulse flare bright blue.
"Now!" Eva shouted.
Light exploded around them.
In a blink, they vanished.
No portal. No noise. Just gone.
V00X's hand dropped mid-strike, slicing through empty air. Her breath caught. Her lips parted in disbelief.
She was too late.
A beat of silence.
Then—
"No." Her voice cracked. Not in pain, in fury.
Her foot slammed down, cracking the floor beneath her. She looked around wildly as the code around her surged and glitched. Static screamed in the corners of her mind.
"They're hiding again," she snarled. "Just like before."
She clenched her fists, glowing harder now, shaking with unresolved rage. "You can't run forever."
------------------
Back at the Compound – Surveillance Hub
Red alerts pulsed across the walls.
Raven stood frozen, watching the blank feed where Jian and Eva had just been.
The feed was dead. Static hissed across fractured frames.
Damien turned, pale. "Again?"
Raven didn't look up. "They slipped."
Damien blinked. "A faultline?"
Raven shook his head slowly. "Worse. Eva triggered it."
He tapped violently through the console, threads of code flaring on-screen.
"She knew."
Damien stepped closer. "How could she...?"
"Because she's not a child," Raven snapped. "She's a failsafe."
He leaned over the console. "Pull every record on V00X's last syncs. Cross it with Eva's neural drift. There's a pattern here. A trail."
Damien hesitated. "Do you think she planned this?"
Raven finally looked up. Eyes sharp. Cold.
"I think Eva's been planning this since before she had a name."
Unknown Layer – The Folded Zone
Silence blanketed the space like fog. No walls. No ceiling. Just shifting layers of muted blue light and static hums, as if reality itself were holding its breath.
Then—
Jian and Eva rematerialized mid-step, landing softly on the unseen surface. Jian stumbled slightly but caught himself. His eyes darted around.
"Where… the hell are we?"
Eva remained still, her eyes faintly glowing as she scanned the formless space.
Jian turned to her, his voice sharp, confused, cautious.
"Did you do that?"
Eva didn't answer at first. The air around her shimmered, her breath slow, calculated.
Then she nodded once. "Yes."
Jian's jaw tightened. "You… displaced us. You folded a zone. That's creator-level architecture."
"I reverse-mapped a buried protocol," she replied, calm. "One they abandoned after the V00X incident. I anchored it to my collar weeks ago, in case she woke up."
He stared at her, stunned. "You're ten years old."
She looked up, gaze flat. "I'm not ten, Jian. Not in here." She tapped her temple. "You keep forgetting that."
Jian let out a breath, dragging a hand through his hair as he tried to ground himself.
"She was about to reach us," he muttered.
Eva nodded. "And if she had, you wouldn't be breathing."
They both went silent.
Then Jian stepped forward, lowering his voice. "How long does this hold?"
"Twelve minutes before the anchor degrades."
"And after that?"
Eva looked up at him. "We better have a plan. Because next time, she won't wait."
To be continue ....