[LOCATION: OLD METRO TUNNELS – SUB-LEVEL 22B]
[TIME: 07:17 A.M.]
The cold in the tunnels was not just physical. It was memory-deep.
Lin walked slowly beneath crumbling archways lined with old security drones and rusted lights that hadn't flickered in years. Every step echoed like a ghost limping through his past. A red shawl covered the Reactor Ring on his chest, but its pulsing heat felt like a brand.
Behind him, Nel had stayed back. She knew he needed space.
She always knew.
A sudden shift in the air. Wind where there should be none. Dust twisted in a spiral—then stilled.
Lin didn't turn.
"…Vasior," he said.
From the shadows came the softest scraping of boots. A man stepped forward, hooded and lean. His eyes were closed, wrapped in gauze stained faintly red. Threads hung like veins. His hands remained folded behind his back.
Vasior.
Contractor.
Vision-Blind.
The Levitation Monk of Zone 0.
"Still got that sixth sense," Vasior murmured, head tilted. "Even half-dead."
"I thought you were underground," Lin said. "Gone."
"I am," Vasior smiled faintly. "Just not as dead as they'd like."
He stopped a few feet away. Lin could feel the weight of his presence—not a threat, but a tide. Gentle. Endless. Like gravity whispering.
"You're leaking Etheric heat like a gutted core. Even the rats felt it. What the hell did you touch, Lin?"
"…The Reactor."
"Shit."
Silence settled like dust again.
Vasior didn't move, but nearby debris—the broken wheel of a tunnel cart, a bent steel pole, a fragment of helmet—floated gently into the air around him, orbiting slowly. His power had always been like that. Quiet. Unstoppable.
"Yumi's above," Lin said. "With a full sweep squad."
"I know. She pinged the entire sub-city. People are already running. Families. Kids. Because of you."
Lin's fists clenched. "I didn't choose the Reactor."
"No. But you chose to survive it."
Vasior turned his covered gaze toward him. "That counts."
Lin exhaled sharply. "You're here for a reason. Say it."
"I saw Nel," Vasior said simply. "At the old station. She asked me to find you before Yumi did."
"She shouldn't have. She's not a fighter."
"She's more than you think," Vasior replied, voice low. "And she's already chosen her side."
Lin went quiet.
Vasior took a slow step closer, objects still hovering around him in silent orbit.
"You really don't get it, do you?" he said. "She waited, Lin. Not for some miracle. For you. For years. When you vanished after Rune's disappearance, we all thought you were dead. But Nel?"
"She knew," Lin whispered.
"She hoped," Vasior corrected. "But it broke her. You didn't see her at the funeral. Rune's casket was empty. And you—"
"I searched!" Lin roared. "For three years. Across Gates. Underground networks. I burned half my soul to find her!"
"And what did you become?" Vasior asked softly.
Lin's chest heaved.
"I killed my teacher. I killed men who sealed children in Ether tanks. I destroyed every blacksite I could reach. But I never found Rune."
Vasior stepped forward again. "And in the process, you became the Black Reaper."
"…I had to."
"I know. But Nel doesn't need the Reaper now. She needs Lin."
Lin swallowed hard. "I don't know if there's a difference anymore."
The debris stopped orbiting. Dropped with soft clangs and thuds. Vasior's bandaged eyes turned to the ceiling.
"She told me something. About the night you first met her."
Lin's brows furrowed. "The tram station?"
"No," Vasior said. "Before that. Sector 3. Riot zone. You pulled her out of a burning lab, bleeding from the face, carrying Rune on your back."
Lin blinked. The memory flickered—
A little girl sobbing.
Nel screaming for someone—anyone.
The sirens.
He had forgotten.
"She said you were the only one who stayed when the fire came."
Vasior lowered his head.
"You think she doesn't know who you are now? She does. And she still opened her door to you. Fixed your bleeding heart. Again."
Lin looked away. "You didn't come just to remind me I'm a failure."
"No," Vasior said, stepping closer. "I came to show you this."
He raised a single hand.
A soft pulse of energy fluttered from his palm.
Behind him, the tunnel wall shifted—then slid open, revealing a hidden chamber. Inside were monitors, old-tech servers, and a glowing panel of Rift-signatures. Rune's face appeared for a moment on screen, drawn from old footage.
Lin stepped forward in shock.
"Where—?"
"She was seen. Eight days ago. Cross-dimensional tremor near the Gates of Site-92."
Lin's pulse hammered.
"She's alive?"
Vasior nodded. "But not for long. She's trapped in a loop. Some kind of construct prison—etheric feedback looped through a failing Rift."
Lin's eyes widened.
"That's why the Reactor Ring activated."
"She's calling you."
They stared at the data.
Vasior's voice dropped into a whisper.
"You don't have time to be broken, Lin. Nel knows. So do I. And somewhere, so does Rune."
Outside the tunnel, faint metal clinks echoed down the hallway.
Boots.
Yumi's Task Force.
Lin turned toward the door, cloak dropping from his shoulders, Reactor Ring flaring crimson and gold.
"What do I do?" he asked.
Vasior extended a hand—and the world behind him shifted, bent, warped like bending space into a folded sheet. A hidden Gate.
"You run," Vasior said calmly. "But not to escape. To find her. To finish what we started."
Lin stepped back.
Looked once toward the light. Then once toward the dark.
He chose the dark.
And vanished into it.
---
[LOCATION: ABOVEGROUND – SECTOR 8, SLUM PERIMETER]
[TIME: 07:40 A.M.]
Yumi stood before a ruined maintenance hatch, watching steam curl from its rim.
"He was here," Ishirou said, panting. "A levitation trace, and…"
Yumi's face was unreadable.
"…A Gate signature."
She closed her eyes.
"Vasior."
Then she turned, coat fluttering.
"Pull back. Activate surveillance protocol."
"Ma'am?"
Yumi's eyes opened again.
"I want Nel Myrrha found."
---
[TO BE CONTINUED...]