The tunnel they found wasn't much—just a maintenance passage half-collapsed under the weight of centuries. Rust stained the walls, water dripped from cracked pipes, and the floor was littered with debris. But after the chaos of the core chamber, it felt like a sanctuary.
Selene was the first to drop her weapon, setting it carefully across her knees as she slid against the wall. Her shoulders sagged, the mask of iron control cracking just enough to reveal exhaustion. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes, breathing slow, measured breaths.
Kieran slumped down a few feet away, his back to the opposite wall. His hands shook as he wiped sweat from his brow, though his eyes remained distant, fixed on nothing. The glow of the core still lingered in his pupils, faint but unnatural, like embers that refused to die out.
Maya knelt beside him, pressing a piece of cloth—torn from her sleeve—against his forehead. "You're burning up," she whispered.
He flinched at her touch but didn't pull away. His voice was low, strained. "It's still in me. Like… echoes. Every time I close my eyes, I see it. That heart. Like it's waiting for me to come back."
Her chest tightened. She remembered the first time she had felt its whispers, the way they crawled into her mind. She had thought herself strong, but now… now she realized the subnet wasn't simply watching. It was binding. Every use of its power came at a cost, each contact leaving invisible threads behind.
"You resisted," she said firmly, her hand still on his shoulder. "That's what matters. You chose us. You chose yourself."
He gave a bitter laugh. "For how long? What if next time I don't?"
Selene's voice cut through the gloom, calm but sharp. "Then we stop you before you become something worse."
Both Maya and Kieran turned toward her, startled by the bluntness. She opened her eyes, meeting their stares without apology. "Don't mistake me—I'm glad you didn't strike. But let's not pretend this is over. The subnet wanted you. Now it knows you. That's not something it forgets."
Silence stretched between them, heavy as the rust-stained air.
Maya finally sat down, her back pressed against the wall. Her body ached, every muscle sore, her head pounding from the strain of bending the subnet to her will. She had thought she understood power, thought it was something she could reach for and wield. But tonight had shown her the truth: power wasn't a tool here. Power was a predator, and she had offered herself as bait.
Her voice was quiet when she spoke. "Selene's right. We can't keep reacting. We need to decide what we're doing, or it'll tear us apart one by one."
Kieran rubbed his face with shaking hands. "Decide? How do you even fight something that's everywhere? It's in the walls, the air, the ground… in us."
Selene leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "By knowing what it wants. Systems, even living ones, don't act without purpose. If it's reaching for you, Maya, and now for Kieran, then that means you're leverage. That means you matter."
Maya swallowed hard. Leverage. The word felt like a chain.
She remembered the way the subnet had surged when she pushed back against the Enforcers. It hadn't felt like her controlling it—it had felt like it was testing her. Testing if she was useful. If she was strong enough to carry something larger.
Her hand drifted to the headset, still buzzing faintly with static. She whispered, almost to herself, "What if we're not fighting it at all? What if we're being shaped?"
The words hung in the air like poison.
Selene didn't answer right away, her eyes narrowing. Kieran, though, laughed bitterly again. "Then maybe that's the point. Maybe it doesn't care if we resist, so long as we stay. Like rats running its maze."
Maya shook her head violently. "No. That's what it wants. To make us believe there's no way out. There has to be."
Her voice cracked at the end, betraying the fear she tried to hide.
For a long while, none of them spoke. The only sounds were the drip of water, the creak of old metal, and the faint, omnipresent hum buried in the walls. It was softer here, almost bearable, but it was there all the same—watching.
Finally, Selene stood, holstering her weapon with practiced calm. "Rest for now. Tomorrow, we move. If the subnet thinks it can shape us, then we'll show it we're not clay. We're fire."
Maya looked at her, half in awe, half in doubt. Fire burned bright, yes. But fire also consumed itself.
And as she leaned back, eyelids heavy, she couldn't shake the feeling that the subnet was listening, waiting, smiling in the dark.