Elias stood with his arms crossed, waiting.
The sleek, metallic walls of NASA's hidden headquarters reflected the cold artificial light, giving the room an unsettling sterility. Holographic monitors floated around him, silently displaying lines of data and security footage from various locations.
Across from him, the scientist—Dr. Malcolm Voss, as he had introduced himself—adjusted his glasses, watching Elias with an unreadable expression.
"You're serious about this," Voss finally said.
Elias exhaled sharply. "I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't."
A silence stretched between them. The weight of the moment settled like a thick fog in the room.
Then—
Voss nodded. "Alright. Let's get them."
He turned to one of the floating interfaces, fingers moving rapidly as he inputted commands. The air around them grew tense as the teleportation system powered up once more.
A low hum resonated through the floor.
The lights flickered.
And then—
A pulse of blue energy erupted from the center of the room, spiraling outward in a controlled burst.
Elias braced himself.
The first time he had been transported, it had felt like being ripped apart and thrown into the void. But this time…
It was smoother. More controlled.
Then—
The air in front of him distorted.
Silhouettes began to take shape.
And within seconds, they appeared.
Sienna was the first to materialize, her form solidifying in a flickering wave of blue energy. Her breath hitched the moment she felt solid ground beneath her feet. The moment her eyes locked onto Elias, she didn't hesitate.
She ran straight at him.
Elias barely had time to react before she crashed into him, arms wrapping tightly around his torso.
He felt her shaking.
"Sienna—"
She gripped his shirt, her voice muffled against his shoulder.
"Where the hell did you go?! One second you were there, and the next—" Her words caught in her throat. "I thought—I thought something happened to you."
Elias let out a small, amused breath. "Damn. Didn't know you cared that much."
Sienna pulled back immediately, punching him in the arm.
"Ow! The hell was that for?!"
"For scaring the shit out of me, dumbass!"
Elias chuckled, rubbing his arm. "Okay, okay. My bad."
Before he could say anything else, the others started appearing.
Zane, Kai, Ezra, Mira, Sienna's friends materialized one by one, each reacting with varying degrees of confusion and panic.
"What the actual—" Kai staggered back, eyes darting around. "Where the hell are we?!"
Ezra glanced at the glowing monitors, his brows furrowed. "No way…"
Mira's gaze flickered to the massive insignia on the farthest wall. Her voice came out in a breathless whisper.
"NASA…?"
Sienna turned to them, still visibly tense. "Yeah. That was my reaction too."
Zane crossed his arms. "Okay, someone start explaining before I lose my mind."
Elias sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah. Give me a sec."
He turned toward Dr. Voss, who had been silently watching their reunion.
"You wanted an audience?" Elias gestured toward the group. "Well, here they are."
Voss adjusted his glasses, his expression unreadable.
"Then let's begin."
The room was silent.
Not the kind of silence that brought peace.
The kind that strangled you.
The hologram flickered above them—a massive network of satellites, surrounding Earth like an iron web.Lines of data scrolled endlessly, filled with symbols and scripts that weren't meant for human eyes.
Sienna's breath was shaky. "What… is this?"
Voss exhaled, his voice low. "This is Project Blue Beam. The Initiative's greatest secret. The reason why the world thinks NASA is dead."
Elias' fingers curled into fists.
They had already seen too much.
But it wasn't enough.
Not yet.
"Explain," he said.
Voss didn't hesitate. He swiped a hand across the interface. The projection shifted.
The image zoomed in—revealing something hidden beneath the satellites.
A thin, pulsating field of energy, wrapping around the planet like a second atmosphere.
Kai's brows furrowed. "What is that?"
Voss' voice was calm. Too calm. "A perception veil. A global-scale system that doesn't just control what people see. It controls what they believe."
Elias' pulse quickened.
Sienna's grip on her own arms tightened.
Noa's voice was barely above a whisper. "Are you saying… this thing is in our heads?"
Voss turned to her. "Yes."
A chill spread through the room.
Zane's jaw tensed. "So the reason no one remembers NASA—"
"Is because it never existed to them,or you could say.. Existed just as a part of history," Voss finished.
The words sank in.
Heavy. Suffocating.
Kai took a step back. "That's… that's impossible."
"It should be," Voss said. "But it's not." He tapped the console again.
The hologram shifted.
And for the first time, they saw it.
The Core.
A massive, underground facility. Rows upon rows of tall, glass-like cylinders lined the walls, stretching into the darkness. Inside each one…
People.
Floating in a thick, pulsating liquid.
Their bodies were motionless. Their eyes open, but empty.
Breathing. Dreaming.
But never awake.
A terrible weight pressed against Elias' chest.
This wasn't just a prison.
This was something else.
Something worse.
Mira's voice came out hollow. "What… is this?"
Voss' eyes darkened.
"The heart of Project Blue Beam."
No one spoke.
He continued.
"They are the ones controlling the veil."
Ezra shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. How the hell does that even work?"
Voss looked at him.
"They aren't just prisoners," he said quietly. "They are the system."
The words felt wrong.
Like something that should never have been spoken.
Zane's hands curled into fists. "You mean—?"
Voss nodded.
"The Ascendancy Initiative doesn't use AI for its control. It doesn't rely on algorithms or machines."
He turned back to the hologram, eyes cold.
"They use human minds."
Elias' stomach dropped.
Sienna inhaled sharply, pressing a hand to her mouth.
"Their subconscious thoughts are harvested, linked together," Voss continued. "Forced into a perpetual dream-state. Their collective cognition becomes an organic processor, shaping the world's reality."
No one spoke.
No one could.
It was too much.
Too wrong.
The sheer horror of it sat like a weight in the air, pressing down on them like they were being buried alive.
Mira's voice barely came out. "Are… are they still alive?"
"In a way," Voss said. "But they'll never wake up. Not as themselves."
Elias felt something cold crawl up his spine.
Something primal.
Something worse than fear.
He was about to speak—about to demand an explanation, something, anything, to make sense of this—
Then he saw it.
A single chamber.
Separate from the others.
The liquid inside glowed with a deeper blue. And floating within…
A person.
Not just anyone.
Elias froze.
His heart stopped.
Because the figure inside the chamber—
Had his face.
Sienna let out a sharp gasp.
Mira's breath hitched.
Zane muttered, "What the fuck…?"
Elias couldn't move.
His mind refused to process it.
"No," he whispered.
That wasn't possible.
That wasn't—
He staggered back.
The projection flickered, glitching violently.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Voss' voice was distant. Muffled. "Elias—"
The screen snapped.
For a brief second—
A flash.
A distorted image. A place that didn't exist.
Something watching him.
Something inside his head.
A voice.
Cold. Hollow. Familiar.
"How many times have you stood here?"
Elias felt sick.
A ringing filled his ears. His body felt like it was splitting apart.
The room warped.
Or maybe it was his mind.
He stumbled, catching himself against the console. His breathing was shaky.
And in that moment, as he stared at the frozen image of his own face trapped inside that prison of light—
Elias realized something.
Something he couldn't say.
Because if he said it—
If he acknowledged it—
Then that meant it was real.
And if it was real—
Then he wasn't.
Elias sat at the long, dimly lit conference table, his fingers pressed against his temples. The room was silent except for the quiet hum of unseen machinery. His mind was still catching up, processing what the scientist had just told him.
Everything they knew was a lie.
Across from him, the holographic projection of Project Blue Beam continued its slow rotation—its ghostly blue glow casting eerie shadows across the steel walls.
His stomach twisted.
The scientist—who still hadn't given his name—leaned forward, his expression unreadable.
"You wanted the truth," he said, voice calm. "This is only the beginning."
Elias exhaled sharply through his nose, his head still spinning.
"The beginning?" he muttered, gripping the table. "Man, I don't even know where to start with this shit."
The scientist's expression remained neutral.
"Then don't. Just listen."
Elias clenched his jaw. But fine. Fine.
He forced himself to breathe, to focus.
And then, the scientist began.
Three Years Ago – The Event That Never Happened
"It started with the sky."
The hologram flickered. The world was suddenly engulfed in darkness. The Earth—seen from space—was eerily still.
Then, a line split open the heavens.
A massive, jagged tear ripped across the sky, like someone had slashed reality itself with a knife. The clouds warped around it, bending into impossible shapes.
And then—
The world was bathed in blinding blue light.
Elias' breath caught as massive alien ships emerged from the rift. Hundreds. No, thousands. Their metallic hulls gleamed with unnatural energy, their designs nothing like anything humanity had ever seen.
Cities erupted into chaos. People screamed in the streets. Sirens wailed.
Then—
A voice boomed from the sky.
"THIS WORLD IS OURS NOW."
The hologram distorted, glitching with static.
The invasion had begun.
Elias swallowed, his fingers tightening against the metal table.
"Jesus Christ…" he whispered.
The scientist tilted his head slightly.
"That's exactly what they wanted you to say."
The projection froze.
Then—
It rewound.
The Truth
The scientist raised a single finger.
"Look closely."
The hologram played again—this time, slower.
Elias watched as the sky split apart, as the alien ships descended, as the chaos unfolded. But now, something was… off.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Wait—"
His breath hitched.
The ships—
They weren't descending. They were flickering.
Like holograms.
His stomach turned to ice.
"No way…"
The scientist tapped the table, and the projection glitched violently.
The massive ships shimmered—their edges warping—until suddenly, they vanished.
And in their place—
Small, human-made drones.
Tiny. Barely the size of cars. Equipped with advanced holographic projectors.
And below them?
Missiles. Real ones.
The explosions that had devastated the cities? Not alien weapons.
Human bombs.
Elias felt his pulse hammering against his skull.
"You're telling me… everything these people saw—"
The scientist nodded.
"A lie."
His mouth went dry.
"The alien invasion never happened."
"No," the scientist said. "But the destruction did."
And that was all that mattered.
Because the world had seen their homes burning. They had heard the screams, seen the chaos, felt the terror.
They had watched the Ascendancy Initiative fight back—watched them win.
And so, when the smoke cleared and the alien threat was "defeated"—
The world willingly gave them control.
The Fall of Free Will
Elias leaned back, his body trembling.
"Holy shit…" he whispered. "They made it all up. The Ascendancy Initiative made it all the fuck up."
The scientist's voice was quiet.
"Yes."
"They tricked the whole goddamn world."
"Yes."
"But why? Why go through all this just to get power? They already had governments, militaries, control—"
Elias stopped.
The scientist's expression darkened.
"That's what we don't know."
Elias felt something heavy settle in his gut.
"What do you mean?"
The scientist steepled his fingers.
"The Ascendancy Initiative didn't just take control of the world." He exhaled. "They were looking for something."
The room felt colder.
"Something they couldn't find."
Elias felt his throat tighten.
"What the hell were they looking for?"
The scientist hesitated.
And then—
"A person."
The words sent a shiver down his spine.
"A person?" Elias repeated.
The scientist's jaw tensed.
"They don't know who they are. They don't know where they are. They don't even know if they're still alive."
The air felt heavier.
"But for the past three years, they've been searching. Everywhere. Every city, every town, every country. Every school."
Elias' blood ran cold.
He remembered the attack on their school. The monster. The soldiers. The fact that they had gone straight for him.
His heartbeat pounded in his ears.
"Wait…" Elias muttered. "You're saying—"
But before he could finish—
The doors burst open.
A blur of movement—voices shouting—
And then—
Someone slammed into him.
A pair of arms wrapped around his torso tightly.
Elias barely had time to process before a very familiar voice shouted—
"ELIAS, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! WHERE DID YOU GO?!"
His brain stuttered.
"—Sienna?"
Elias barely had time to react before Sienna grabbed him by the collar.
Her grip was tight. Her eyes—wild. Desperate. Afraid.
"Where the hell have you been?!"
Elias opened his mouth, but—
WHAM.
Sienna punched him.
Not hard enough to knock him out, but enough to hurt.
Elias staggered back, clutching his jaw.
"What the fuck, Sienna?!"
"You disappeared, you idiot!" she snapped. "We thought you were dead! We thought—"
Her voice broke.
She exhaled sharply, pressing a hand to her temple. Steadying herself.
Elias stared at her.
And for the first time since he'd woken up in this hellhole—
He realized how wrecked she looked.
Her hair was disheveled, her uniform torn at the sleeve. Dried blood on her collar.
She looked like she'd been fighting for her life.
His gut twisted.
"Sienna…" he murmured. "What happened?"
She didn't answer.
Not immediately.
Instead, she turned—and that's when Elias saw them.
Ezra. Zane. Mira. Kai.
They stood in the doorway, out of breath, covered in dust and bruises.
Luc had a deep cut across his forehead. Ezra was limping. Noa had a gash on his arm, bleeding through his sleeve.
They had fought their way here.
"Jesus Christ…" Elias whispered. "You guys—"
Zane shoved past him.
"We don't have time," he muttered, darkly.
Elias blinked.
"Time for what?"
Sienna turned back to him.
"To leave."
Elias hesitated.
"Sienna, we just got here. We just found out the truth about the invasion, the Initiative, everything—"
Sienna's hands tightened into fists.
"Elias," she said, voice low. "They're looking for me."
Elias felt the air leave his lungs.
For a second, he just stood there. Staring at her.
Then—
"What?"
Sienna swallowed.
"I don't know why."
She exhaled, her breath shaky.
The room went silent.
Elias felt something cold and sharp settle in his stomach.
His mind raced.
Why would they be looking for her? Why Sienna?
They weren't looking for the others.
They were looking for her and him.
The scientist at the table—who had been silent this entire time—finally spoke.
"It makes sense."
Everyone turned to him.
His expression was grim.
"They weren't looking for an enemy." His voice was calm. Controlled. "They were looking for an anchor."
Elias' breath hitched.
"Anchor?" he echoed.
The scientist nodded.
"Elias… if Sienna doesn't exist, neither do you."
Elias' mind short-circuited.
His pulse pounded in his ears.
"What the hell does that mean?"
The scientist turned to Sienna.
"We need to leave," he said. "Now."
Sienna hesitated.
"But we still don't know—"
The scientist's gaze hardened.
"We'll find out later. If we stay here, you're as good as dead."
Zane cursed under his breath.
"He's right," he muttered. "We barely made it here. There were drones everywhere. If they know we're inside—"
Ezra's jaw tightened.
"Then they're already on their way."
Sienna exhaled sharply. Nodded.
"Okay," she murmured. "We run."
Elias still couldn't process it. Any of it.
But his body was already moving.
Somewhere in the Facility – Control Room
Unseen eyes watched them through security feeds.
A shadowed figure leaned forward.
Their voice—low, distorted—spoke into a receiver.
"Target acquired."
"Initiate Phase Two."
And across the entire building—
The alarms began to scream.
Red lights flashed. The sirens screamed.
Elias' gut twisted. They were here.
"Shit—!" Mira cursed, backing away from the door. "They tracked us already?!"
The scientist's face darkened. He grabbed the console, fingers flying across the holographic keyboard. Data flashed across the screens.
"The Initiative's enforcers are in the building," he said, voice cold. "They bypassed the outer perimeter. They're coming straight for us."
Elias clenched his fists. His whole body tensed. They weren't just coming for them—they were coming for Sienna.
He turned to her. "What do they want from you?!"
Sienna shook her head. Her breathing was uneven. "I—I don't know."
Elias gritted his teeth. " Okay, it doesn't matter. We're not letting them take you."
"How do we get out?" Zane asked, already stepping into a defensive stance.
The scientist exhaled sharply. "We still have an escape route. Follow me. Now."
Elias moved on instinct. He grabbed Sienna's wrist, pulling her with him. The others followed.
Then—
The door exploded.
A shockwave of force slammed into them. Elias gritted his teeth, shielding Sienna as they hit the ground. Smoke and debris filled the air.
And through the haze—
Dark figures stepped in.
Tall. Uniformed. Enforcers of the Ascendancy Initiative.
Their helmets gleamed under the red emergency lights, their visors glowing with unreadable data. Their weapons hummed—lethal, precise.
The leader stepped forward, his voice distorted by a mechanical filter.
"Sienna."
"Come with us."
Sienna's breath caught.
Elias bared his teeth. "Like hell she is."
Ezra moved first. Her blade flashed—a split-second of motion.
A gunshot.
Before she could even strike, the lead enforcer fired.
The bullet didn't hit Ezra.
It didn't need to.
It hit the air— and the air rippled.
A shockwave of gravity crashed into Ezra's body. She flew back, slamming into the metal wall with a sickening crack.
"Ezra!" Mira screamed.
Ezra coughed violently, blood splattering against her palm.
The enforcer's gun glowed.
"Last chance," the lead enforcer said coldly. "Come with us, or we take you by force."
Sienna's hands shook. She looked at Elias.
"Elias—"
He stepped in front of her.
His whole body felt hot. His heart pounded. Something inside him shifted.
He wasn't thinking anymore.
He felt it.
The instinct. The pull.
His eyes locked onto the enforcers—and something inside him snapped.
The lights flickered.
The metal walls groaned.
The air around Elias warped.
And then—
Everything erupted.
The room collapsed into chaos.
The air around Elias cracked open.
The floor shook. The walls bent inward, warping like liquid metal.
And Elias?
He felt it.
A pull. A surge. A raw force inside him, clawing its way to the surface.
His body burned—but not in pain.
In power.
The lead enforcer's visor flickered. He hesitated, scanning Elias.
"Anomalous surge detected—"
Too late.
Elias moved.
Not ran.
Not dodged.
Just—moved.
One second, he was standing still.
The next—
He was already in front of them.
Elias slammed his fist into the lead enforcer's helmet.
A shockwave blasted outward.
The enforcer's body flew back, smashing through the opposite wall.
Silence.
The remaining enforcers hesitated. Their weapons hummed, recalibrating.
But Elias wasn't done.
He turned, eyes dark, fingers curling into fists. His heartbeat pounded in his skull.
He could feel the energy twisting inside him.
And then—it snapped again.
The emergency lights shattered.
The entire room bent inwards, collapsing into a singular point.
The walls?
The floor?
The enforcers?
It all folded into itself—like a black hole collapsing.
And Elias?
He just stood there.
His breath ragged. His body shaking.
"What…" Sienna whispered. "What the hell was that?"
Mira grabbed her arm. "We need to move—NOW!"
Elias didn't argue.
The scientist had already activated the escape route. A hidden metal door slid open, revealing a dimly lit passage.
Alarms screamed through the facility.
Elias clenched his jaw. They'd be back.
And next time?
They'd come prepared.
MEANWHILE.
The Ascendancy Initiative's HQ.
A cold, sterile control room. Monitors glowed, displaying footage.
A dark figure stood in front of the screens. Watching. Calculating.
He was the head of the HQ.
The guy who started all this.
"Well," He murmured, voice smooth.
A silent pause.
"Find him."
"Now."
The underground passage stretched endlessly before them. Dim lights flickered overhead, casting eerie shadows on the metallic walls. The sound of their footsteps echoed, sharp and restless.
Alarms blared above.
Sienna ran beside Elias, stealing glances at him between gasps of breath. He looked different. Not just exhausted—like something inside him was unraveling.
His hands kept twitching.
Fingers curling. Uncurling. Like his body was reacting to something only he could feel.
"Are you good?" she asked.
Elias exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "No idea."
Kai, ahead of them, "Where's the exit?"
A voice crackled through. The scientist.
"Go straight. Third door on the left. It leads to an old maintenance tunnel."
Zane glanced back. "You heard him—"
The tunnel walls shook.
The metal groaned. A deep, unnatural sound.
Elias froze.
Something was coming.
Not enforcers. Not alarms.
Something else.
Something wrong.
—
MEANWHILE.
The Ascendancy Initiative's HQ.
"Target detected."
A monitor blinked. A pulse of unknown energy appeared on the screen.
The lead strategist frowned, studying it. "That's…"
A pause.
His eyes widened.
"Oh. Oh, no."
A second pulse appeared.
Then a third.
Then a fourth.
"Sir," an analyst whispered. "We have a problem."
The head of the HQ, stared at the screen.
Then, barely above a whisper—
"The time is coming."
—
BACK IN THE TUNNEL.
The ground cracked.
The air thinned.
Elias felt it first. Like his body was being pulled in two different directions at once.
Then—
The walls exploded.
A void-like force surged in, twisting the space around them.
Not fire. Not wind. Not electricity.
Something older.
Something hungry.
Elias staggered back, gripping his skull. His vision warped, flickering between worlds.
Sienna screamed.
Zane's voice was distant. The tunnel was melting.
And in the center of it all—
Something stepped through.
Not a person.
Not a machine.
Something that remembered him.
And then—
It spoke.
"We finally found you."
—
The voice didn't belong to a single person.
It was layered. Fractured. Multiple voices speaking at once, overlapping.
Male. Female. Old. Young. Some human. Some… wrong.
Elias' breath hitched. He knew that voice.
Not from this world.
Not from his past.
From somewhere deeper.
Sienna grabbed his arm. "Who—what the hell is that?"
Elias couldn't answer. His pulse thundered in his ears. His veins burned.
The figure in the darkness stepped forward.
Or rather—
The figures.
A shifting, unstable mass of bodies.
People. Or what used to be people.
Their forms twisted and glitched, overlapping like a corrupted image. Faces flickered—familiar, unfamiliar. Some he swore he had seen before.
But that was impossible.
They weren't the initiative's.
And yet—
Here they were.
The "We."
—
Too heavy. Too thick. Like something was pressing down on reality itself.
Elias' pulse pounded in his skull. The We—if that's what they were—kept shifting, kept breaking.
One second, their limbs were intact. The next, they twisted at angles that shouldn't exist.
One moment, their faces were normal. The next, their eyes stretched too wide, mouths pulling into jagged, inhuman grins.
Sienna tightened her grip on Elias' arm. Her fingers dug into his skin, but he didn't even notice.
She whispered, voice barely holding together. "Elias… what the fuck is that?"
He swallowed hard. His throat felt like sandpaper. "I don't know."
Liar.
He knew.
Not from here. Not from his past. From somewhere deeper.
His body was reacting to them. Like it recognized something before his brain could catch up.
—
"You do know."
The We spoke again.
The voices weren't just layered anymore. They were inside him. Crawling through his skull. Scraping at his mind like nails against glass.
Elias' breath hitched.
"You should give up already."
On what?
"Come back."
And suddenly—
His body moved on its own.
A step forward.
His head throbbed. His vision blurred.
The air shattered around him—
And he remembered.
—
He remembered…
The first time it happened.
Not here.
Not now.
Not in this body.
A place where time wasn't linear.
A place where the sky wasn't real, and the ground bled when you walked on it.
A place where he had seen them before.
—
He almost remembered The We.
The weight of it crushed him.
His knees buckled. His breath came out in ragged gasps.
Sienna's voice—distant. Panicked.
But he couldn't answer.
Because he wasn't just remembering.
He was reliving it.
Then they saw a black bird-like figure come and fight those figures, which were trying to make Elias remember something.
All the figures disappeared.
Elias snapped back into reality.
Then they all ran towards where their fate took them, especially Elias.
After an hour.
—
The night was dead silent.
Elias sat in the dimly lit bunker, his head resting against the cold concrete wall. His arms were crossed, his fingers gripping his sleeves like he was trying to hold himself together. The adrenaline from earlier had finally drained out of his system, leaving behind nothing but exhaustion and a dull, aching confusion.
Across from him, Sienna was sitting on a rusted metal chair, knees pulled up to her chest. She hadn't spoken much since they got here. None of them had. They were alive, but the weight of everything that had happened clung to the air like a thick fog.
NASA's underground facility had been nothing compared to this place. This wasn't some sleek, high-tech safe house with glowing panels and holographic monitors. This was a fallout shelter—one of NASA's last emergency strongholds, deep underground. The walls were lined with old, dust-covered equipment, and the hum of ancient ventilation systems was the only sound filling the void.
Elias exhaled, staring at the ceiling. His mind was still racing.
The Ascendancy Initiative. The war. The monster. NASA still existing. The truth about the world.
And then—
Why him?
Why was he the one who got pulled into this?
"…Elias?"
He blinked. Sienna's voice cut through the haze, soft but cautious. She was watching him with that same quiet intensity she always had.
"You alright?"
He let out a dry, almost bitter laugh.
"Yeah, I am fine, don't worry." Elias admitted. His voice sounded distant, like it wasn't his own.
Sienna didn't push him further.
Voss, standing near an old console, glanced at them but didn't say anything. He had been busy with something ever since they got here, scanning data, checking security logs, ensuring the Initiative hadn't tracked them. The scientist's usual smirk was gone. His expression was serious—more than serious.
Elias dragged a hand down his face. His thoughts were a tangled mess, but there was one question clawing at him more than anything else.
He turned his head towards Voss.
"…Why?"
Voss finally looked up. "Why what?"
Elias' hands clenched. "Why did you transport me here in the first place? Out of everyone in that damn fight—why me?"
Voss didn't answer right away. He studied Elias for a moment, then sighed, rubbing his temple.
"There were two anomalies detected that night," he said. "Two new registrations in the Initiative's system."
Elias frowned. "New registrations?"
"You and another entity," Voss clarified. "Something… that shouldn't exist here."
The bunker felt colder.
Elias' chest tightened.
"Another… entity?"
Voss nodded. "The Initiative's system picked up two irregularities. You fit into this world. The other one didn't."
Elias didn't like where this was going. "What happened to the other one?"
"…It disappeared."
A silence stretched between them.
Elias swallowed. He didn't know why, but something about that answer unnerved him.
Erased.
Like it never existed in the first place.
"But how did you know about this?" Elias asked. His voice was quieter now. "Only the Initiative could've tracked me like that. Their system sees everything. Were you spying on them?"
Voss exhaled, then leaned against the console. His eyes darkened slightly.
"No," he said. "But we have someone on the inside."
Elias stiffened.
Sienna straightened up slightly.
"You're telling me…" Elias' voice was slow, cautious. "You have a spy? Inside the Initiative's HQ?"
Voss nodded.
"He works for them. But he works for us, too."
Elias stared at him, his heartbeat loud in his ears.
A spy inside the Initiative? Someone feeding NASA information directly from the belly of the beast?
"Who?"
"Sorry but I can't reveal that."
"OKAY so could you tell me who the head of the initiative is LIKE WHO THE HELL IS EVEN HE ?"
"The head of the initiatives…
The one who started everything…
The one who is seen by nobody, known by nobody, not even by the initiatives themselves…
He is The Hidden Phoenix."
End of Chapter 3-CD.