The door did not give way easily.
It was old. Older than the city's newest districts, older than the gleaming towers that framed Aegis Prime's skyline. Rust bit deep into its hinges as warning glyphs—half-scraped, half-burned—ran along its surface like scars that no one had bothered to heal.
Asol hit it once. The sound echoed outward as metal screamed and dust rained from the frame. His shoulder flared in protest, a sharp reminder that his body was still paying the price for the garden.
He hit it again. This time the Adamantium arm sang as a low, angry vibration traveled up through his bones. The door buckled inward as its locks snapped with a dull, hollow crack.
The third blow sent it collapsing inward, slamming into the darkness beyond with a sound like a coffin being shut and silence followed. It wasn't a peaceful silence. But it was the kind that waited.
Asol stood at the threshold with his chest rising and falling as the dust settled around his boots. The air that spilled out from inside was wrong, cold, metallic, and tinged with antiseptic rot and something faintly sweet beneath it.
Decay layered over cleanliness and behind him, Kurogane stopped.
She did not cross the threshold. Her crimson eyes were fixed on the darkness beyond the broken door, pupils contracting as if the shadows themselves were too bright.
The air around her rippled. Just slightly and Asol noticed.
"Kurogane," he said quietly, not turning. "We can—"
'I remember this smell.'
Her voice cut into his thoughts like a blade dragged slowly across glass. The wind outside whispered through the broken doorframe. Inside, something hummed. It was low, distant, and mechanical. It was like a heart still beating long after the body should have died.
Kurogane stepped forward. Each footfall was careful. Measured. Like she was walking across thin ice.
The lights flickered on as they crossed the threshold. Automatic systems responded to their presence after years of dormancy. A pale white illumination washed over the corridor, revealing walls of reinforced glass and steel, etched with serial numbers and classification tags.
Containment Wing C
Adaptive Subject
Development Authorization: OMEGA CLASS
Asol swallowed.
"…This place was still running."
'Of course it was,' Kurogane replied flatly. 'You do not abandon something you fear might wake up.'
The corridor stretched ahead, branching into observation rooms, storage vaults, and sealed chambers marked with red sigils. The floor was spotless. Too spotless. Not even dust had been allowed to settle.
Someone had been maintaining this place.
Recently.
Asol's jaw tightened as they walked on. Each step made the hum louder. Closer.
They passed the first chamber. Inside: a shattered glass cylinder. Thick enough to hold a Kaiju's limb, now spiderwebbed and broken outward. Dried residue streaked its interior—long since cleaned, but not erased. Claw marks scored the metal frame from the inside.
Kurogane stopped.
Her breathing changed.
'I was here,' she said.
Asol said nothing.
'This was the first room.'
She stepped closer, fingertips hovering inches from the fractured glass. The air bent faintly around her hand, like space itself flinched at her touch.
'I remember waking up,' she continued. 'I could not see clearly. My eyes were still… unfinished.'
She swallowed.
'There was light above me. And voices. So many voices.'
Her fingers curled.
'They spoke about me as if I was not listening.'
Asol felt his chest tighten.
"What did they say?"
Kurogane's eyes reflected the room—white walls, broken glass, ghosts of machines.
'They argued,' she said. 'About whether I was stable. About whether silence was necessary. About whether I was alive or merely… responsive.'
Her lips pressed together.
'They decided I was inconvenient.'
The next chamber opened with a hiss of decompressing seals.
Inside were tables.
Straps.
Surgical tools arranged with obsessive precision.
Asol's hand curled into a fist.
"…They did this to you."
Kurogane shook her head slowly.
'No,' she corrected. 'They did this because of me.'
She walked between the tables, gaze distant.
'They measured how much pain I could endure before my spatial output spiked. They wanted to know if fear made me stronger.'
Her voice did not shake.
'It did.'
The hum grew louder.
Screens flickered to life as they passed—archived footage triggering on motion.
Asol stopped.
On the screen: a younger Kurogane, suspended in liquid, eyes wide and unfocused. Tubes ran into her arms, her spine, her skull.
A number pulsed beneath her image.
---
SUBJECT KG-07
STATUS: VIABLE
VOICE FUNCTION: REVOKED
---
Asol's breath hitched.
"You were seven…"
'Six years, eight months,' she corrected. 'They corrected me when I tried to count.'
The footage advanced.
She screamed.
No sound came out.
Asol looked away.
"I'm sorry."
Kurogane did not respond.
They moved deeper.
The lab opened into a central archive—rows of data pillars, holographic projectors, and a massive console embedded into the floor. The hum was loud here, vibrating faintly through Asol's boots.
Kurogane stopped again.
Her shoulders stiffened.
'This is where they spoke to him.'
Asol turned sharply.
"Him?"
Her gaze lifted—toward a sealed terminal at the center of the room. Its surface was black, reflective.
'Providence,' she said.
The name tasted like acid.
'He never came in person. He did not need to.'
She approached the console slowly.
'He watched. He asked questions. He approved revisions.'
Her fingers trembled as they hovered over the terminal.
'When I resisted… they asked him what to do.'
The console activated with a soft chime.
---
LOG ACCESS GRANTED
AUTHORIZATION: OMEGA
---
Asol's stomach dropped.
"…He left the door unlocked."
Kurogane's eyes narrowed.
'He wanted someone to find this.'
The logs scrolled as they found more files of experiments of children who were produced to be weapons and their "Neutralization."
---
SUBJECT KG-07-A
STATUS: ███████
SUBJECT KZ-01
STATUS: ███████
SUBJECT KG-07-B
STATUS: Alive
SUBJECT PO-92-D
STATUS: Deceased
Etc...
---
Another also caught his eyes. But it wasn't what he expected.
Interdimensional Transmission Records
Recipient: THE SAVIOURS
Material Transfer: ADAMANTIUM
Quantity: ███████
Purpose: ███████
Asol felt cold.
"The Saviours?" he whispered. "What are they-"
Kurogane tilted her head in confusion.
'Saviours? Do you know them?'
Asol exhaled sharply.
"They're a group of fanatics who believe destruction is what saves Humanity. They summon Kaijus from beyond the Manifolds of Worlds to 'purify' our worlds. I've fought them many times. They hurt the one person I care about."
His eyes darkened as images of Fujiwara laying comatose rushed through his mind.
'And Providence…'
"He's supplying them with Adamantium," Asol finished. "The question is why? What do they need it for?"
The logs continued.
Cooperation Status: ONGOING
Asol staggered back a step.
"This has been going on for a while... Why... Why are they-"
A slow clap echoed through the chamber.
Once. Twice. Three times.
"Well," a familiar voice drawled. "That saved me a lot of explaining."
Lightning crackled.
Blue lightning flooded the room as Blue Volt stepped out of nowhere as his boots touched the floor without a sound. Electricity danced lazily along his arms with his grin, sharp and amused.
"Hi again, Savior Slayer."
Asol spun.
"You—!"
Blue Volt tilted his head.
"Relax. You didn't sense me because I didn't arrive."
He tapped his temple.
"I was already moving."
Kurogane's Aura flared instinctively, space distorting around her feet.
Blue Volt's eyes flicked to her.
"And there you are," he said lightly. "The ghost girl."
Asol stepped forward.
"Did you plant this."
Blue Volt shrugged.
"Plant that piece of evidence ya'll were looking for? No. That would imply fabrication. And a trap. You two wouldn't be standing right now if it was."
He gestured at the screens.
"But I just… stopped blocking the door."
Asol's fists clenched.
"Why?"
Blue Volt's grin softened—just a little.
"Because I was curious. After my fist encounter with you on the plaza, a weird feeling was eating at me. I couldn't understand it. And it happened right after meeting you for the first time. But I have a question."
He looked at Asol.
"What do you fight for?"
The question landed heavier than any blow.
Asol blinked.
"…What?"
Blue Volt stepped closer, electricity crackling with each step.
"What do you gain from this?" he repeated. "Truth? Justice? A gold star for being morally consistent?"
Asol swallowed as he thought hard for a moment. He knew what he was fighting for. But for some reason it was hard to put into words unlike how he said it last time.
"I fight so others don't suffer like I did."
Blue Volt was silent and then laughed.
"Oh, that's adorable! So you want to be a hero?"
He spread his arms.
"Suffering doesn't end. It moves. You stop it here, but it pops up somewhere else. That's how the world works."
Asol's eyes hardened.
"Then why do you fight for Providence?"
The smile faltered.
"What do you gain?" Asol pressed.
Blue Volt's jaw tightened as he scoffed.
"I don't owe you an answer."
Asol took another step.
"Because from where I'm standing and how I am understanding things," he said quietly, "you look like just another dog on his leash. Just like Kazuma."
The air exploded with Aura.
Blue Volt's Aura surged outward causing the space around them to warp as lightning tore through the lab. Consoles shattered and the lights burst overhead.
"You don't know anything!" he roared.
The world vanished and, in a heartbeat, Asol was airborne. Blue Volt gripped his collar and the lab blurred into nothing. Then they slammed into dead earth beneath an empty sky, dust erupting around them.
Blue Volt released him and stepped back, electricity blazing.
"Remember when I said we'd fight sometime?" he snarled.
Lightning crackled and shot everywhere.
"Now's the time!"