The air was colder in the lower tunnels.
Condensation dripped from the ceiling like rain, collecting in small, stagnant pools. Rusted pipes hissed and groaned, echoing through the dark. Every sound carried too far — every step was a risk.
24 followed Mara and Kira through a narrow corridor that seemed to stretch forever. The path was lit by faint, glowing tubes embedded in the walls, relics of an age before the Collapse.
Kira glanced around nervously. "How do you even find someone down here?"
Mara's mechanical arm clicked as she adjusted the light on her shoulder. "You don't. They find you."
They stopped at what looked like a dead end — a sealed blast door covered in graffiti and warning sigils.
Mara reached into her coat and tapped a sequence onto a dented keypad hidden behind loose wiring.
A faint hiss filled the air. Then, slowly, the door opened.
Behind it lay a chamber unlike anything 24 had seen since the fall — walls lined with working monitors, power conduits glowing with steady light, and the faint hum of stable energy.
At the center stood a figure in a tattered lab coat, her back to them, silver hair pulled into a rough knot.
When she turned, her eyes caught the light — sharp, intelligent, tired.
Dr. Lyra Voss.
"Didn't think you'd actually make it," she said, voice low but steady. "The last time someone brought me a Black Division survivor, he didn't survive the week."
Kira's eyes widened. "You know who he is?"
Voss studied 24 for a long, silent moment. Her gaze was clinical, but there was something else behind it — recognition. Regret.
"Of course I do," she said quietly. "We built him."
The words hung in the air like a gunshot.
24's fingers twitched toward his blade, but Mara's hand went up fast. "Easy," she murmured. "She's not your enemy."
Voss stepped closer, unafraid. "They called you Subject 24. But your name, before they took it, was Elias Ward. You were a soldier — one of the first volunteers for the teleportation trials. You were never meant to become this."
24's eyes darkened. "You made me this."
"No," she said softly. "I tried to stop it."
She moved to a nearby terminal, typing quickly. The screen came alive with flickering footage — surgical lights, metal restraints, rows of pods.
On one of the recordings, 24 — Elias — lay strapped to a table, eyes wide open, screaming as white energy burned through the veins in his neck.
Kira covered her mouth. "Oh my God…"
Voss looked away. "We pushed human limits past breaking. The Elite Government wanted soldiers who could cross distances instantly — kill without being seen. But every jump tore the mind apart. They told us the failures were necessary. That pain was data."
24 stared at the screen, silent.
His jaw tightened. "How many of us were there?"
"Thirty," Voss said. "Only six survived the final trials. The others—" she hesitated "—became what you fought in that lab. Subject 26. They were the ones whose consciousness didn't hold together."
He remembered the creature's voice — we share the same father.
"Who was in charge?" he asked.
Voss's face hardened. "Director Cael Enright. Head of EGI Research. He shut us down after the war. Ordered the purge. Anyone who tried to leak data was erased."
Mara crossed her arms. "And yet you're still breathing."
Voss smirked faintly. "I'm good at disappearing."
Kira stepped forward. "Can you help him? He's… bleeding inside. Every time he teleports, it's like it's killing him."
Voss's expression softened. "It is. His neural pathways are burning out — the void eats at him each time he folds through space. But there's a way to slow it."
She turned to 24. "You still hear the voices, don't you? The echoes when you jump."
He hesitated. "…Yes."
"They're not hallucinations," Voss said. "They're fragments — the consciousness of every subject tied to the same experimental field. When you teleport, you pass through the place where they still exist."
Kira shivered. "You mean the others are alive?"
Voss shook her head. "Not alive. Not dead either. Trapped between coordinates."
24's eyes narrowed. "Then I can reach them."
Voss froze. "You don't understand what that means."
He stepped closer. "If they're trapped, then there's a way back. You just don't want me to find it."
Her gaze hardened. "You think you're ready to walk the void, Elias? You barely survive a three-meter jump. If you try to reach that field, it'll tear your soul in half."
He said nothing — only looked at the terminal again, at the faces frozen in the old files.
Mara sighed. "We didn't come here for a suicide mission. We came to get answers."
Voss nodded slowly. "Then here's one. EGI isn't just looking for you. They're reactivating every surviving Black Division subject. You're not the last anymore."
Silence.
Kira's voice was barely a whisper. "You mean… there's another?"
Voss looked between them. "Yes. Subject 05. Codename: Specter. The first successful displacement unit. He's leading EGI's hunts now."
24's pulse quickened. He remembered the name — a shadow from the past, a ghost from the experiments. The only one faster than him.
Mara muttered, "Then you've got a problem, soldier."
24's eyes hardened like steel. "No," he said quietly.
"I've got a target."