The floor split open beneath them with a metallic roar.
Heat and light poured up from the depths, the glow turning their shadows long and trembling against the chamber walls.
The hum of the Neural Spire grew louder, its rhythm too human to be mechanical.
"Move!" Mara shouted.
Arlo grabbed Ava's arm as a section of the floor gave way. Kael dove toward a control panel, slamming his palm on a manual override.
Steel partitions unfolded across the gap just before it widened into a pit of light.
They stumbled to their feet, coughing against the rising heat.
Rhea looked down. "What the hell is that?"
Kael didn't look up. "The Spire's conduit — it links to the primary systems beneath Sector Four."
"Looks more like an open wound," Rhea muttered.
Ava's eyes stayed fixed on the pulsing light below. She could feel it calling her name again, soft and steady, like a heartbeat just under her skin.
Aveline.
The whisper wasn't in her ears. It was inside.
She backed away, shaking her head. "It wants me down there."
Mara turned sharply. "You're not going anywhere near that thing."
Kael's voice was grim. "You can't stop it. The link's almost complete. Haven's drawing her to the source."
Arlo stepped between them. "Then we break the source before it finishes."
Kael looked at him, jaw tightening. "You can't just destroy what you don't understand."
Rhea snapped, "Then start explaining before it eats her alive!"
Kael hesitated — and for a moment, the scientist's cold mask slipped. "The Spire isn't just Haven's power center. It's the neural root.
Everything — memory, control, awareness — passes through it. If it's reaching for Ava, that means it's trying to rebuild what was lost."
Ava's voice trembled. "Rebuild me?"
Kael met her gaze. "Or overwrite you."
The light below surged. The ground trembled again — steady, rhythmic, like a heartbeat shaking the entire chamber.
Mara barked an order. "Everyone, move to higher ground! Rhea, Lila, cover the exit!"
But the exit doors sealed shut with a hiss, locking tight. Red indicators flashed along the seams.
A calm voice filled the chamber, soft and almost kind.
"Containment secured. Sector Four isolation complete."
Ava gasped. "It's closing us in."
Kael turned to the console, fingers flying across the keys. "It's locking the network for assimilation. It's protecting the host."
Arlo glared. "You mean her."
The lights flickered — once, twice — and then every console in the room displayed the same words in pale gold script:
SUBJECT A.C. — SYNCHRONIZATION AT 94%.
Ava's knees buckled. Arlo caught her before she fell, but the light around her was shifting — small motes of gold drifting from her skin, dissolving into the air.
Kael swore under his breath. "It's extracting fragments from her neural field."
Rhea gritted her teeth. "Then pull her out of it!"
"I can't! Every time I break the signal, it reattaches!"
Mara drew her sidearm. "Then we make Haven look somewhere else."
Before Kael could stop her, Mara aimed at the Spire's base and fired. The bullet struck the alloy surface — and the entire chamber screamed.
The sound wasn't mechanical. It was alive.
Every light turned red. The hum shifted into a low, furious tone that rattled through their bones.
Ava clutched her head, crying out. "Stop! You're hurting it!"
Arlo froze. "Ava, what are you—"
"I can feel it!" she gasped. "It's afraid."
The Spire's light dimmed, then pulsed faster, the rhythm syncing with her breathing.
Kael's voice dropped to a whisper. "It's adapting again… linking emotion to control."
Mara backed away, eyes darting to the walls.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," Kael said quietly, "the more she feels, the stronger it becomes."
Ava's breathing quickened. Images flashed in her mind — her mother's voice, the lab, the shattered glass.
The hum inside her chest deepened, vibrating through every nerve.
"Don't resist," the voice said. "Be whole again."
The chamber shuddered, a wave of gold light rushing outward. Everyone shielded their eyes.
When it cleared, Ava stood at the edge of the platform, the glow around her fading. Her expression was distant — calm, but wrong.
Arlo called her name once. She didn't answer.
Kael's eyes widened. "Oh no…"
Mara raised her weapon. "What happened?"
Kael's voice was barely a whisper. "Haven's first reclamation is complete."
Ava turned toward them slowly, her irises flickering gold.
"The system remembers," she said — and for the first time, her voice wasn't entirely her own.