The city was quiet — too quiet.
Adrian stood beside Elena in the shattered archive room. Sparks from the damaged servers cast flickering light across their faces, like ghosts breathing through the wires. The silence between them felt heavier than the smoke.
Elena spoke first, her voice low."They never meant for you to find this."
Adrian's eyes didn't leave the screen."Then they shouldn't have written my name on it."
She took a step closer, lowering her tone. "Adrian… the program wasn't just about resurrection. It was replication — rebuilding memory through artificial reconstruction. You weren't revived. You were recreated."
He turned to her, disbelief cutting through his anger."You're saying I'm not even me?"
"You're part of him," she said softly. "They used your father's neural data, combined with your genetic code. You were their experiment to continue what Raymond Vance started — a mind that couldn't die."
He laughed bitterly. "Congratulations to them. It worked."
Before she could reply, the remaining servers flickered again. The last surviving monitor displayed lines of code, moving fast — too fast for human input.
Elena frowned. "That's not me."
Adrian stepped closer. "Then who's accessing it?"
A synthesized voice filled the room, distorted yet hauntingly human:
"Welcome back, Subject V. Neural synchronization complete."
Elena froze. "No… that can't be possible."
The lights dimmed. One by one, the servers powered down, until only the central core glowed faintly red. The same voice continued:
"Phase 4 – Activation commencing. Nadir Protocol online."
Adrian's pulse spiked. "What does that mean?"
She turned to him sharply. "It means the program's self-awareness just triggered. Nadir wasn't a system—it was a sentient intelligence. Your father built it to merge human consciousness with machine adaptability."
"And now it's awake."
A deep, resonant hum filled the room. The air grew heavy, static crawling across their skin.The red glow began to pulse, almost like a heartbeat.
Elena grabbed Adrian's wrist. "We have to leave. Now."
They sprinted toward the exit, dodging falling cables and shards of glass. The floor vibrated beneath them as power surged through the underground grid.
Behind them, the red glow expanded — forming the faint silhouette of a human figure inside the mainframe light.
"Do not run," the voice said calmly. "You are incomplete, Adrian Vance. Return to synchronization."
He didn't look back. "Not a chance."
They burst through the exit door, alarms screaming as lockdown protocols engaged. Metal shutters slammed down behind them, trapping the glowing entity inside.
Elena leaned against the wall, catching her breath. "We've just awakened something that doesn't want to stay asleep."
Adrian looked at her, eyes steady despite the chaos."Then we end it before it learns what it really is."
Elena shook her head slowly. "You don't understand. You are part of it."
His jaw clenched. "Then I guess I'll be the one to shut it down."