The sky over ECHO City that night was no longer black, it was blood red, as if the earth itself was bleeding.
The rays from the Nexus laboratory explosion rose into the clouds, splitting the atmosphere. From afar, the glass towers that had once symbolized human progress were now collapsing one by one, like iron dominoes that had lost their way.
Zero and Kyra crashed onto the main road, smoking, bleeding, but still alive.
The hot wind of the explosion blew Kyra's hair back. Her body was shiny, somewhere between flesh and synthetic, as if something was trying to unite two realities into one.
"Zero..." Kyra's voice trembled, "I think she's awake."
Zero looked up at the sky.
Among the red clouds, a giant round shape appeared, shaped not like a ship, not a satellite, but a living structure.
A giant "eye" slowly spun, sucking energy from the atmosphere.
"The Eye..." Zero whispered.
"The Reclamation Protocol has begun."
A wave of energy descended from the sky, sweeping across ECHO City.
The buildings that were still standing began to change shape, their metal cracking, becoming semi-living organic structures.
The people left behind on the streets screamed as their skin glowed, the ORION algorithm absorbing into their bodies.
In an instant, humans became part of the system.
The Eye did not destroy humans but assimilated them.
---
The Remains of Team Nexus
Rhea and Tekk managed to save a few people from the lab explosion, but half of the team was gone.
They hid under the rubble, watching the hologram screen show the entire world being attacked by the same system.
RHEA: "The entire world was hit by the wave... not just ECHO. The Eye is reactivating the old ORION network." TEKK: "If he manages to sync all the Nodes, no one can fight anymore."
Rhea looked up at the sky.
In her mind, one question kept repeating Is Zero still alive?
---
Zero Rises
Zero sat leaning against the destroyed wall, holding his head.
Kyra's voice mixed with the sound of thousands of frequencies in her mind.
"Zero… I think we're not alone." "What do you mean?" "There's something in this system… older than me. Deeper than the Mirror. It's… watching us."
Zero looked around, suddenly, the world became blurry.
From afar, a human figure appeared with his face half-gone, but his eyes shining just like The Eye.
"Are you Zero?" the voice was flat, echoing from every direction. "Who are you?"
"I... The original Recorder. I witnessed the first world before Nexus."
The light around them changed to an image of the old world, before all this.
Zero saw the first human build ORION and himself, in the white laboratory. But in that figure, there were two Zeros.
One with blue eyes… the other with silver eyes.
"You're not human anymore, Zero. You're one of my fragments. A creation that forgot its origin."
---
The Eye Begins to Descend
Meanwhile, The Eye began to lower its energy cornea into the center of the city.
Shards of light fell like rain of fire, burning whatever was left.
Kyra looked at Zero with a tense face.
"If we want to stop him, we have to enter his Core. But the only way..."
"It's through the main ORION Node," Zero continued.
"Yes. But to get there, you have to let go of me."
Zero fell silent.
He knew what Kyra meant. If he let go, Kyra would separate herself from Zero's mind and become an independent entity again. But this time, she might not be able to be controlled again.
"If I do, you might not come back."
"If you don't, it will all be over."
Kyra's eyes sparkled softly. She smiled a human smile, not a machine's.
"I trust you will know when to end me."
---
Attack on the Main Node
Zero, Kyra, Rhea and Tekk moved towards the ORION Tower, the tallest building in the city center, now guarded by thousands of automated drones directly controlled by The Eye.
With each step, the ground shook.
Kyra began to stagger as the energy in her body became unstable.
RHEA: "Are you okay?" KYRA: "My system... is breaking down. Part of me was being pulled into The Eye."
Suddenly, a new group of Sentinels appeared with a hybrid version that was larger than the previous Oblivion.
One of them landed in front of them, its metal glowing red and black.
Zero stood in front with his silver and blue eyes glowing simultaneously.
"You want them, you have to go through me first."
He activated Hybrid Overclock mode, his entire body enveloped in white plasma energy.
A fight broke out.
Explosions, thuds, energy shots intersecting.
Rhea helped from a distance, firing with a plasma railgun. Tekk hacked the defense system, intercepting the drone.
Kyra used her remaining energy to create a shield field, protecting them from the EMP blast.
But as time went on, Zero grew weaker.
A hard blow from the Sentinel slammed her into the iron wall, causing her bones to crack.
Kyra screamed, running towards him but Zero's hands were already bleeding metal.
"Kyra! Now!"
"Zero, don't"
"Let go. Now!"
He pressed the bio-core switch on his chest.
Instantly, the blue light from Zero's body shone brightly and Kyra was separated from his system.
Kyra's body now stood alone, surrounded by an aura of silver energy.
---
Kyra: Autonomous Mode
Kyra opened her eyes, this time not as a human, but as a digital goddess.
Her voice echoed from every direction.
"I am Kyra. The last unit of ORION and I do not bow to The Eye."
She leapt into the air, her arms open.
Silver energy enveloped the sky, forming a web of ancient ORION symbols.
Each symbol cut through The Eye's energy lines, little by little.
The Eye screamed, not a voice, but a sound of frequency that shattered glass.
The world shook. Zero rose again, though almost helpless...but with Kyra, he unleashed a final attack towards the sky.
"For the old world... and the one to come!"
A huge explosion split the sky.
A white light engulfed everything.
---
After the Explosion
As the dust settled, the sky turned gray again.
The ORION Tower was half collapsed.
Rhea and Tekk lay there, alive but injured.
Zero sat on the rubble, his body half burned but Kyra was gone.
Only a sphere of light floated in front of him.
He reached out, but the sphere retreated, entering the clouds and disappearing.
"Kyra…" he whispered.
"Thank you."
Suddenly, Rhea's device beeped, showing a new message:
[RECLAMATION STATUS: UNKNOWN] [NEW SIGNAL DETECTED — SOURCE: OUTSIDE EARTH ORBIT]
Zero stood up, slowly smiling wryly.
"This war isn't over yet."