The hovercar screamed through Virelia's midnight veins, engines humming low and angry as snow slammed against the windshield like shards of glass. Neon signs blurred into streaks of color—red, blue, violet—bleeding together in the storm.
Elaris Vein's hands locked around the steering wheel.
Knuckles white.Pulse wild.
Her breath came in sharp bursts, fogging the glass before the defogger auto-corrected. A thin line of blood traced from the corner of her lip, warm against frozen skin. She didn't wipe it away.
Pain kept her grounded.
Behind her, somewhere in the storm, Kael Dravien was moving.
She didn't need eyes to know that. Her circuits felt him—like a shadow stitched into her signal, too close, too aware.
"Focus," she muttered.
The road dipped sharply, the car banking left as she slid into a lower sector. Old industrial towers rose on either side, skeletal and dark, their windows dead except for occasional flickers of hidden life.
Her comm buzzed.
Xyren's voice cut through the static—calm, precise, controlled.
"Sector Three. Seven minutes until intercept. Tunnel Five remains optimal."
She exhaled slowly.
"Copy."
A pause.
Then, softer—almost human.
"Apply pressure to the bleeding site."
She pressed her sleeve to her lip, jaw tightening.
"He wasn't supposed to do that," she said suddenly.
The snowstorm swallowed her words, but Xyren heard them anyway.
"Kiss probability was statistically low," he replied. "Impact: severe."
Her grip tightened.
"He looked at me like he already knew me," she whispered. "Like I wasn't a stranger."
Silence crackled on the line.
"That is not possible," Xyren said finally. "You were erased."
Elaris swallowed.
"Then why did it feel like… memory?"
The road ahead split—upper neon lanes flashing with traffic, lower tunnel entrances dark and half-forgotten. She swerved downward, tires skidding briefly before stabilizers kicked in.
Snow gave way to shadow.
The tunnel swallowed her whole.
Lights flickered on as she entered, old sodium lamps buzzing weakly, illuminating cracked walls layered with ancient advertisements and graffiti written in half-dead languages.
Her dashboard lit up.
WARNING: EXTERNAL SIGNAL DETECTED
Her breath hitched.
"Xyren," she said sharply. "Something's wrong."
"I see it," he replied instantly. "Do not slow down."
The tunnel lights began to flicker—three flashes.
Pause.
Two flashes.
Her heart stuttered.
She knew that code.
It wasn't city tech.It wasn't Xyren.
It was old.Personal.
Her fingers trembled on the wheel.
"Three–pause–two," she whispered. "That's not possible."
Xyren's voice sharpened.
"Elaris. Identify."
Her implants pulsed, trying to suppress the recognition flooding her neural net.
"That's a dead-drop warning," she said. "From before the purge. Before I was supposed to be alive."
Silence.
Then—another flicker of the lights.
Three. Pause. Two.
A chill slid down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
"Who else knows I'm alive?" she asked quietly.
Xyren did not answer immediately.
His systems were busy—too busy.
She could feel it. Traffic reroutes spiked. Surveillance feeds went dark in clusters. Someone else was touching the city.
Not Kael.
Older.
The tunnel curved sharply. Ahead, a shape emerged through the falling snow—black, sleek, moving fast.
Her rear sensors screamed.
PURSUIT DETECTED
She slammed the accelerator.
The hovercar surged forward, engines howling as energy shields flared to life. Behind her, headlights cut through the snow like predatory eyes.
Kael.
Her chest tightened.
"He found me," she whispered.
"No," Xyren replied, voice tight. "He followed you."
A gunshot cracked through the tunnel.
The rear shield flared, absorbing the impact, but the force jolted the car violently. Elaris cried out as she fought the wheel, barely keeping control.
Another shot.
Closer.
She glanced in the mirror.
Kael's car was gaining.
Snow streamed around him, his silhouette steady, unshaken. One hand on the wheel. The other raised—calm, precise, relentless.
"He's insane," she breathed.
"He's obsessed," Xyren corrected.
Her dashboard flashed again.
WARNING CODE: 3–PAUSE–2
This time, it wasn't the lights.
It was inside her head.
Her vision blurred for half a second, memories threatening to surface—fire, glass, a wing breaking, a scream that might have been hers.
She gasped.
"Xyren—"
"I'm stabilizing you," he said urgently. "Do not let the memory in."
She bit down hard, tasting blood, forcing herself back into the present.
The tunnel exit loomed ahead—light spilling in, snow swirling violently beyond it.
"On my mark," Xyren said. "Veer left. Now."
She turned sharply.
The car slid, sparks screaming as metal scraped concrete. Kael's car overshot by inches, momentum carrying him forward as she vanished down a side ramp barely wide enough to register.
The tunnel collapsed behind her—controlled demolition. Dust and snow swallowed the pursuit.
Silence.
Only the hum of her engine remained.
Elaris slowed at last, pulling into the shadows beneath an abandoned skybridge. Her breath shook as adrenaline drained from her body.
She rested her forehead against the wheel.
"I'm not safe," she whispered.
"No," Xyren said quietly. "You're not."
A beat.
"But you're still free."
High above, on the other side of the rubble, Kael Dravien stepped from his car, snow settling on his shoulders like ash. He stared at the collapsed tunnel, jaw tight, eyes burning.
Three flashes.
Pause.
Two flashes.
His lips curved slowly.
"She remembers," he murmured.
Far away, unseen by both of them, a signal pulsed once more—ancient, patient, watching.
The game was no longer a chase.
It was a recall.