The city grid should've been stable.
It wasn't.
Phineas felt it first — a microscopic delay in the traffic lights cycling. A hiccup in the streetlamp timing. A skip in the municipal heartbeat.
Alex felt it second — a cold crawl at the base of his spine, like someone tracing a finger along nerves that weren't supposed to exist.
Kayden felt it last — not because he was slow, but because something waited for him to notice.
A soft vibration rippled through the rooftop steel beneath them.
Phineas froze mid-step."Kayden… the city grid just desynced by point-four seconds."
Kayden turned."Is that bad?"
Phineas swallowed.
"Point-four isn't an error."His voice dropped."It's a command."
APEX flickered violently as if agreeing.
"Grid anomaly detected.Source… masked.Pattern matches no SRD behavior."
Alex hugged himself."Then who's doing it? Who even CAN do that?!"
As if responding to Alex directly, the street below them lit up—
Not normally.Not gradually.
But in a perfect sequence, one block at a time, like a path being drawn with light.
Left.Left.Straight.Right.Then a final intersection glowing a faint blue the city didn't have bulbs for.
Kayden felt his heartbeat slow.Not in fear — in recognition.
Not memory.Instinct.
As though the path wasn't new…but familiar.
"APEX," he said quietly. "What is that?"
The system pulsed like a trembling animal trying to speak.
"Directive… pattern.Guidance vector.Designation… Citadel-tier influence."
Phineas's head snapped toward him.
"The Citadel is controlling the grid?! Why? They could've frozen the city— why just highlight a path?"
Alex's voice broke."Are they… helping us? Or trapping us?"
APEX answered before Kayden could.
"Not help.Not trap.Direction."
Kayden stared at the glowing path stretching into the maze of concrete below.
"Why would they direct us?" Kayden whispered.
But deep down… he already knew.
Because they didn't want SRD to capture him first.
Because they wanted something from him.
Because he was no longer just a fugitive.
He was a Candidate.
Phineas typed rapidly, eyes narrowing with rising dread."The path ends near an SRD dead zone — an area SRD deliberately avoids scanning. Why? Because they don't own it."
Alex blinked."Meaning…?"
Phineas looked up, jaw tight.
"Meaning the Citadel wants to talk to you."
APEX flared again, code trembling at the edges:
"WARNING:Unknown relay attempting soft-link with system core.Signature: Ascendant Citadel."
Kayden felt the world tilt.Stillness pressed around him like a hand closing over water.
Then—
A new message slid across his vision, written in the same cold font as before:
PROCEED.STAY WITHIN THE LIGHTED VECTOR.WE WILL INTERCEPT YOU BEFORE SRD DOES.
Alex stumbled back."Oh no. No no no no— Kayden, this is BAD. This is VERY BAD. When in history has a mysterious mega-organization telling someone 'follow the glowing path' EVER been good?!"
Phineas rubbed his face."He's not wrong. Narratively, this is horrific."
But Kayden wasn't afraid.
He stepped closer to the edge of the rooftop, watching the lit path like a silent river of electricity cutting through the dark.
He felt eyes on him.
Not SRD eyes.Not APEX.Not the anomaly.
Something bigger.Higher.Older in authority.
A voice — not audible, but threaded through the grid itself — reached him like a whisper behind the walls of the world.
"Variable."
Kayden stiffened.
The voice wasn't hostile.
It was… evaluating.
Measuring.
"Kayden?" Alex whispered. "What did you hear?"
Kayden didn't answer right away.
He raised his hand, closing his fingers slowly, like gripping the air around the word.
Then he spoke:
"They're not asking."
A beat of silence.
He turned to the others with the calm of someone stepping into a storm he finally recognized.
"They're ordering."
Phineas exhaled shakily."Then what do we do?"
Kayden looked at the glowing path.
At the city bowing to a will above SRD.
At the revelation he could no longer run from.
And he said:
"We follow it."
Alex choked."WHAT?! Kayden—"
But Kayden didn't raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
"If they wanted us dead, they'd have shut down the entire grid."
His eyes narrowed.
"This is intentional.They want to intercept us before Hale can.Before SRD can.Before the anomaly interferes again."
Phineas stared at him — analyzing, calculating, understanding.
Alex looked at him — scared, trusting, breaking open emotionally as he always did.
Kayden stepped off the rooftop.
Not jumping.
Descending the ladder like someone walking into destiny rather than running from danger.
APEX dimmed, then whispered a single line into his mind:
"Commander… your initiation is accelerating."
Kayden didn't flinch.
He just whispered back:
"Then let it."
The three of them followed the Citadel's path into the dark.
And the city obeyed.