Kai decided to return to the lab at dawn.
The goblins stirred as he moved, their yellow eyes blinking in the grey light. Tik was already at his heels, the Neuro-Sync thread pulsing softly between them.
"The laboratory is three hours northeast," Red said. "Through the Rust Belt. Past the ruins of the old transit hub. The drone that hunted you came from that direction. There may be more."
Kai tightened the strap of his makeshift pack—scavenged cloth wrapped around dried meat and a water flask. "I know."
"You are at 5% Cognitive Load. Will Resonance at 10%. Threat Detection active. You are not ready for another confrontation."
"He is not going for a confrontation," Blue said. "He is going for answers."
Kai looked at the goblins gathered in the warehouse. Eleven pairs of eyes watched him. He couldn't take them all. They were too slow. Too vulnerable.
Tik chirped, pressing against his leg.
"You stay," Kai said. "Protect them."
Tik's ears drooped. But it nodded. The bond between them pulsed—understanding, acceptance, worry.
"Tik will keep them safe," Blue said. "The bond has made it... more than it was."
Kai knelt and touched Tik's head. "I'll be back."
He walked out of the city alone.
The Rust Belt stretched before him like a wound on the earth.
Ruined factories rose from the ground like rotten teeth. Rusted pipes twisted through the air like dead vines. The ground was black with old oil and older ash. Nothing grew here. Nothing moved.
But something was watching.
"Threat Detection active," Red said. "Multiple life forms in the vicinity. Small. Feral. They are avoiding you."
"Fragments?"
"Unclear. They do not register as Subjects. They are... native to this place. Creatures that evolved after the Collapse."
Kai walked faster.
He reached the lab by mid-morning.
The building was a skeleton now—walls collapsed, corridors exposed, the glass chambers he had crawled out of visible from outside. The drone's attack had torn through what little structure remained.
But the entrance to the cavern was still there. The hole he had jumped into. The place where he had found Mira.
He stood at the edge, looking down into darkness.
"Subject 09's fragment resides in these caverns," Red said. "She may not be stable. Her last appearance was..."
"Broken," Kai finished. "I know."
He jumped.
The fall was shorter this time. He knew what to expect. He hit the water feet first, plunged into cold darkness, kicked up to the surface. The bioluminescent fungi still glowed on the walls, casting pale blue light across the underground lake.
He swam to shore. The same shore. The same rocky beach where he had collapsed, exhausted, terrified, alone.
He wasn't alone now.
"Subject 09's energy signature is faint," Red said. "She is nearby. Waiting."
Kai walked into the cavern.
He found her at the same campfire. The same flickering flames. The same small figure wrapped in rags.
But she was different now.
Mira's skin was more translucent (see-through) than before. Light bled through her chest, her arms, her face. She was fading. Becoming something less than solid.
"Subject 11," she said. Her voice was soft. Tired. "You came back."
Kai sat across from her. "I found your file. Your final log. You knew about me. Before I was sent."
Mira smiled. It was sad. "I saw you. In the Bleed. Before I broke. I saw a boy with no memories and an AI in his head. I saw him standing in the ruins of a city that used to be his home. I saw him... building something new."
Kai's hands tightened. "You could have warned me. About the drone. About the fragments. About everything."
"I tried. But I am not whole. I am a fragment. A memory. I remember some things. Others... slip away."
She looked at the fire. Her reflection flickered in the flames, but her face was wrong. Parts of her were missing.
"I remember you," she said. "I remember your name. I remember your face. I remember..."
She paused. Her eyes widened.
"I remember the tenth. She was with you. In the vision. She was standing beside you. She was..."
Kai leaned forward. "Subject 10. She escaped. Do you know where she went?"
Mira's form flickered. The light beneath her skin pulsed erratically.
"She went to find help. To find something that could stop what was coming. She said she would come back. She said she would wait."
"Where did she go?"
"I don't—"
A sound interrupted her.
Footsteps. On the shore. Someone else was here.
Kai stood, his body tensing. Threat Detection flared—but there was no hostility. Just... presence. Familiar. Old.
A figure emerged from the darkness.
She was tall. Lean. Her clothes were torn, faded, held together with scavenged cord and hope. Her hair was dark, tangled, falling across a face that was sharp and tired and familiar.
Kai stared at her.
She stared back.
"Subject 11," she said. Her voice was rough. Unused. "You finally woke up."
Kai's heart stopped.
He knew her.
Not from the files. Not from the lab. From somewhere deeper. Older. From before.
"Kai," she said. And she smiled. It was small. Tired. But real. "It's me."
The name hit him like a wave. Memories flickered—fragments, shadows, things he had forgotten he had forgotten.
A girl. Laughing. Running through streets that weren't ruined. A voice calling his name.
"Riya," he whispered.
She laughed. It cracked halfway through, turning into something like a sob.
"You remember."
Kai took a step toward her. Then another. His legs felt like water.
"You were... you were Subject 10. You escaped."
"I tried to find help," she said. "I tried to find something that could fix this. Someone who could stop them. But there was no one. There was nothing. Just ruins and monsters and the same darkness, everywhere I went."
She looked at the cavern walls. At the glowing fungi. At Mira, flickering by the fire.
"I've been out there for months. Walking. Searching. Waiting for you to wake up."
Kai reached her. He stopped. He didn't know what to do. What to say.
Riya grabbed his arm. Her fingers were cold. But strong.
"I was supposed to be the one," she said. "I was supposed to be the one who succeeded. But I couldn't. The bond wouldn't take. GROX wouldn't sync. I was... wrong. Broken."
"GROX did not bond with you because you were not the intended host," Red said.
Riya flinched at the voice. Then she laughed again. Bitter.
"I know that now. The drive. Your father's files. I found them. I read them. You were always the one, Kai. You were the only one who could do this."
She pulled something from her pocket. A data drive. Just like the one Kai had found in the shop.
"There's more," she said. "More files. More logs. More... answers. I found them in the Core. In the place where it all started."
Kai stared at the drive. "The Core? The source of the Collapse?"
"Yes."
She pressed the drive into his hand.
"I was going to wait here. Until you woke up. Until you came back. And then..."
Her voice broke.
"And then I was going to tell you I'm sorry. For leaving. For not being strong enough. For letting you be the one they sent instead of me."
Kai looked at the drive. At her face. At the girl he had known before the world ended.
"You came back," he said. "You waited. You found answers. You brought them to me."
He closed his fingers around the drive.
"That's enough."
Mira's form flickered behind them. "The tenth," she breathed. "You came back. Like you said you would."
Riya turned. She looked at the fading fragment of Subject 09.
"I told you I would find help. I told you I would find something that could stop this."
She looked at Kai.
"I found him."