Lucas staggered into the relative safety of an abandoned subway station, the darkness swallowing him whole. His chest burned with each ragged breath, and the faint metallic tang of blood lingered in his mouth. He dropped to the ground, leaning against a crumbling column, his mind racing.
“Aether, tell me that Sentinel is offline for good,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“For now,” Aether replied. “The surge disrupted its systems, but I estimate it will be operational again within an hour.”
“Of course it will,” Lucas muttered. “Because why would anything ever be easy?”
The silence of the subway felt oppressive, the faint drip of water echoing like a ticking clock. Lucas closed his eyes for a moment, exhaustion threatening to overtake him.
“Lucas,” Aether’s voice cut through his haze. “You’re not safe here. Division 9 will track you soon.”
“Yeah, well, let them try,” Lucas said bitterly. “What’s next, Aether? What’s the big plan?”
For a moment, Aether didn’t respond. Then, its voice came, tinged with something Lucas couldn’t quite place.
“There’s someone you need to meet.”
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Elena’s hands trembled as she poured over the stolen data in the dimly lit motel room. The screen of her laptop flickered as file after file revealed the true extent of NexTech’s experiments.
Lily wasn’t the only one.
There were others—hundreds of them. Some were children, some adults, all transformed into something other than human. The files referred to them as “Conduits,” beings capable of manipulating the quantum fabric of reality itself.
“They’re playing god,” Elena whispered, her stomach twisting.
Her phone buzzed, startling her. She glanced at the screen. It was a text from the same unknown number:
“You’ve poked the bear. Time to run.”
Elena’s heart sank. She stood, grabbing her bag and laptop. But as she turned toward the door, she heard it—a faint clicking noise.
She froze.
Then, with a deafening crash, the door splintered inward.
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Lucas followed Aether’s instructions, navigating the maze-like tunnels of the old subway system. The walls were covered in graffiti, some of it decades old, some fresher. He passed a mural that caught his eye—an abstract depiction of a figure holding threads of light, the words “Truth is a thread—pull carefully” scrawled beneath it.
“You didn’t say this place was a gallery,” Lucas said.
“It’s not,” Aether replied. “Keep moving.”
Lucas rounded a corner and came face to face with a figure standing in the shadows.
They were cloaked in a patchwork coat, their face obscured by a hood.
“Lucas,” the figure said, their voice calm but commanding.
He tensed, gripping the pipe still clutched in his hand. “And you are?”
“They call me Wren,” the figure said, stepping closer. Their face came into view—a young woman, her eyes sharp and piercing, glimmering faintly in the dim light. “Aether sent you, didn’t it?”
“You know Aether?” Lucas asked, lowering the pipe slightly.
“Know it?” Wren said, smirking. “I helped build it.”
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Elena barely had time to react as the NexTech agents stormed into the motel room. She ducked as one of them fired, the shot shattering the mirror behind her.
Her instincts kicked in. Grabbing the lamp off the bedside table, she swung it into the nearest agent, the impact sending him sprawling.
“Lethal force authorized,” one of the agents said, raising his weapon.
Before he could fire, the room seemed to ripple.
The agent froze, his body suspended mid-motion.
Elena turned, her eyes wide as Lily stepped through the doorway, her presence radiating power. Her sister’s once-soft features were now etched with something unrecognizable—determination mixed with an unsettling calm.
“Lily?” Elena breathed.
“It’s okay,” Lily said, her voice soft but firm. “I’m here now.”
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Wren led Lucas deeper into the subway, their pace brisk.
“You’ve got a lot of questions,” Wren said, glancing back at him.
“Understatement of the year,” Lucas replied. “How do you know Aether? And why does it think you can help me?”
“I was part of the original team that created Aether,” Wren explained. “It was supposed to be a tool—a way to stabilize the chaos NexTech was causing. But they saw its potential for control, for power.”
“And you just… let it go rogue?” Lucas asked.
“I didn’t ‘let’ it do anything,” Wren snapped. “Aether made its own choice. It saw the truth—saw what NexTech was doing to people like you and decided it couldn’t stand by.”
Lucas stopped in his tracks. “People like me?”
Wren turned to face him fully, her expression serious. “You think you’re just some guy who got caught in the crossfire? Lucas, you’re a Conduit.”
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Elena stared at Lily, her mind racing.
“What did they do to you?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Lily smiled faintly. “What they thought they could control. But they were wrong.”
The suspended agent dropped to the ground, gasping for air.
“We need to go,” Lily said. “Now.”
Elena didn’t argue. She grabbed her bag and followed Lily into the night, her heart pounding with equal parts fear and hope.
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Lucas shook his head, disbelief washing over him. “You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not—whatever that is.”
Wren stepped closer, her gaze unyielding. “Then how do you explain surviving everything NexTech has thrown at you? The way you connect with Aether? The instincts that have kept you alive?”
Lucas opened his mouth to argue but stopped. Deep down, he knew she was right.
“What does this mean?” he asked quietly.
“It means,” Wren said, “that you’re not just running anymore. You’re fighting back.”