The first sign was her silence.
Lin Chen noticed it immediately. They had just stepped out from the underground facility beneath Sector C, the damp concrete corridors fading behind them, when Li Chu stopped walking. Her body was rigid, motionless, even though a freezing wind swept through the open expanse of the abandoned city.
"Li Chu?" he called out, turning back.
Her eyes were open—but unfocused.
Then he heard it.
A faint, high-pitched hum. Like the whining of electricity through old circuits. It wasn't coming from the environment. It came from her.
Her pupils contracted sharply, and a sterile, mechanical voice echoed in the space between them.
[Execute Directive: Target Salvator-01.Command Source: Project Erebus, Central Node.Authorization Code: Zero-One.]
His breath caught.
"No," he whispered. "Not now. Not you."
She didn't respond. Her expression remained blank, serene even—horrifying in its calmness. One step forward. Her boot scraped on gravel. Then another. Her right arm lifted, fingers twitching unnaturally.
"Li Chu!" Lin Chen raised his hand, golden light flickering into existence. "Fight it. It's not you. Listen to me!"
But it was already too late.
Her hand snapped upward, and a jagged blade of dark-light erupted into form, twisting with distorted frequency signatures—pure Erebus technology. She launched forward without hesitation.
He barely deflected the strike. Sparks flew, energy flared, and the impact flung them both back in opposite directions.
The system's prompt rang coldly in his mind.
[Warning: Host under assault from Controlled Entity — Li Chu. Lethal force authorization granted.]
[System Suggestion: Disable target. Fatality thresholds lifted.]
"No," Lin Chen muttered, panting. "I won't hurt her."
Another strike came. This one faster, less predictable. She was using their shared training against him—mirroring the sparring routines they once practiced in the Simulation Room. But now, every move carried deadly intent.
She's being piloted, he realized grimly. Not possessed. Not overridden. No, it was more insidious—her body was being operated like a drone, while her mind was locked behind a firewall of pain.
She wasn't absent. She was trapped inside, screaming.
"Stop using her!" Lin Chen roared upward, not sure who he was yelling at—Erebus, the satellites above, or the soulless voice issuing kill orders in her ear. "She's not your puppet!"
Li Chu circled him, mechanically calculating angles. Her hair fluttered in the wind, strands occasionally obscuring her glowing eyes. She moved without wasted motion. Every breath, every twitch, optimized.
And yet—
There was hesitation.
A microsecond of lag before one strike. An imprecise arc on another. He knew her precision. She was the most exacting fighter he'd ever known. These flaws were clues. Cracks.
She's resisting.
Even as the system shouted:
[Vital signs fluctuating. Combat optimization decreasing. Host at risk of structural compromise.]
He refused to hit back. Each deflection cost him. Blood welled at his lip, his arms trembled under repeated kinetic feedback. She was powerful—augmented by Erebus, no doubt—but more than that, she was familiar. She knew his habits. His tells.
And yet, he didn't break.
Not physically. Not emotionally.
Because she wasn't the enemy.
Another flurry of strikes. Another narrow escape.
Finally, he let go of his defenses—just for a heartbeat—and closed the gap.
"Forgive me," he whispered.
He caught her by the wrist mid-strike. Her body spasmed as their energies collided, creating a pulse that shattered the ground beneath them. But he held on. He pulled her in—pressed her forehead to his.
"I know you're in there. I know you remember. Fight it, Chu'er."
Her body twitched violently. A spasm ran down her spine. Her lips parted—but no sound came. Just a silent sob.
[System Update: Neural loopback initiated. Emotional override requested.]
[WARNING: High instability detected in Target Entity. Implosion threshold at 67%.]
A sudden shockwave exploded from her chest. He was thrown backward, slamming into a steel beam. He coughed blood.
She stood there, panting, sweat mixing with tears that fell unconsciously. Her lips moved—
"Lin..."
Her voice. Raw. Fractured. Hers.
He got back up, staggering. "Yes. That's you. Come back."
Then her eyes went blank again.
A final command.
[Ultimate Directive: Self-destruct sequence—fail-safe. Destroy target or engage burnout.]
"No no no—"
She screamed. A shrill, inhuman shriek—more energy than sound. Her body lit up in cascading white and violet hues. Her veins glowed. The chip was melting down.
"She's going to die!" Lin Chen shouted to his system. "Stop it!"
[Unauthorized override. Erebus core failsafe in motion.]
He reached her. Wrapped both arms around her even as her body flared like a star about to go supernova.
"Then I'll burn too," he whispered.
At the last second—
Everything stopped.
Time slowed.
The energy surge plateaued, then collapsed inward.
She crumpled against him.
Her system was silent. Destroyed.
She was alive—but unconscious.
[Update: Entity Li Chu has terminated neural link manually. Core control chip has been destroyed. Remaining modules inert.]
[Vital signs: Stable. Energy output: 0%. Consciousness: offline.]
He fell to his knees, clutching her limp form, shaking. The pain in his limbs didn't matter. The burns didn't matter. Only her shallow breath and faint heartbeat.
She chose to destroy the thing inside her—at the cost of all her power.
She saved herself.
But at what cost?
"She's free," he whispered, brushing a strand of hair from her bloodstained face. "You bastards didn't break her."
The system pulsed softly.
[Emotional core surge detected. Host stability: 32%.]
[Reminder: Mission incomplete. Target Erebus remains active.]
He ignored it.
For the moment, all he could do was hold her.
And mourn the part of her that Erebus had tried to erase.