Past the lobby section, Sanctum didn't look like a clinic.
It looked like what a hospital should be; clean, warm-lit, quietly alive. There was the low comfort of human voices doing human things.
Vann moved with quiet purpose, guiding them through a curved corridor lined with reinforced glass. One side revealed the old metro rails that were now filled with hydroponics, medical drones, and sleeping stations; the other looked inward, toward triage units and repurposed med bays.
"Wing Three's clear," Vann said, gesturing to an open section. "They'll be safe here. Anyone tries to follow them in, we'll know before they blink."
He flagged a nearby nurse with a nod of shared understanding.
The intake nurse stepped forward, her voice soft but certain. "Vitals will be checked. No one's taking them again."
She didn't ask Kael who he was. Kael kept one hand on Rika's shoulder as the girls were guided away. The girls moved along quietly besides them a little dazed, but not resisting. One of them glanced back. Kael nodded, steady.
Vann turned to her. "We've got a space for you too. Two corridors down. It's yours until you say otherwise."
Rika looked like she wanted to argue, but then her expression cracked just slightly, exhaustion finally pulling through.
"Thanks," she said, starting to follow Vann down the corridor. Kael didn't follow them. She needed rest.
Minutes Later:
Kael stood near the wide observation pane that overlooked Sanctum's heart; a sprawling circular atrium beneath the city. Below, lives were being stitched back together, piece by piece.
Then his HUD pulsed.
Cool blue text scrolled in clean layers across his vision.
[SUBSTRATE: SYSTEM ALERT]
Probationary assessment complete.
You exceeded performance thresholds during your assigned objective and demonstrated adaptability under extreme personal stress.
Hostile neutralization of a Level 5 brute confirms tactical escalation capacity under duress.
Designation: Substrate Agent — SANCTIONED
Access to COREPOINT granted.
Coordinates to HELIX ASCEND uploaded.
Proceed when ready.
"Helix?" He said to himself as he turned to see Vann coming back down the corridor.
"She'll be fine. Just minor cuts and bruises." Vann said as he approached. "The person you need to meet is in the Deep."
He motioned for Kael to follow. They walked until they reached a narrow entry sealed by a reinforced vault door without a keypad. Instead, there was a flat circular panel that Vann placed his hand on and spoke.
"Protocol Eve. Two guests. One trusted; one watched."
The door split down the middle revealing a low lit ops chamber that looked more military related than medical. Screens hung from the ceiling like lanterns flickering with scattered data involving gang movements, comm longs, and overlays of the city's broken transit grid.
At the far end stood a caliber of woman that Kael didn't think he'd ever seen in his life. She wore an extremely unique set of matte white armor with lavender highlights that seemed to glow and change color variation on its own. Like a pearl. Her whole right arm was bionic; some type of elegant reinforced gold. She immediately reminded him of the agent he witnessed destroy the kill squad in THE DEN. She looked lethal and highly intelligent. When their eyes locked, it was like she saw everything he was and could be.
"Agent Strade," she said.
Her voice was rich and harmonically tuned. It had to be one of the higher Sovereign upgrades designed to disarm. Kael immediately felt comfortable and welcomed. As she stepped forward, he caught the subdermal arc spanning behind her skull, pulsing like an orbit. Her right arm gleamed.
"I'm Selene. Corepoint Liaison. Former Tier One Strategist, Sovereign Genesis Wave."
Kael stood straighter and she noticed.
"Relax," she said. "I'm not your handler."
He studied her elegantly modified body and armor. "If you left Sovereign, how do you still have all of this? The gear and implants. That surgical array is on your arm is unlike anything I've ever seen."
She answered him truthfully, "Because I'm the only agent Sovereign ever let keep it."
Kael's brow tightened. "Sovereign said the first thing that would happen if I leave is all modifications would be immediately decommissioned."
She walked to the table placing her bionic arm on the edge gently. Its surface momentarily gleamed with Sovereign's legacy crest.
"Sovereign doesn't view me as a defection. It saw me as a branch. It calculates outcomes and projects futures." She looked back at him, gold irises glowing softly.
"I've become more valuable to Sovereign here than in the field. It knows how to win the war. I make sure the people survive the peace that follows."
She walked over to pick up a neural interface. "You've seen Sovereign's mission and weapons. I'm going to show you why."
Kael picked up the helmet. It was lighter than it looked and cool to the touch, like smooth glass. He lowered it onto his head and it sealed without a sound.
The world vanished.
[NEURAL INTERFACE – ACTIVE]
THE VISION: THE ECONOMY OF DEATH
Kael stood at the heart of New Vire, but it wasn't the city he knew. It had become a wasteland of ruin overrun by violence and hate. The city had long since collapsed into twisted skeletons of steel draped in black market banners. Drone wreckage littered the streets. The air shimmered with exhaust and barely breathable air.
Up above, glowing perfect and unreachable, was the Sky Cities. They were golden lit towers inside domes of magnetic fields, suspended high in the clouds. These were the homes of the corporate elite; less than 1% of the population.
They floated on the suffering beneath them, because embedded in the ruins were the Engines; Colossal mech-industrial generators 100 stories tall. They hissed and grinded with exposed gears, cooling vents, and toxic slush runoff. These were massive power furnaces designed to push raw output into the sky via atmospheric tether towers.
And trapped inside the engines were people.
It was a machine of death. Hundreds of workers moved through choking steam and exposed voltage lines. Some were fortunate enough to wear masks. Their skin was blistered. They resembled bones wrapped in skin. People collapsed mid-shift and were dragged aside. Others filled their place.
Kael watched in horror as some, with nothing but a terrible sadness in their eyes, simply jumped from the higher levels. No one tried to prevent them.
Selene's voice cut through the hellish scene like a surgical knife:
"Entry into the Engine grid is the only exchangeable act of worth."
Kael watched a line of children outside the intake zone waiting their turn.
Then his perspective ripped upward into the Sky Cities.
They had artificial sunlight that fed the residents nutrients. Their skin radiated in beauty and health. All of their food was Digitally grown; filled with nutrients and designed with specific amplified tastes. Their medical facilities healed any problem almost instantly, so there was no need for hospitals on a bigger scale. Everything was free to every resident.
It was powered by the world underneath.
"They know what powers their paradise. They believe the people below deserve it."
The vision froze and everything faded to grayscale.
Selene stood across from him, "This is what Sovereign exists to end. They will build heaven on our bodies, and they won't stop unless we make them."
The helmet lifted and Kael sat forward, still caught in the reality that awaited all of them. Selene let it resonate. Now he knew what was at stake. This wasn't a war for systemic control. It's a war for the right to breathe without permission.
"Sovereign didn't──"
"Sovereign showed you what you needed to know at the time," Selene responded, "This is a more extensive view of the wrath of corruption. You've seen the modern-day slums. We're already on our way. Something had to be done."
Kael still reeled from the vision. His pulse hadn't returned to normal. The images burned behind his eyes. He still saw the child waiting in line for her turn to die for someone else's electricity.
"Who…who created Sovereign?"
Selene didn't blink, like she expected the question. "No one knows."
Kael's brow furrowed. "You were there from the beginning, right?"
"I was one of the first agents, yes, but I wasn't the first contact. That list doesn't exist. Or if it does, it's buried under a thousand rewritten firewalls and dead satellites."
She turned slightly, eyes on the ceiling as if remembering something old. "All we know is that one day…someone received a package by drone. Inside was the headset; sleek and featureless. When they put it on, they didn't go blind. They saw for the first time. When they took it off, Sovereign gave them our code."
"What did it say?"
Selene looked at him. "Clarity. Purpose."
Kael sat with that a moment, already accepting the code. Then he stood. The helmet's weight lingered, but he no longer felt overwhelmed. He felt sharpened. He adjusted his coat, scanned the floating screens once more, then turned toward the exit.
"Thanks for the clarity," he said with his voice low.
Selene didn't answer him immediately. She watched him like a surgeon scanning before making an incision.
Then she spoke.
"Wait."
She stepped toward one of the sealed drawers built into the ops wall and keyed in a biometric sequence. It unlocked with a soft click, releasing a cool mist as it opened. From within, she retrieved two items. One was slim and translucent, no larger than a poker chip. It glowed faint blue in a looped design. She held it out to him.
"Vital Trace. It goes under your forearm. Left side. Three seconds of contact gives you full diagnostic—pulse, organ integrity, oxygen levels, trauma map. It won't save anyone, but it'll tell you who's worth saving."
Kael took it slowly. "You're just giving this to me?"
"No."
"I'm installing it."
Before he could respond, Selene was already walking toward him—coat brushing against her legs, her surgical sheath on her right arm beginning to hum with low violet light.
Kael hesitated. "Right here?"
"You won't feel a thing."
She extended her arm, fingers flexing with silent commands. Her subdermal surgical array activated and hovered without physical contact.
Kael instinctively braced.
Selene placed two fingers on his forearm, just below the elbow.
"Don't move."
There was a flash of warmth and a quiet vibration, but he didn't feel any pain. He barely felt pressure. It was like the mod simply became part of him. Three seconds later, Selene withdrew her hand. The light faded. The skin sealed clean.
"Done."
Kael looked down. There wasnt even a scar or a mark. The vitals trace glowed beneath his skin like something waiting to wake.
"How the—?"
Selene was already turning back to the drawer. "Sovereign didn't just make killers. It made instruments."
From the drawer she withdrew the other item encased in a sleek gunmetal housing with an exposed core that pulsed deep red.
"This is for later," she said.
"PulseCore EX-S9. It auto-triggers when you drop below critical vitals and overclocks your system. Buys you an immediate 30 seconds of clarity, reflex, and adrenaline."
Kael turned it over, "I don't have anywhere to put this."
"You'll be able to use it sooner than you think," she said.
Kael slid the PulseCore EX-S9 into a secure slot inside his coat. The VITAL TRACE implant pulsed gently beneath his skin. He gave Selene one last look of recognition and then turned towards the chamber's exit. The door opened, but just before he crossed the threshold Selene spoke.
"One more thing," she said behind him, voice calm and resonant. She waited for him to turn and meet her eyes. "Clarity." She said with a solid and powerful tone.
His features hardened. "Purpose," he said, matching her tone of intensity. Then he stepped into the corridor.