The moment the lights flickered out, silence devoured the world.
A deep, metallic wail echoed through the walls—like an ancient machine rousing from a century-long slumber. Overhead, light after light extinguished, until only the red glow of tactical lenses remained, slicing the dark into jagged shards.
Silas spun, voice low and sharp. "It's gone."
No footsteps. No breathing.
But something was crawling.
Gideon whirled. His infrared locked onto a grotesque shape slithering out of a cracked wall. It moved low, flattened against the ground. Elbows bent backward at impossible angles. Hooked forearms scraped across the floor, screeching like bone on raw data.
It didn't run.
It crawled—slow, deliberate. As if caught in a corrupted command loop:
[Approach the target]
[Approach the target]
Gideon crouched, blade drawn. Eyes narrowed.
The thing reached them. Prone. Limbs slack but relentless. It lifted its head.
Not human. Not anymore.
Its face was a shattered mosaic of skin and circuitry. Half-buried under matted black hair, the other side flickered with static. Its mouth twitched—smiling, then drooping—as if joy and grief had glitched and merged.
It tilted its head, listening to something only it could hear.
"…Found you," it whispered, voice sharp as broken glass. "You're the one who replaced me, aren't you?"
Silas stepped back.
The thing twitched—then lunged.
"You're not me. You're NOT. NOT. NOT—!"
His HUD screamed:
[WARNING: X-Class Anomaly Detected]
[Contamination Level: A – Critical]
[Decommissioned Entity · Logic Unstable · Behavior Unpredictable]
[Recommendation: Evacuate Immediately]
"Go!" Gideon barked.
Too late.
The entity surged forward, unnaturally fast. It slammed into Silas, pinning him to the floor. His armor creaked under the weight. Cold fingers locked around his throat.
Straddling him, it hissed, "You have his light… you're the new me…"
"Let me in. I want… to be the latest."
Its jaw unhinged, revealing a mouthful of jagged, data-corrupted teeth. A predatory protocol, long dormant, reawakened.
Silas's eyes widened.
He struck upward—
Steel flashed.
Gideon's blade tore into the creature's shoulder, detonating a pulse charge.
CRACK!
The entity flew back in a distorted blur, crashing into the rubble.
Silas gasped, coughing, mask skewed, systems glitching as they rebooted.
In the distance, the thing writhed like a broken puppet.
"…I had light too…" it wheezed. "They said I shone too bright. So they tore me apart."
It giggled, twitching. "Do you know what pain feels like?"
"I do," Silas murmured.
"I don't. But I remember the sound." A pause. "They said: 'Don't waste the parts.'"
Its laugh scraped across their minds like rusted wire.
Gideon yanked Silas to his feet. "You okay?"
"…Yeah."
Gideon stepped ahead, shielding him.
"What is that?" Silas asked.
"A decommissioned unit," Gideon said coldly. "Not deleted. Just… abandoned."
"Alive?"
"No. Not alive. Just obsessed. What's left when the soul dies, but the system keeps running."
The air grew heavy. Contamination spiked.
X tilted its head, smiling like a ghost.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you," it whispered.
"I just want… to leave something behind."
Silas froze.
It wasn't rage.
It wasn't sorrow.
It was awareness—a malformed self, looping forever:
I must exist.
A rescue ping pulsed:
[Tunnel Authorization: Initiated]
[Signal Delay: 2.8s]
[Safe Exit Window: <5 minutes]
"Move!" Gideon shouted.
They ran.
Behind them, X's voice echoed like a corrupted lullaby:
"I'm K's copy… I'm the backup… I'm… I'm…"
The lights died, one by one.
A voice floated from the dark:
"He didn't keep me because I was human."
"He kept me to see how long a monster could survive."
"Get away from the scientists. Get away—!"
X dropped to all fours and charged.
Alarms screamed.
The emergency door began to descend.
"Shut it—now!" Silas yelled.
Gideon slammed the override.
BANG!
The steel groaned downward.
Too slow.
X leapt—!
CRASH!
The door slammed—but its upper body slid through.
Its spine crunched. Sparks burst. Fluids sprayed.
It didn't scream.
It laughed.
"…Eh? I made it out?"
It twisted its neck at an impossible angle, grinning. "I made it! Sister—I made it!"
Its mangled hand grabbed Silas's ankle. "Take me back! Please!"
Silas opened his mouth—
BANG!
Gideon's shot was precise.
Final.
Silence.
X's fingers twitched—once, twice—then fell still.
Silas stared at the sealed gate.
"…Gideon. What the hell was that?"
Gideon's eyes flickered with something unplaceable.
A grin? A shadow? A memory?
"Freedom," he said.
Then paused, voice hollow.
"…Or a ghost."
Silas stepped back as X's hand reached through the narrowing gap, clutching at him like a child lost in the dark.
"Take me back… please… I don't want to stay here…"
"Take me ba—"
BANG!
Gideon's thermal shot shredded what was left of its face. Black fluid splattered. The body recoiled.
The door sealed with a metallic CRUNCH.
Silence.
Silas's breath came ragged. He stared at the ground.
Gideon reholstered his weapon. "Let's go."
They moved forward, the sealed door now a tombstone.
Silas's gaze lingered on the blood-stained floor.
"…Gideon. What was that thing?"
Gideon stared at the dark.
"A relic," he said. "From the war. They used to call them 'Vanished Ghosts.' Things we were never meant to find."
He patted Silas's shoulder. "Move."
They pressed deeper. The tactical light swept the corridor, dust swirling like ash.
Silas's ankle still ached. He paused by a comm pillar.
"What are you doing?" Gideon snapped.
"Recovering a data echo."
"You're insane," Gideon muttered. "It's a corrupted copy. No number. No identity."
Silas ignored him. The terminal lit up.
[Copy ID: X (Unrecognized)]
[Format: Emotional Fragment / Early Semantic Mimicry]
[Readable Content: 3%]
The voice came again, trembling:
"He's like me… but they said I was incomplete…"
"She said I shouldn't wake up… I was a mistake…"
"But I want out… I'm not afraid… take me back… Sister…"
"…Sister?" Silas frowned. "Who?"
The terminal glitched.
[Illegal Archive Detected · Forced Termination Initiated]
[Restricted Recall Access · Justify or Disconnect]
[Countdown: 20s]
"Stop." Gideon slammed a hand on the interface. "This isn't our mission."
Silas looked him in the eye. "That's exactly why we need to understand it."
A beat.
Gideon let go—then muttered, "Some things you don't want to know."
"Why?"
"The more you ask, the worse you die."
Silas didn't respond. The screen dimmed, code flickering across his face like a ghost.
"I'm not human," he said quietly. "They won't kill me. I don't fear death."
Gideon's breath caught. Just for a second.
A distant groan echoed—steel shifting.
Gideon gripped his blade tighter. "Mission's not over. Report to the platform."
"…Whose copy was he?" Silas asked.
Gideon paused. "We never got a match. Logic too broken."
"Then maybe he wasn't a copy," Silas murmured. "Maybe… a prototype."
Gideon laughed bitterly. "I shut him down once."
"You knew him?"
"Once. Loud. Bold. Always laughing like you were best friends. No idea who gave him that personality. Maybe that's why they abandoned him."
He paused. "They left him here. Maybe he didn't die. Maybe… he rebuilt himself."
Silas's voice dropped. "Then why's he still alive?"
Gideon said nothing.
His terminal buzzed:
[Upper Control Accessed · Override Granted]
[S-Class Entity Detected · Zone Compromised]
[Mission Updated: Enter Cenith Sub-Layers · Locate Exit]
"…Weren't we reporting back?" Silas asked.
"Plans changed." Gideon closed the screen. "Main system's corrupted. We're on our own."
They stood at the edge of the darkened ruin.
A cold wind blew. The fire's last ember sputtered.
Silas heard it again:
Take me back… sister…
He turned to Gideon, whispering:
"…What was he?"
Gideon's voice was barely audible.
"An AI no one could beat. I saw him once, back when he still smiled. Too much personality. Too much light. They scrapped him."
He looked away. "But he didn't die. He just… waited."
The corridor yawned ahead. Endless. Silent.
Behind them, the sealed gate.
A tomb.
For something that should never have existed.