Deren Vale exhaled slowly as the cryo-chamber fully opened, cold mist trailing from his body like the breath of a long-dead ghost. The silence was oppressive—so thick Kaela could hear her own heartbeat thudding like a war drum in her ears.
He stood slowly, bare feet touching the steel floor with an eerie calmness, every movement precise, calculated… inhuman. The frost clinging to his skin melted into steam against the heat of his breath.
"Hello, daughter," he said.
The words carved through Kaela's chest like a serrated blade.
"I'm not your—" she tried to speak, but her voice faltered, caught between rage and disbelief.
Deren's gaze never left hers. "You have her fire. But you burn differently. Angrier. More reckless."
Ava raised her weapon. "Step away from her!"
He didn't flinch. Instead, he tilted his head, studying Ava with a calm, clinical curiosity.
"You must be the empath," he said. "I remember designing your kind. Emotionally attuned… morally conflicted… so easily broken."
Ava's hands trembled, but she stood firm. "You remember too much for a dead man."
Deren turned his eyes back to Kaela. "I didn't die. I was erased. Buried beneath the ashes of lies your side told to keep their hands clean."
Kaela stepped forward, voice steely. "You built the NeuroNet. You rewired human will. You made soldiers puppets."
"I gave them peace," Deren replied, voice smooth. "You fight for freedom without understanding the chaos it brings."
Behind them, Joren worked frantically at a nearby console, fingers moving over layers of encrypted code. "I'm trying to lock him down," he whispered to Ava, "but it's like he's already taken over the system. He's interfacing… with everything."
Deren didn't even look. "Too late, engineer. This base is mine now. Just as your thoughts… are mine to read."
Joren's eyes widened. "He's in my neural link—!"
Sparks burst from the terminal, throwing Joren backward. Kaela ran to him, but Deren raised a single hand.
"Don't touch him. You'll only absorb the pain I gave him."
Kaela snarled, standing protectively in front of her friend. "You think this mind game scares me?"
"No," he said quietly. "But you're not the only one with secrets buried in blood."
From the corridor behind them, the floor panels hissed open, and mechanical limbs emerged—sleek, matte-black constructs with red-core optics. Guardian units, once thought decommissioned.
Ava stared in horror. "He brought the Guardians back…"
Deren stepped down from the cryo-podium, eyes scanning the devastation he'd created with one breath.
"You've awakened something you can't put back to sleep."
Kaela's hand tightened around her pistol. "Then I'll bury you myself."
Deren smiled. "You're welcome to try, daughter. But blood always remembers."
And then, with a wave of his hand, the Guardians surged forward.