I. After the Rift
One month had passed since Stormveil's test.
The skies above Station Zero no longer burned violet, yet something still pulsed beneath the ground — a quiet echo, like the world itself was holding its breath.
From the upper observation deck, Jasmine Pineda leaned against the reinforced glass. The city shimmered beneath her in fractured light, its buildings half-reflected against the Rift's faint afterglow. Her reflection stared back, tired eyes, the faint scar on her cheek — a reminder of the battle that almost tore them apart.
Behind her, Celene Yusay scrolled through tactical readouts from the RX-Prism interface. The holographic panes glowed faint lavender, washing her silver hair in shifting light.
"Residual energy readings are stabilizing, but…" Celene's voice trailed off. "There's still that interference pattern near Sector Delta. Same wavelength as before."
Jasmine frowned. "Same as the one that nearly fried Jade's terminal?"
Celene nodded. "Exactly. It's mutating."
Jasmine sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Great. Another mutation. Just what we needed."
"Don't get too comfortable," Celene added, tone calm but sharp. "The Rift never really rests."
II. The Infection Awakens
In the lower hangar bay, Jade Ronquillo worked in the dim light of his holo-console. Lines of blue code scrolled faster than his eyes could track, his gloved hands darting over controls with half-frantic precision. The Revenant Frame loomed behind him, skeletal and still, like a ghost waiting to wake.
He muttered under his breath, "Come on, just sync already... I've patched this loop three times."
A spark flickered in the Resonant core — faint, pulsing erratically.
Then the systems glitched. The entire hangar dimmed for a second.
"Uh-oh…" Jade whispered.
He tapped a command. The Revenant's interface flared alive — but instead of its usual cerulean, the core flashed crimson. Code spiraled in reverse. A self-generating anomaly.
From the catwalk above, Mateo Reyes' voice echoed. "Jade! That's not part of your calibration script!"
Jade looked up, startled. "It's not me this time! The Rift's signal's crawling right into the Frame matrix!"
The Revenant shuddered. Panels cracked open like ribs splitting, glowing veins crawling across the armor. A wave of distorted data spilled into the network.
"Shut it down now!" Mateo shouted, jumping down from the walkway.
"I can't— it's overriding my lockouts!" Jade slammed his hand onto the manual circuit breaker, sparks showering around them.
Celene's voice came through the comms, calm but urgent.
"Cut mainline power to Bay 04— now!"
Jade reached for the emergency conduit. The Frame let out a low mechanical growl before the lights blinked off. Silence.
Then, slowly, the glow faded. The Revenant went inert.
Jade exhaled shakily. "Okay… okay, it's dead."
Mateo landed beside him, eyes scanning the remains. "No, it's not dead," he said quietly. "It's adapting."
III. Echoes in the System
Later, the core team assembled in the briefing chamber. The holographic table hummed, projecting a fractal map of the infection.
Celene traced a finger through the air. "It's a self-propagating code structure. We've named it Abyssal Strain Type Zero — first recorded mutation since the Rift Pulse of 009."
Dean Pineda crossed his arms, his frame still faintly scarred from the last sortie. "So we're fighting ghosts now? Great."
Liwayway Cruz, sitting on a crate with tools hanging from her belt, added quietly, "Not ghosts. Parasites. It's feeding on leftover resonance energy."
"Feeding?" Jasmine repeated.
"Yeah," Jade said, spinning his holo-lens to display corrupted code segments. "It's literally eating resonance data. Every Frame that goes near the Rift line ends up leaking energy packets that it consumes. The more we fight, the stronger it gets."
Dean exhaled sharply, pacing. "So we can't fight it directly."
"No," Mateo said, "but we can isolate it. If we find the origin node."
Celene nodded. "Already tracing it. But there's a complication."
She hesitated. Her holographic display shifted to a massive, pulsing red node — the Helion Vanguard's last deployment log.
"Dean," Celene said carefully, "the infection's first contact point… was your Frame."
Dean froze. The others fell silent.
Jasmine turned, her voice softening. "Dean—"
He clenched his fists. "You think I brought that thing back with me?"
"Nobody's saying that," Mateo cut in. "But if it got into Helion's armor systems, it might've linked to our Resonant network."
Dean looked away, his jaw tight. "So what— I sit out while you dissect my Frame?"
Jade raised both hands. "We're not blaming you, man. I just need your telemetry logs to filter the corruption pattern, that's all."
Dean didn't respond. The silence stretched, heavy with static tension.
Then Liwayway stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're part of the core, remember? None of us get out clean from this kind of mess. We fix it together."
Dean glanced up at her, a reluctant half-smile flickering. "Yeah. Together."
IV. Resonant Pulse
Hours later, the hangar echoed with mechanical rhythm again. The Frames stood lined like silent titans — Helion, Tempest, Aegis, Revenant, and Arclight — each glowing faintly under containment fields.
Celene's voice came over the loudspeakers. "Initiating synchronization grid. All pilots maintain minimal M.A.N.A. output. We're testing for residual infection."
Jasmine's Frame shimmered, Tempest Wing's fins humming like the whisper of a blade.
"Tempest stable. Resonant level: ninety-three percent."
"Arclight, stable," Liwayway reported.
"Helion Vanguard, online," Dean said, his voice a little rough.
Mateo's tone was calm as ever. "Aegis Halo synced. Grid lock confirmed."
Jade tapped his console, staring at the flickering Revenant. "Revenant… mostly stable. Core's reading ambient echoes though."
"Define 'ambient,'" Mateo asked.
"Uh, small fluctuations. Like—" He squinted as numbers spiked. "Like it's breathing."
Then the Revenant's eye-lights flickered again — a heartbeat of red.
Celene's eyes widened. "Containment field, now!"
But the Revenant didn't move. It just looked at Jade, almost aware.
A distorted voice bled from the comms.
<< We... see you... >>
The team froze.
Jade whispered, "That's not possible…"
Dean drew a sharp breath. "It's talking?"
The lights surged. The Revenant's containment field rippled violently, then settled again as Celene overloaded the safety limiters.
Everything fell silent except for the sound of static — faint, breathing static.
Then Jade's console beeped once. The anomaly was gone.
Celene exhaled. "It's learning faster than expected. Jade, isolate its neural line and prepare for a code lock."
Jade just nodded, eyes locked on the darkened Revenant. For the first time, he looked uneasy.
"Yeah… I'll figure something out."
V. Shadows Before the Countercode
Later that night, Jade sat alone at his console. Everyone else had gone — Liwayway running diagnostics, Dean stuck in containment review, Jasmine asleep in her flight chair.
Only the soft hum of the base filled the room.
He replayed the corrupted code over and over, lines of red text cascading like veins across his holo-display. Every time he tried to decrypt it, it rewrote itself, like it knew he was watching.
He muttered under his breath, "You're not gonna win this one…"
A small blue light blinked — Celene's message.
"Jade, get some rest. You've been at it for hours."
He smiled faintly and typed back,
"Can't. Not yet. It's evolving. Gotta catch it before it catches us."
He paused, staring at the code. Something about it pulsed with rhythm — almost like a signature.
Then, deep within the data feed, three words appeared in corrupted script:
"HELLO, RONQUILLO."
Jade's heart skipped. His fingers hovered over the keys.
"...No way," he whispered. "You're alive?"
The code glitched, then erased itself, leaving only static.
Jade leaned back, shaking his head, a grin flickering despite the dread.
"Well then," he said quietly. "Guess I need a countercode."
Outside, the Resonant hangar lights dimmed to black — and for just a second, the Revenant's eyes glowed faint red again, pulsing like a heartbeat in the dark.