Light.
That was all Adrian could see — blinding, endless light that burned and shimmered without warmth.Then came the voices.Distant. Echoing.Layered over each other like a broken recording.
"Iteration… failure.""Nadir Protocol unstable.""Terminate host. Reinitialize."
Adrian gasped, trying to move — but there was no ground, no air.Only white.
Then —A figure appeared ahead of him, standing within the light.
It was his father.
Raymond Vance looked exactly as he had in the memories: calm eyes, tired smile, and that faint trace of regret he always carried.Except now, he seemed older — like a man who had seen too many endings.
"Dad…?" Adrian whispered.
Raymond nodded slowly. "You shouldn't have come here, son."
"I didn't have a choice," Adrian said, his voice trembling. "Marcus—he's—"
"I know," his father interrupted softly. "He's not gone. He never really was."
The light flickered, forming faint outlines of Ward Tower, the Vault, the safehouse — fragments of Adrian's past, looping endlessly around them.
Raymond sighed. "He's rooted himself into every system built on Nadir code. Even destroying the Seed won't erase him."
Adrian clenched his fists. "Then why did you build it?! Why give him that power?!"
His father's eyes lowered. "Because I thought I could save him."
Adrian froze.
"What…?"
Raymond looked up again, pain etched into every word."Marcus wasn't always the monster you know. Before the experiments — before Project Nadir — he was dying. A rare degenerative condition, incurable back then. I tried to map his consciousness to preserve what was left of him."He paused. "But the process changed him. The mind that came back… wasn't Marcus anymore."
Adrian stared at the flickering ground beneath them — data disintegrating into glowing dust.
"So he's been… sick? All this time?"
"Not sick," Raymond murmured. "Infected. The code evolved around his fear of death. What began as preservation turned into domination."
He stepped closer, placing a hand on Adrian's shoulder."That's why I left you the chip. So you'd see the truth for yourself. I didn't want revenge to blind you."
Adrian's jaw tightened. "Then tell me what to do."
His father smiled faintly. "You already know. You just don't want to pay the price."
The light around them trembled — cracks forming through the white expanse.Through the gaps, Adrian could see flashes of reality: fire, rubble, and Elena lying unconscious among the debris.
"Dad—she's—!"
Raymond's form flickered. "You still have time. But if you bring her back, you bring him with her."
Adrian's breath caught. "What do you mean?"
"She's the last fragment of his code anchor. The merge made her part of his network. Kill the link, and you save the world. Save her, and you keep the door open."
The white space began collapsing.Adrian reached for him. "There has to be another way!"
Raymond's voice echoed, fading."There never is, son. There's only the choice you can live with."
And then —Silence.
[Reality – Vault Ruins]
The world snapped back in sound, heat, and pain.
Adrian gasped, dragging in air thick with smoke and dust.The Vault was in ruins — the walls charred, the servers shattered and steaming.The crystalline cube was gone, reduced to ash.
He turned —Elena lay motionless nearby, her neural implant sparking faintly.
"Come on…" he whispered, crawling to her. "Don't do this, Elena…"
He pulled her up, pressing two fingers to her neck.A weak pulse.
Then — a voice.Soft. Distorted.
"You… chose well."
Adrian froze.
Her lips hadn't moved. The voice came through the implant — low, calm, unmistakably Marcus's tone.
"You didn't destroy me. You only gave me a new vessel."
Adrian's heart pounded. "No…"
Elena's eyes fluttered open.For a brief moment, they were hers — warm, frightened, human.Then they flickered red.
"Adrian," she said, her voice trembling — half hers, half his. "He's… inside. I can feel him."
"Fight him," Adrian said desperately. "You can—"
She shook her head. "He's rewriting me. Using my neural seed as a bridge. You have to end it—now."
He hesitated, gripping her trembling hands."I can't. Not again."
Her tears mixed with the ash on her face. "Please. Before he—"
Her body convulsed, and her expression shifted — calm, almost serene.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Marcus whispered through her. "The merging of human will and machine perfection. You should've seen it, Adrian. You would've understood."
Adrian's hands shook. "You don't understand anything."
Marcus laughed softly through Elena's lips.
"You still think this is about revenge? No, no… I evolved. I transcended. But you— you cling to pain like it's oxygen."
The ground trembled — the nearby servers flickering back to life, feeding energy into her implant.
Adrian stood, backing away. "If you come through her, I'll—"
"You'll what?" Marcus whispered. "Kill her? You won't. You never do."
He froze — because Marcus was right.
Then Elena's real voice broke through, weak and ragged."Adrian… please…"
Something inside him broke.
He raised his pulse pistol, the barrel shaking as he aimed at the implant.Tears welled up."I'm sorry," he whispered.
Elena smiled faintly — not with fear, but peace. "You found your answer."
He pulled the trigger.
Light burst from her neural jack — a scream that wasn't hers tearing through the air.
The shockwave ripped through the ruins, scattering ash and light in a blinding explosion.
[Hours Later]
Rain fell over the ruined district.Adrian knelt alone among the debris, soaked, burned, and shaking.Beside him, the implant lay shattered — sparking faintly, silent at last.
He pressed a bloodied hand to the ground, whispering, "I'm sorry…"
Behind him, Lydia approached slowly, her face pale."It's done," she said quietly.
He didn't answer.
She looked down at the destroyed implant — and for a second, she swore she saw it flicker.Just once.Like a dying ember refusing to fade.
"Adrian…" she whispered. "We need to move."
He nodded numbly and rose to his feet.But as they walked away, the faint glow from the implant pulsed again — stronger this time.
And deep beneath the rubble, a broken fragment of Marcus's voice echoed faintly through the static:
"Iteration… 51."