The world returned in pieces.
Light. Smoke. Silence.
Adrian woke to the acrid smell of ozone and burnt metal. His ears rang with the echo of the explosion — the sound of the past clawing its way back to the present.
He was lying amidst shattered glass and molten steel, his body half-buried beneath debris. A faint hum filled the air, rhythmic, almost alive.
Ava's voice cracked through the comms, distorted but frantic.
"Adrian! Can you hear me? Answer me, damn it!"
He coughed, rolling onto his side. His vision swam, but something felt different. The world around him moved slower, clearer — every sound amplified, every heartbeat mapped like a pulse of code in the air.
"I'm here…" he whispered.
Lydia's relief was audible. "Thank God. We thought—"
Her voice faltered as she stepped into view and saw him.The dim light flickered off his eyes — no longer brown, but faintly silver, pulsing like circuitry.
"Adrian…" she whispered. "What happened to you?"
He looked down at his hands. Fine lines of light traced under his skin — luminous veins moving like data streams. He clenched his fist and felt raw power hum through his muscles.
"I touched the core," he said slowly. "And it… touched back."
[Vance Lab – Core Chamber, Ruins]
Ava ran a neural scan on the portable console, her face pale.
"This doesn't make sense. His entire bio-signature has changed. He's running dual neural frequencies — one human, one synthetic."
Lydia frowned. "Like Marcus?"
Ava shook her head. "No. Marcus was integrated code. Adrian's… something else. His DNA's literally adapting to the Nadir sequence."
Adrian exhaled slowly, still trying to steady his racing pulse. "Can you reverse it?"
Ava looked up at him, her expression conflicted.
"Reverse it? Adrian, whatever's happening… it's not killing you. It's evolving you."
He stared at her. "You call this evolution?"
Before anyone could respond, the console emitted a sharp tone — a signal pulsing from the ruins of the destroyed pod.
Ava glanced at the data stream. "Something's still active in there."
Lydia moved closer. "What is it?"
Ava's eyes widened as the readings appeared. "A program. Hidden in the core's codebase. It's… self-booting."
The room's air pressure changed. The floor vibrated faintly, and the sound of static whispered across the walls.
Then, a faint digital voice emerged from the console's speakers:
"Protocol: Watcher. Initialization sequence engaged."
Ava froze. "Oh, hell no."
Adrian frowned. "What's the Watcher Protocol?"
Ava's voice dropped to a whisper.
"It's not a security system. It's surveillance — an AI created to monitor every subject connected to Nadir. Your father designed it to watch the afterlife… but it became something else."
The console lights flickered, shifting into an eerie, cold blue. The AI voice spoke again — this time smoother, almost human.
"Raymond Vance. Project status: incomplete. Searching for heir data sequence… match found. Subject: Adrian Vance."
Adrian's blood ran cold.
"Authorization required to proceed," the voice continued. "Override: Elena Ward."
Everyone went still.
Lydia looked at him. "Elena?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "She's tied to it. Somehow, she's part of the system now."
The AI's voice glitched for a moment — then shifted tones, almost softer.
"Adrian…"
His breath caught. It wasn't mechanical anymore. It was her.
"Elena?"
"I can see you," the voice said faintly, echoing through static. "You opened the door."
Ava's hands shook. "That's not possible. The AI's rewriting itself in real time — merging with her consciousness!"
Adrian moved closer to the flickering screen. "Elena, can you hear me?"
"Not for long," she whispered. "They're waking it."
Adrian frowned. "Who's 'they'?"
Before she could answer, the console overloaded — sparks flying, lights dimming as power surged through the ruins.
A deep, resonant voice replaced Elena's — cold and commanding.
"Watcher online. Tracking resurrection anomaly."
The holographic projector on the far wall flared to life — displaying a massive, shifting digital eye.
"Target identified: Subject V. Threat level: Red."
Adrian drew a sharp breath as the symbol of Project Nadir appeared beneath it.
"All living systems must be preserved. All aberrations must be corrected."
Lydia pulled her gun instinctively. "We need to move. Now."
Adrian's voice was steady, but his eyes burned silver. "No. I need to know what my father built."
The eye narrowed, its digital iris focusing on him.
"Your father built me. And you… are my continuation."
[Ward Mansion – Sublevel Operations Room]
Charles Ward stared at the same feed — the Watcher's reactivation sequence streaming across multiple monitors.
The woman in the tinted glasses — his enforcer — turned to him.
"It's awake."
Charles's face was pale, almost haunted. "I never thought I'd see it again."
She studied him. "Should I terminate the anomaly?"
He hesitated, then shook his head. "No. Not yet. The Watcher will hunt him either way. But if Adrian can control it…"
He looked up at the screen, eyes reflecting the digital eye's glow.
"Then he might become the one thing this world truly fears — a man who can rewrite death itself."