The fall didn't feel like falling.
It felt like being swallowed.
Zariah's scream never made it past her throat as the ground vanished beneath them, the platform tearing apart in a violent roar of metal and light. Adrian's arms locked around her instinctively, his body twisting midair to shield her as gravity reclaimed them with cruel certainty.
Darkness rushed up fast.
Too fast.
Then....
Impact.
The world slammed back into existence with bone-rattling force. Zariah's body hit something solid, pain exploding through her spine as the air was punched from her lungs. She gasped, choking, the taste of copper flooding her mouth.
Adrian groaned beside her, his grip tightening reflexively before slowly loosening as he sucked in a sharp breath.
For a terrifying second, she didn't hear anything else.
No alarms.
No footsteps.
No Viktor.
Just a deep, rhythmic hum.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Zariah pushed herself onto her elbows, blinking hard. The darkness around them wasn't empty it was alive. Dim red lights pulsed in slow intervals along massive curved walls, illuminating a chamber so vast she couldn't see its edges.
"What… is this place?" she whispered.
Adrian rolled onto his side, already scanning their surroundings despite the blood seeping from a cut at his temple. His expression changed the moment he took it in.
"Hell," he said quietly. "Built by people who thought they were gods."
Kellan landed moments later, hitting the ground harder than either of them. He swore viciously, then froze when he looked up.
"Oh no," he breathed. "No, no, no…"
Zariah followed his gaze.
At the center of the chamber stood something enormous.
Not a machine not entirely.
It was organic and mechanical at once, a towering structure of blackened steel veins and translucent conduits glowing with faint light. Cables extended outward like arteries, disappearing into the walls, the ceiling, the very foundation beneath their feet.
And at its core
A suspended chamber.
Empty.
Her chest tightened. "That's… that's where"
"The central interface," Adrian finished grimly. "The heart of the network."
The hum beneath their feet deepened, vibrating through Zariah's bones. She pressed a hand to her chest as the same strange heat from before stirred again, stronger this time.
Thump.
Thump.
Her pulse synchronized with it.
Adrian noticed immediately. "Zariah."
"I can feel it," she whispered. "It's calling."
"No," he said sharply, grabbing her wrist. "You're responding because Viktor forced a link. That doesn't mean you answer."
Before she could respond, slow applause echoed through the chamber.
Deliberate.
Mocking.
Viktor emerged from the shadows on the upper level, descending a curved staircase as if this were a theater and he was late for his cue. His coat was torn now, his face marked with dirt but his eyes burned brighter than ever.
"You survived the drop," he said pleasantly. "Good. I'd hate for the climax to lack its star."
Adrian stepped forward, positioning himself in front of Zariah again. "This ends now."
Viktor smiled. "No. This begins now."
The hum intensified.
Zariah's knees buckled slightly as a surge of sensation ripped through her voices overlapping, emotions crashing together in a wave she couldn't separate.
Fear.
Anger.
Hope.
Pain.
"They're still here," she gasped. "The others… the ones we freed."
Viktor's eyes gleamed. "Of course they are. You didn't sever the lattice you re-routed it."
Adrian's expression darkened with dawning horror. "You made her the conduit."
"Yes," Viktor said simply. "Because she already was one. She just didn't know it."
Zariah shook her head, panic clawing up her throat. "That's not true."
Viktor tilted his head. "Isn't it?"
He gestured toward the core.
The lights flared.
And suddenly
Memory slammed into her.
Not hers.
A sterile room. Bright lights. A younger Zariah screaming as needles pierced her skin. Voices speaking over her like she wasn't there.
Subject compatible.
Neural elasticity beyond projections.
Proceed.
Zariah screamed, clutching her head as she collapsed to her knees.
Adrian was at her side instantly. "Zariah! Look at me stay with me!"
She sobbed, shaking violently. "I was there. Years ago. I didn't remember I couldn't"
"They erased it," Viktor said calmly. "For your own good. Trauma interferes with potential."
Adrian looked up at him with pure murder in his eyes. "You touched her when she was a child."
"Yes," Viktor replied without shame. "And now she's complete."
The hum surged again, louder, more aggressive. The chamber responded to Zariah's distress lights flickering wildly, cables thrashing like living things.
Kellan shouted, "Adrian, the system's syncing to her emotional state if she loses control "
"I know," Adrian snapped.
Zariah's breathing came in ragged bursts. "I can hear them," she whispered. "They're scared. They think this is the end."
Adrian cupped her face firmly, forcing her to meet his eyes. "Listen to me. You are not their cage."
Her gaze locked onto his, anchoring her amid the storm. "What if I am?"
"Then you choose what you do with it," he said fiercely. "He doesn't get to decide who you are."
Viktor's smile faded slightly. "Touching. But irrelevant."
He raised a hand.
The core flared to life.
Energy arced violently through the chamber, slamming into Zariah like a tidal wave. She screamed as power surged through her veins, lighting her nerves on fire. Images flooded her mind every subject, every mind connected, every ounce of pain and rage and resistance.
And something else.
Strength.
Defiance.
A shared will.
Zariah's scream cut off abruptly.
She went still.
Adrian felt it instantly the shift. The air thickened. The hum changed pitch.
"Zariah?" he whispered.
She lifted her head slowly.
Her eyes glowed faintly not with Viktor's cold precision, but with something raw and blazing.
"I'm not alone," she said softly. "I never was."
Viktor took a step back, surprise flickering across his face for the first time. "That's… unexpected."
Zariah rose to her feet, trembling but unbroken. The cables nearest her recoiled, as if sensing something they didn't understand.
"You built this system to control us," she said, her voice echoing unnaturally. "But you forgot one thing."
Viktor frowned. "And what's that?"
"We're not machines."
She thrust her hand forward.
The chamber convulsed.
Energy blasted outward in a shockwave that sent Viktor crashing into the railing behind him. Consoles exploded. The core screamed a sound that felt like metal tearing itself apart.
Kellan stared in disbelief. "She's overriding the lattice."
Adrian didn't move, didn't breathe. "Zariah don't burn yourself out."
She staggered slightly, pain ripping through her, but she stayed standing. "If I stop… he wins."
Viktor struggled to his feet, blood trickling from his mouth. His smile was gone now, replaced by something sharper. "Careful," he warned. "Push too hard and you'll collapse every mind tied to you."
Her chest heaved. "Then I'll free them."
Another surge
The core cracked.
Alarms screamed back to life, this time panicked, erratic.
Kellan shouted, "Structural integrity's failing we've got minutes!"
Viktor laughed suddenly, wild and unhinged. "You think this is victory?"
The floor beneath Zariah split open.
A column of light erupted from the core, engulfing her completely.
Adrian lunged forward, shouting her name
And she vanished.
The light collapsed inward with a thunderous roar, leaving behind only scorched metal and a rapidly destabilizing chamber.
Adrian dropped to his knees where she'd been standing.
"Zariah," he whispered, voice breaking for the first time.
Above them, the structure began to collapse.
Viktor staggered toward the edge, coughing, eyes blazing. "The network lives," he hissed. "And she belongs to it now."
Adrian looked up slowly.
Cold.
Deadly.
"Then I'm tearing the network apart."
The ceiling cracked.
The chamber began to fall.
And somewhere beyond their reach
Zariah Amara opened her eyes in a place that should not exist.