The storm that had been building over Sector 17 finally broke.
Blades of violet lightning slashed across the black sky as Aiden and Kael stood at the shattered edge of the platform, watching the horizon split. Reality trembled — as if a giant hand was peeling apart the fabric of the world.
> "You feel that?" Kael muttered.
"Something old just woke up."
Aiden nodded, clutching the core shard he'd recovered from the Data Mausoleum. It pulsed now, glowing brighter with each tremor that rippled through the air.
Behind them, the remnants of Team Delta had regrouped. Claire was stabilizing a wounded scout, while Nash ran code diagnostics on the transport unit, his fingers flying.
> "We need to leave," Claire said, not looking up. "Now."
But Aiden didn't move. His eyes were fixed on the breach — not just physical, but digital. Code bled from the crack in space like smoke, ancient directives looping midair.
> // Directive.Core = 'Survive'
// Directive.Limit = 'Cycle Until Collapse'
It was alive.
Kael cursed. "That's forbidden architecture. Old War code. Thought it was wiped."
> "It wasn't," Aiden replied softly. "They buried it."
Suddenly, a voice echoed from within the rift. Familiar. Mocking.
> "You're getting close, Player One. Too close."
It was the same voice from the Mirror Maze. The twisted version of himself. But different this time — less like an echo, more like… presence.
A projection stepped from the breach. Aiden's face. Older. Paler. Eyes like black static.
> "You left me behind," the clone said, smiling with teeth that didn't belong. "Now I'll show you what you really are."
Kael raised his weapon. Claire stood, shielding the others.
> "We don't have time for this!" she hissed.
"You never did," said the clone.
And then it attacked.
The fight was chaos — not just physical, but systemic. Every move the clone made corrupted local reality. Walls looped. Time stuttered. Nash screamed as his comms shorted.
Aiden fought back, not with brute strength, but instinct. He tapped the shard again, connecting it to his neural interface. The clone laughed.
> "You think raw data can save you? I am the data."
> "No," Aiden said. "You're a bug."
And with that, he activated the GodSpike — a failsafe embedded deep in the system core, meant to reset a region in case of catastrophic code infection. A forbidden function. One he wasn't supposed to know existed.
> [GODSPIKE INITIATED]
[WARNING: USER ID NOT AUTHORIZED]
[Override Accepted — Level: Paradox Class]
The sky went white.
The clone howled as its body tore apart into binary ash. The rift convulsed, attempting to seal itself. Kael grabbed Aiden and pulled him back just before the breach collapsed in a digital implosion.
Silence returned.
The team was on the ground, panting, eyes wide.
Claire stood slowly. "That wasn't just a defense system…"
> "No," Aiden said. "It was a memory."
> "Of what?" Nash asked.
"A different version of me. One I buried. One the system remembers."
Kael grunted. "And you've got fragments of it now. In that shard."
> "Not just fragments," Aiden said, eyes narrowing. "A map."
He pulled out the core shard, now etched with new glyphs — data paths that twisted in unnatural geometries, leading toward something buried deep beneath Sector 0.
---
Meanwhile, Deep Below the Surface...
In a chamber sealed for centuries, servers hummed to life. Monitors flickered. Red eyes blinked awake.
> [Reconstruction Protocol Activated]
[Subject: Project GodSystem]
[Status: Convergence Imminent]
An operator in crimson robes stepped forward.
> "Phase Two begins."
---
Back With the Team
They'd moved into a secure bunker for the night. Rain fell outside, but inside the silence was heavy. Kael paced. Nash brooded. Claire stitched a wound in her side without flinching.
Aiden sat alone.
He stared at the shard, watching the glyphs pulse. He thought about the clone. The maze. The warnings.
> "You left me behind."
The words echoed.
> No. I became someone else.
But what if that other version still existed? And worse — what if the system had kept it alive?
He opened his HUD.
> [Query: Memory Stream Fragment — Origin: Forbidden Layer]
[Access Denied]
[Override Attempt: In Progress…]
Something fought back. Static flooded his screen.
But he pushed harder.
> "You want to see what I buried?" Aiden whispered. "Let's dig."
Suddenly, the glyphs pulsed faster. The shard clicked into place — connecting with the base code. A memory flooded his mind:
A child crying in a white lab. Screams. Machines drilling data into his mind. A voice, female, whispering: "You are more than code. Remember who you were."
He gasped.
Claire rushed to his side. "What did you see?"
> "My mother," he said. "She was a programmer… and a prisoner."
Kael froze.
> "Your mother was in the system?"
Aiden looked up.
> "No. She built it."