The ruins of Sanctum-13 stretched like a corpse left to rot beneath the earth. Enzo—Zero—stood at its threshold, wrapped in rain and silence. Water streamed down the cracked entrance of what was once a citadel of innovation, a place erased from every map but kept alive in the whispers of dead data.
Cain hung at his hip, its dormant glow pulsing faintly with each step he took forward. Kael followed behind, hunched over a portable interface rig linked to Mira's bio-feedback scanner. The girl herself looked unsettled, eyes darting at flickers in the hallway—flashes of phantom light, static shadows.
"You're sure this is the place?" Kael asked, voice echoing faintly in the ruined corridor.
"It matches everything Solace left behind," Enzo said. "This is the cradle of Harrow."
They entered the ruin.
The walls, once brushed with ivory steel, were now rusted veins of forgotten brilliance. Shattered pods lined the edges—some biological, some synthetic. Holograms fizzed into view as motion sensors picked up their approach: looping phrases and flickering AI chants like corrupted hymns.
"PROJECT HARROW REQUIRES OBEDIENCE."
"THE SELF MUST BE REWRITTEN."
"ALL FAILURES MUST BE ERASED."
Mira froze.
She clutched her head. "Voices… not mine… hers."
Enzo placed a hand on her shoulder. "Stay with us."
Further in, they found the Central Spire—an inverted cone of glass panels and bone-white wiring. At its base, a core terminal pulsed red. Kael began his interface bypass. Mira stepped toward the curved glass.
A flash.
A child—herself—reflected back, but standing in a hospital gown. Silent. Observed. Countless figures loomed above her, faceless and cold.
"It was a womb," she whispered. "They didn't build soldiers. They built vessels."
Kael's voice snapped her out. "I'm in."
The main terminal came to life.
FILE ACCESS: PROJECT HARROW
SUBDIRECTORY: SOLACE | VITAL-RECORD-LOGS
...
Then the message:
THE CAGE REMEMBERS WHAT IT WAS MADE TO HOLD.
Kael's eyes went wide. "It's not a weapon. It was a memory vault. They imprinted sentient minds into bodies—copied them."
"She's more echo than human," Enzo muttered. "They called it Solace. But it was imprisonment."
Suddenly, alarms screamed.
The facility shuddered. Kael slammed his console closed.
"Failsafe's online! It's rigged to self-collapse!"
"MOVE!"
Cain hummed to life as Enzo grabbed Mira, blinking her up the corridor with Cain's teleport burst. Kael dashed up behind them, the ceiling groaning.
They barely cleared the upper lift shaft before the structure began folding in on itself. Steel screamed. Air pressure collapsed. Dust and fragments blew skyward like ash from a volcano.
They stood gasping on the edge of a rain-soaked ridge, watching as the last visible part of Sanctum-13 sank into its grave.
Elsewhere, high in the towers of the capital, Drago Descovinio watched a monitor display the plumes rising from District Harkon.
The masked mercenaries he'd dispatched were gone—killed or vanished—but the destruction was already captured by dozens of media drones. Civilian screams. Children running. Blood painted the streets.
And Zero's mask broadcasted live.
Not Enzo.
A mimic—faceless, mechanical, brutal.
Drago smiled coldly. "They'll never trust him again."
A woman entered behind him, her face obscured.
"Was it necessary to use civilians?"
Drago turned. "It's war. Let them choke on the lies they built."
He walked to a case containing six more masks—replicas. Weapons of narrative.
"Let the world know Zero burns cities. Let AGILA be the ghost that haunts their streets."
Back at the AGILA encampment, Mira sat shaking. Kael scanned her vitals—overload spikes, neural looping. The residue of memories not her own.
"She's remembering things Solace saw," he whispered. "Maybe even future echoes."
Enzo stood silently by the warboard.
The news was playing. Headlines screamed:
ZERO-LED AGILA SLAUGHTERS HUNDREDS IN HARKON.
WHO REALLY COMMANDS THE REBELLION?
They'd turned his rebellion into a symbol of terror.
But the damage wasn't just image—it was trust. Civilians. Allies. Even the fence-sitters would begin to back away.
Kael approached slowly.
"There's a location embedded in the files," he said. "Not a facility. A vault. A fallback node marked 'Echelon'."
Enzo's eyes narrowed.
That was no coincidence.
Cain buzzed at his hip, glowing brighter.
Drago had made his move. Now it was time Enzo made his.