"To leave the past behind is easy. To know who you are without it—that's the war."
---
The old train rumbled slowly through the cracked tunnel leading toward the surface. Inside, Kael sat alone. He hadn't spoken since leaving the Silent Zone. The red glow from the emergency panel reflected off his cold skin—but what was quieter than anything else was the silence inside his mind.
It had been two hours since he told Liora that this wasn't about trust—it was about what might have been planted inside their bodies, without their knowledge. But ever since the metal doors shut and their world was severed, regret crept in like an invisible crack.
He touched the back of his neck—the place where the chip had once been. Now it was gone. But the guilt was like a new chip: unseen, yet active.
"I don't know who I'm supposed to protect. But I know... I've lost something I can never get back."
---
In a dark service car at the rear, three hooded dwarves exchanged silent hand signals. Unknown to the Omega-2 system, unregistered by any roster, they'd boarded even before Kael's team. They hid in the technical corridor filled with static dust—one of them opened a floor panel, another placed a flat device against the metal wall.
"Exit bypass armed," whispered a mechanical voice.
They were not part of Kael's mission. They had their own agenda.
"We don't want a new world. We want to take back what was stolen."
And before anyone noticed, they vanished through a maintenance shaft. No sound. No trace.
---
In another carriage, Jaro, Lisse, and Daryn gathered around a worn-out map. Their conversation was quiet, but packed with strategy.
"We'll be picked up at the border and taken to Santra-Vault," said Jaro.
"Santra-Vault? Isn't that the Pure Data repository before Helix was built?" Lisse asked.
"Yeah. There's an old tunnel beneath the desert. The access is unstable—but still passable."
Daryn let out a low whistle. "Crazy… You think Kael wants to rescue the people Nexus abducted?"
"I don't know," Jaro replied. "But he's heading for the Helix Gate. That place is packed with mines and biological defense systems."
"Is he planning to blow it up? Awesome." Daryn chuckled.
Kael sat nearby, staring blankly at the metal wall. Silent. Cold. Until Lisse stepped closer and said:
"Kael, you're the one who makes crazy plans actually work. It's time."
Kael turned slowly. His voice was heavy.
"Sorry. I'm just trying… to remember what it feels like to be human."
Silence fell. The others exchanged glances. They knew Kael's separation from Liora had shaken him to the core.
---
In another part of the train, Rav was tapping into signals from the rear.
"You're right, Nyx. They're heading to the Helix Gate."
Nyx smirked, sketching a fresh layout of the train using her digital pencil, marking emergency cables and possible service hatches.
"What is Kael Vale looking for in the Helix Gate? That place is hellish. And the underground tunnels? They're under the burning desert. We'll be roasted meat," Rav shivered.
Nyx paused her drawing. "I have a solution."
"What is it?"
"I'll think of one later."
"Ugh!" Rav groaned. Nyx turned calmly to Pari.
Pari, adjusting an old locking mechanism, handed over an electromechanical weapon prototype.
"If this works," Nyx said, "we can open the door without triggering Omega-2's systems."
They moved fast. Even if the world above offered no safety, at least they wouldn't arrive empty-handed.
A blurry projection of the Helix map flickered to life. Nyx pointed at a red mark.
"Northwest point. The track ends there, but ruins of the Old Node still stand. That's where the backup data center is hidden."
"Are we going in there?" asked Rav. Nyx nodded. "What for?"
Pari looked up. "Radiation suits."
"Gods… that place," Rav gulped. Nyx's idea was terrifying.
"How do we get in?" Rav asked. "Waltz up to the front gate and wave at the cameras?"
Pari's side lens scanned the train's pulse.
"There's a buried service hatch under the rubble. But it has to be opened manually."
Two minutes to stop. No room for error.
---
The train finally halted at a secret station on the desert border. The tracks didn't go any further. This was where the old world ended—and the world they sought began.
"Time to shed the old face," Jaro whispered.
---
The dwarf team arrived first. With forged documents, encrypted identities, and carefully innocent expressions, they posed as techno-history students from Arvas Old University. An old public bus took them in without question. Who'd suspect kids from some rural research institute?
Nyx had planned this long ago. They wanted out of Omega-2, and Kael was the spark. More than that, Kael was their inspiration to fight the system.
Rav sat in the back, hiding a scanner in his dusty bag. Nyx monitored the data stream. Pari flipped through a worn book titled Military Architecture Ethics – Pre-Helix Era.
They were once orphans, abandoned and forgotten. Now, they were legal shadows in a digital world. Omega-2 and the revolution shaped them into what they were. Great. A word that defined them—in their own eyes.
"If you don't praise yourself, who will?" Rav grinned.
---
Elsewhere, The Legend team arrived at midnight—transported by unmarked, silent vehicles with lights off. They couldn't take the public bus—Wanted Class-1 notices were plastered across every border town. Faces of Kael, Lisse, Jaro—stamped: DANGEROUS. DO NOT APPROACH. REPORT TO NEXUS TASK FORCE.
As they disembarked, synthetic masks and old garments were handed out. Lisse carried a small box of mortician-grade cosmetics.
"Before I was a soldier, I prepared corpses," she said. "And corpses... must never be recognized."
Kael stared at his new reflection in the vehicle's metallic surface. Not just his face had changed—his life had been rewritten.
---
Two teams. Two paths. One fate.
The dwarves slipped through the unforgiving heat of day, carrying false maps and real resolve.
The Legends emerged beneath a fading moonlight—new faces, old intentions. Not to survive.
But to tear it all down.