"I'm walking like a drunk spider."
Zora flailed forward, arms out, legs stiff as steel rods, and nearly face-planted into the wall.
Vektar, standing a safe distance away, tilted his head. "Your balance calibrators are syncing. Give it time."
She spun around—or tried to. Her left leg jerked awkwardly, overcorrected, and sent her spinning into a nearby shelf stacked with ancient data disks. They clattered to the floor in a noisy avalanche.
"I swear, if one more part of me squeaks or twitches, I'm ripping it off with my teeth."
"Not advisable," Vektar replied calmly, crossing his arms. "Your jaw isn't reinforced yet."
Zora shot him a glare. "You've got jokes now? I wake up half-robot, my parents are gone, the kingdom's in ruins, and you're cracking cyborg puns."
He didn't smile, but something flickered in the human half of his face. "Your humor survived. That's promising."
"Yeah, well, apparently my dignity didn't."
She took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders, and tried again. This time, her legs responded smoother—less clangy, more… coordinated. Her spine adjusted. Gears clicked softly under her skin.
Zora stopped in the center of the room, facing a tall, cracked mirror. Her reflection looked back—one eye bright green, the other glowing blue. Her both of her arms was entirely metal, from shoulder to fingertip. Her ribs on one side showed seams. And yet… it was still her.
Or something like her.
"Tell me the truth," she said, voice lower now. "What all did you change?"
Vektar approached. "Only what I had to. Your spine was shattered. Your lungs punctured. Your heart… stopped. Three times. The rest—"
"Rewired," she finished for him. "Nice title drop, by the way."
He nodded. "You're faster. Stronger. Smarter, in time. But the process isn't complete. You were supposed to sleep twenty years. Something disrupted the countdown."
Zora's eyes narrowed. "What could do that?"
"I don't know yet. But it wasn't random."
A sharp pain pulsed behind her eyes—fast, like a flash grenade going off in her brain. Suddenly, she was there again: red lightning, her father's blood, Horam whispering filth into her ear.
Her fists clenched.
"I saw him in my dream. Horam." Her voice turned brittle. "And I remembered something. He said... he'd make me suffer. He said—" She paused, then cracked a hollow grin. "Actually, never mind. I'm too pretty for that scene."
Vektar's mechanical fingers twitched. "Dreams can carry truth. And warning."
Zora turned away from the mirror. "So who betrayed us?"
Vektar said nothing.
"Don't look all mysterious-cyborg mentor on me," she snapped. "I want names."
He met her gaze. "There were many who turned when they saw Horam's power. But one… was in the palace. Close."
The pain behind her eye spiked again.
"A friend?"
Vektar's silence was answer enough.
She drew a shaky breath. "Great. Trust issues unlocked. What's next? Someone stole my favorite boots too?"
"Possibly. It's been seven years."
Zora blinked, then let out a sharp laugh. "Fantastic. Let's go. I want to see what seven years of betrayal looks like."
Later, above ground...
The bunker's exit groaned open for the first time in years. Rusted gears turned, scraping against stone. Dust exploded outward in a metallic gasp.
Zora stepped into the ruins of the Hall of Origins, once a marble cathedral of innovation. Now, it was a crumbling shell—pillars snapped, walls scorched, its grand ceiling gaping open like a wound. Vines strangled old machines. Black soot coated everything.
The sky above was choked with smoke. Drones buzzed faintly in the distance. No birds. No wind. Just silence.
Zora stared, unmoving.
"This was where my father stood when he declared the dawn of the Third Reign," she said quietly. "He said the kingdom would rise on knowledge, not just war."
She looked around.
"Well… it rose, all right. Straight into the abyss."
Vektar didn't answer. His optics scanned the horizon. "Horam's sentries don't patrol this zone often. But we should move soon."
Zora exhaled slowly. "Lead the way, tin man."
"I'm not—"
"It's affectionate," she cut in, smirking. "I'm healing through sarcasm."
Zora took another step forward, breathing in the dusty air of the ruined city. Her gaze swept across the skeletal remains of Songrin, now nothing more than a hollow husk. Once, this place had been a proud kingdom—now, only shattered memories remained.
"It's worse than I thought…" she murmured under her breath.
Suddenly, her vision flickered. The ground beneath her seemed to tilt sideways, then right itself. Her body jerked again, this time uncontrollably. The world spun faster, blurring in a kaleidoscope of lights and shadows.
"Zora?" Vektar's voice was faint behind her, distorted. "Focus. Focus on the ground. Take it slow."
But Zora couldn't hear him. A buzzing noise filled her ears, growing louder, then sharper. Her body spasmed. She barely managed to stay upright as her hands pressed against the cracked stone of the city's entrance.
Her vision clouded. Her heart raced, its pulse erratic. She looked down at her left hand—it trembled. Gears grinding inside, firing too fast.
No... Her thoughts fragmented. She staggered forward, her legs locking up, her entire body shaking.
This isn't me. This is a malfunction.
A sharp pain shot through her skull. She staggered back, her hand reaching to hold her temple, her breathing labored.
Then, a voice—so soft, so faint, but unmistakably hers.
"Zora..."
Zora froze.
It was her mother's voice. Her real mother.
She staggered back, eyes wide. She turned, searching for the source. But there was nothing.
Vektar was speaking, but she couldn't hear him. The world around her felt like it was being drowned out.
"Zora... listen to me." Her mother's voice cut through the haze, clearer now. "I knew they would come for me. I knew it was only a matter of time... but you, my love—you must never trust him. Vektar... he's—"
Zora gasped. "No... no, this isn't real." She stumbled backward, her vision cracking in and out. "I'm hearing things... I'm losing it."
The voice was still there, though, unrelenting. "Zora, you're waking too soon. They'll use you—take you—hurt you. Run... Run far away."
She dropped to her knees, hands clutching her head. The pain was unbearable now.
"Zora!" Vektar's voice finally broke through, his metal fingers grabbing her shoulders. "You need to calm down! You're glitching! This isn't—"
Her mother's voice echoed again, this time more urgently, almost pleading. "Zora... don't trust him. Don't trust Vektar!"
Zora's eyes widened in disbelief. She looked up at him, her breaths shallow. "What... what did you do to me? What are you hiding?"
Vektar froze, his expression unreadable, his mechanical eye whirring slightly. "What do you mean?"
Before Zora could respond, the ground beneath her trembled—a low hum vibrating through the city. At first, it was barely noticeable, but the tremors grew louder.
Zora blinked, her heartbeat hammering in her chest. It wasn't just a tremor. It was something… more.
Then she heard it. A soft beep. A notification pinging in the back of her mind.
Her eyes darted to the ground, then back to Vektar. "Vektar, we need to move. Now."
His expression darkened. "It's too soon. We're exposed."
"I don't care. That sound—we've been found."
The ground shook harder now. Zora could feel the vibration in her bones, in her cybernetic parts. Something was coming.
Vektar scanned the horizon. His mechanical eye flashed green, then red. His voice was cold. "It's him. He knows you're awake."
Zora felt her blood run cold.
The Black Core—an ancient system, a hidden network under Songrin, had just activated. A signal was sent.
Zora's hand tightened around a hilt she hadn't noticed she was gripping. Her cybernetic arm gleamed in the dim light, the fingers already twitching as if anticipating the fight to come. But before she could speak, a voice crackled through a nearby surveillance drone—a low, mechanical sound.
A distorted message, broadcasting from the ruined palace. The voice that followed made Zora's blood run cold.
"So the little doll has woken early."
She turned slowly, her stomach churning. The words came through the drone, their source clear now.
It was Horam.
"Send the Hunters. Find her. Terminate on sight."
Zora's breath caught. This was it. The moment she was reborn. The moment the hunt began.
She could feel it in her bones. The kingdom was coming for her.
And she wasn't sure if she was ready.
But it didn't matter. She would fight. She would fight them all.