[LOCATION: SPIRIT RELAY TOWER RUINS – SECTOR 11 OUTSKIRTS]
Lightning carved veins through the ash-colored sky. The relay tower loomed, half-collapsed, its skeletal frame twisted like melted scaffolding. What once pulsed with energy now sat silent—drained.
Lin crouched over a pile of scorched rubble. He brushed away the debris to reveal a glint of silver embedded deep in the wreckage.
"Found another one," he said.
Nel moved beside him. "Same shape as before?"
"Worse." He plucked it out with forceps—a black metallic seed, no larger than a child's tooth, covered in tiny fractal veins.
Nel frowned. "These things weren't made by Syndicate engineers. The design… it's almost organic."
Lin turned the seed in his fingers. "Whatever fried this relay—it started from the inside."
They exchanged a look. These towers weren't just energy nodes—they were lifelines. If the relays kept failing, entire inner zones would collapse into darkness.
"How many of these were taken out?" Nel asked.
"Four. In one week. All in sectors tied to Reactor-born monitoring." Lin's tone darkened. "They're not random hits. They're erasing us."
Before Nel could answer, the air shifted.
A subtle tremor. Then another.
The next second—ground split beneath them.
---
[AMBUSH – NOCTURNE STRIKE]
The quake threw Nel back as Lin rolled into a crouch. From the cracked concrete rose a man with silver dreadlocks and bare arms covered in scars like battle etchings. His fingers snapped—and the earth trembled again.
"Let's shake things up," the man said.
Lin's eyes narrowed. "Mael Vok."
"Black Sector taught you well," Mael grinned. "I remember you, Lin. You watched while they cut me open. Now I return the favor."
Behind Mael, a girl stepped forward. Barefoot, eyes blank, her body shimmered slightly—like light refracted through glass.
Ona.
And beside her, a tall figure clad in blood-stained lab scrubs and surgical gloves, face hidden behind a birdlike porcelain mask.
Severin.
"Is this the one?" Severin asked. His voice rasped like rusted scalpels. "The experiment that lived?"
"Indeed," Mael said. "And the girl with him—she's even more fascinating."
Nel drew her blade. "You'll have to dissect me while I'm still breathing."
"Encouraging," Severin purred.
---
[BATTLE – CHAOS UNLEASHED]
Mael clapped his hands—and the very air rippled. A sonic shockwave blasted outward, throwing Lin against a scorched pillar. Bones rattled, joints spasmed. Mael's ability wasn't just vibration—it amplified resonance through marrow.
Nel charged, engaging Severin in close quarters. He fought like a serpent—needles flicking from his coat sleeves, trying to inject her with unknown serums. She dodged, slashed, barely nicking his arm.
Meanwhile, Ona stood still.
Watching.
Then she moved.
Straight at Lin.
He activated his Reactor Ring, red aura sparking around him. "Stay back."
But Ona's core shimmered—absorbing his frequency like a prism. A ghostly version of his aura burst from her spine.
Nel gasped. "She's copying you—!"
Too late.
Ona raised her palm, and from it, a mimic burst of Lin's signature resonance slash fired directly at him. Lin blocked, but the shock stunned his senses.
She spoke for the first time—voice hollow, eyes distant.
> "Rune... is not dead."
The world slowed.
Lin's pupils dilated. His breath hitched.
"What did you say?"
Ona tilted her head. "I saw her pattern. It's buried deep in your signal. But it's alive."
Then, in a blink—Nocturne retreated.
A flash grenade detonated, white-hot. When Lin and Nel recovered—Mael, Ona, and Severin were gone.
Only the metallic seeds remained. And a silence that hurt more than the wound in Lin's ribs.
---
[POST-BATTLE – TEMPORARY SAFEHOUSE]
Rain battered the safehouse's roof like static on a dying channel.
Lin sat shirtless, applying sealant to his bruised ribs. He hadn't spoken in nearly thirty minutes.
Nel stood in the doorway. She wanted to say something. Anything.
But her chest was tight.
Rune is not dead.
She saw Lin's hands tremble.
"Is it true?" she finally asked.
"I don't know," Lin said. "Ona's ability... it doesn't lie. She mimics by absorbing core resonance. That voice she spoke with—it wasn't hers."
"You think it was Rune?"
He looked at her—eyes raw. "A part of her, maybe. A message encoded in my ring. Or something deeper. Something still alive."
Nel turned away, jaw tight.
He didn't notice.
He was already lost to the memory.
---
[NEL'S INNER MONOLOGUE]
> I see the way he looked when he said her name.
Not grief. Not longing. Hope.
Hope is worse. It means she still holds him.
I was never meant to replace her. But I hoped… I could become something more.
Now I wonder if I ever truly had a place in his heart.
Or if I've only ever been a shadow beneath Rune's light.
---
[ELSEWHERE – NOCTURNE MOBILE BASE]
Mael cracked his knuckles. "Ona, that wasn't part of the script."
Ona sat curled in a corner, knees to chest, eyes flickering with red and blue pulses.
"Her core's destabilizing," Severin said. "Lin's frequency might've triggered suppressed data. Perhaps Rune's residue wasn't fully erased after all."
"She's not residue," Ona whispered. "She's awake."
Severin smiled behind his mask. "Then let's hope she wakes up somewhere... useful."
---
[FINAL SCENE – LIN'S DREAM]
He stood in a hallway of mirrors—each one reflecting a different version of himself.
Bloodied. Lost. Cold.
Then one reflection changed.
A girl with silver hair stood behind the glass. Rune.
She reached toward him—lips moving without sound.
He pressed his hand against the mirror.
"Rune…?"
Then the glass cracked.
---
TO BE CONTINUED...