/~Contrario~/
PRESENT. -
The POF station hissed shut behind me as I stepped out, the digital fog still clinging to my clothes like residue from another world. My boots echoed through the steel hallway, the same compound, same rust-stained corridors, same flickering lights like broken memories trying to come alive.
I hadn't been back here since the last time Axel tried to convince me to burn bridges and build new ones from ash. He was trying to get me to go back to who I was. I had rejected them at the time. I had something going at Irish Valley, I had family, I had a friend, Renn.
And yet… I was walking straight in.
No backup. No comms. No Stray in my ear this time. Just me and whatever was waiting behind that door.
The lift vibrated softly as it moved up, floor by floor. My HUD ran ambient scans. Nothing hostile flagged. No tripwires. No killzones.
That made me even more uneasy.
