The simulation collapsed in an instant.
One moment Elian was staring at his mother's pod; the next, the ghostly vault around him shattered like glass, and he was back in the stone-and-steel walls of the Underdata Library. The device burned hot against his skin.
Kaia was already moving.
She dragged him to his feet with one hand and slammed the Library's emergency blast door with the other. "Regulators. Four at least. Tracked the activation. We've got maybe ninety seconds."
Elian's ears were ringing from the sudden change in pressure. "How did they find us so fast?"
Kaia shoved a handheld pulse grenade into his palm. "Every time you open that device, it sings. If they're listening, they can follow the melody."
"I didn't even know I opened it."
"Doesn't matter. The Vault recognized you. That's enough to mark you as a breach-class anomaly."
The Archivist appeared, his expression grim. "We can stall them."
Kaia narrowed her eyes. "Not if it gets you killed."
The old man shook his head. "Our purpose is memory. And memory must be protected."
He motioned to the robed assistants. "Initiate Protocol Veritas."
They moved quickly—gathering scrolls, reels, and inkbooks, dumping them into narrow chutes behind the archive shelves. A backup system Kaia had once told Elian was purely myth.
Turns out most myths were real in the end.
They ran.
Down the lower levels, through maintenance shafts lined with rusted cables and choking dust. Kaia's every motion was rehearsed, like she'd escaped this place once before. Elian stumbled behind her, fingers tight around the pulse grenade, the device still strapped against his chest.
Behind them, a muffled explosion.
Then the tremble of boots.
Kaia swore under her breath. "They breached the upper floor."
"Why don't we fight?" Elian asked, panting.
"Because they don't send Regulators to fight," she said grimly. "They send them to erase."
They reached a steel ladder.
"Down," she ordered. "Now."
Elian descended blindly, lungs heaving.
Below: an old tram tunnel. Long decommissioned. Water pooled across the broken rails, and the air smelled of machine rot.
Kaia dropped beside him, already scanning the darkness.
"We're two klicks from Bastion's outer shell," she said. "If we stay in the tunnel, we can breach the shell directly. No checkpoints."
Elian's breath caught. "You want to go to Bastion?"
"You saw your mother. You know what they've done." Her voice was steady now, hard. "This isn't just about surviving anymore, Elian. We end this, or we vanish like the others."
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
A second later, the tunnel lights behind them flared white.
A figure stepped into view—tall, armored, and walking with calm precision.
A Regulator Commander.
Kaia's voice dropped. "That's Commander Lorne."
"You know him?"
"I used to report to him."
Lorne stopped twenty meters away.
His voice echoed down the tunnel, deep and smooth.
"Elian Voss. You're in possession of ChronoCorp property. And you've accessed restricted Vault intelligence. Under current code, you qualify for forced temporal reclamation."
Elian lifted the grenade slightly. "Come closer and I throw it."
Lorne didn't move. "You're afraid. That's reasonable. The truth does that."
Kaia raised her weapon. "You have no jurisdiction here, Lorne."
He smiled beneath his helmet. "You forfeited the right to speak for jurisdiction when you went rogue, Kaia."
"You're not taking him."
"I don't want to take him." His eyes shifted to Elian. "I want him to understand. Before the system breaks him."
Elian narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"
Lorne tilted his head. "You think your mother's stasis was a mistake. It wasn't. She chose it. She made a private deal to convert her remaining time into preservation. She wanted you to live."
Elian's heart stuttered. "That's a lie."
"Is it?" Lorne stepped forward slowly. "There are always sacrifices, Elian. The system doesn't steal. It bargains. Your mother was brilliant. She saw what was coming. She saw you. And she chose the vault to give you a future."
Kaia fired.
The shot clipped Lorne's shoulder. He didn't flinch.
Elian snapped.
He hurled the pulse grenade down the tracks.
It detonated in a flare of white noise and distortion.
Kaia grabbed Elian and pulled him through the side access hatch as alarms screamed behind them and the tunnel filled with static pulses.
They emerged into a wind-swept corridor—the outer shell of Bastion in sight.
Kaia dragged a makeshift patch over the hatch behind them, sealing it.
Then turned to Elian.
"You okay?"
He didn't answer right away.
Finally, he looked at her. "What if he's telling the truth?"
Kaia's jaw clenched. "Then your mother gave you a second chance. So what are you going to do with it?"
Elian looked out across the broken horizon—toward the shell of Bastion, where the Vault waited beneath the earth.
"I'm going to find her."