The Cradle – Level Four Corridor

Vex ran.

Lena was clutched against her chest, the girl’s thin arms wrapped around her mother’s neck, her face buried in Vex’s shoulder. Behind them, Sora and the remaining Greenday fighter, a young man named Dorn kept pace, their weapons raised, their eyes scanning the dark corridor for threats.

The emergency lights flickered, casting spasming shadows.

They were close. The eastern gate was three levels up. Julian’s team had cleared the path. They just had to—

A blade of shadow embedded itself in the wall centimeters from Vex’s face.

She skidded to a halt, spinning, shielding Lena with her body.

Alder stepped out of the darkness.

His silver hair gleamed under the emergency lights. His pale blue eyes were calm, almost bored. His arms covered in scars hung at his sides, but his hands were steady. Ready. One arm was already regenerating from where Lena’s decay had destroyed it earlier, the flesh knitting itself back together slowly.

"Commander Vex," Alder said. His voice was soft, polite. "I was sent to retrieve the girl. I didn’t expect to find you carrying her."

Vex’s jaw tightened. "You’re not taking her."

Alder tilted his head. "I wasn’t asking."

He moved.

His body blurred, crossing the distance between them in the span of a heartbeat. His hand, fingers extended like a blade, aimed for Vex’s throat.

Vex dropped. She twisted, keeping Lena protected, and rolled to the side. Alder’s hand passed through the space where her neck had been, embedding itself in the metal wall behind her. He pulled it free, leaving a hole in the steel.

Sora attacked.

[Vibration].

Her palms slammed against the floor. A shockwave rippled through the corridor, cracking the metal, sending Alder stumbling. Dorn followed, his skill [Bone Spurs] sending sharpened projectiles flying from his forearms.

Alder danced between them. His body moved with inhuman grace, each step precise, each dodge effortless. The bone spurs passed harmlessly by. The shockwave dissipated before it reached him.

"You’re wasting my time," Alder said.

He raised his hand.

[Shadow Thread].

Invisible wires of darkness shot from his fingertips, wrapping around Sora’s wrists, her ankles, her throat. She gasped, lifted off the ground, and was slammed against the ceiling.

Sora cried out.

Dorn charged. His forearms sprouted longer spurs, jagged and cruel. He swung at Alder’s head.

Alder caught his arm.

The bones spurs shattered on contact. Alder’s grip tightened. Dorn’s forearm cracked.

"Please," Alder said. "Stop struggling."

He threw Dorn into the wall. The young man’s head struck the metal with a sickening thud. He slumped, unconscious.

Vex stood, Lena still in her arms. Her rifle was gone, lost in the upper levels. Her knife was still in her belt, but she couldn’t draw it. Not while holding her daughter.

"Let her go," Vex said. Her voice was steady despite the fear coursing through her veins. "She’s just a child."

Alder’s pale blue eyes looked at Lena. The girl was trembling, her face still buried in Vex’s shoulder.

"Children grow," Alder said. "They become soldiers. They become enemies." He stepped forward. "Better to end them before they become a threat."

Vex’s hand moved to her knife.

Alder’s eyes tracked the motion. "Don’t."

Sora, still pinned to the ceiling, gasped out a word.

"Now."

A vibration erupted from her body, not aimed at Alder, but at the ceiling itself. The metal above her cracked, buckled, and fell. Chunks of debris rained down on Alder.

He dodged most of them. One piece struck his shoulder, drawing blood.

Vex moved.

She drew her knife and lunged, Lena still clutched against her chest with one arm. The blade aimed for Alder’s throat.

Alder caught her wrist.

His grip was iron. His pale blue eyes locked onto hers.

"You’re brave," he said. "But bravery without strength is just suicide."

He squeezed. Vex’s knife clattered to the floor. Her wrist screamed.

Lena looked up.

The girl’s eyes were no longer empty. They were filled with something else. Something cold.

"Let her go," Lena said.

Alder glanced down at her. "Or what, child?"

Lena raised her hand.

[Decay].

Alder’s grip on Vex’s wrist loosened. His skin turned gray, then black. The flesh on his hand began to flake away, crumbling like ash.

He released Vex and stumbled back, staring at his hand. The decay was spreading up his arm, slow but inexorable.

"What—" Alder’s calm cracked. "What skill is that?"

Lena didn’t answer. Her brown eyes were fixed on him, unblinking.

Vex stared at her daughter. "Lena?"

"The men in the white coats," Lena said quietly. "They gave me something."

Alder’s arm was gone to the elbow now. The decay reached his shoulder. He made a decision quick, brutal, efficient. He raised his remaining hand and severed his own arm at the shoulder with a blade of shadow.

The decayed limb fell to the floor, turning to dust.

Alder stumbled back, blood pouring from the wound. His pale blue eyes were wide now, no longer calm.

But he wasn’t dead.

Not yet.

Sora, freed from the ceiling, slammed into him from behind. Her palms pressed against his temples.

[Vibration].

Alder’s skull vibrated. Blood leaked from his nose, his ears, his eyes. He collapsed to his knees, gasping.

But his eyes found the door at the end of the corridor.

The door to the specimen chamber.

The chamber where the Cradle’s most dangerous creation was kept.

Vex followed his gaze. Her blood ran cold.

"Alder," she said. "Don’t."

Alder smiled. Blood dripped from his teeth.

"Too late," he whispered.

He crawled. One arm, dragging his broken body across the metal floor. Sora tried to stop him, but her skill was exhausted. Dorn was still unconscious. Vex couldn’t shoot, Lena was in her arms.

Alder reached the door.

He pressed his remaining hand against the keypad. His fingers, trembling, typed a code. The door beeped. Unlocked.

"No!" Vex screamed.

Alder pushed the door open.

Inside, the chamber was dark. Cold. Rows of empty tubes lined the walls, their glass fronts shattered or drained. But at the far end, one tube remained intact.

It was filled with a pale, viscous fluid. And inside that fluid, suspended, was a figure.

A man. Or what had once been a man.

Gaunt. Naked. Its skin pale as bone. Its eyes were closed, but even unconscious, its presence pressed against the air like a weight. Tubes and wires connected its body to the machine, feeding it, sustaining it, keeping it in suspended animation.

"The original," Alder gasped, blood bubbling from his lips. "The first successfu spesiment. Subject Zero."

Vex raised her knife. "I’ll kill you before you—"

Alder laughed.

"You’re too late," he said. "I was dead the moment she touched me." He looked at Lena and his smile widened. "But her? She’s just a copy. A pale imitation."

He reached up and grabbed one of the tubes connected to the suspended figure.

And pulled.

The tube detached. The fluid began to drain. The figure’s eyes began to move.

Vex ran.

She grabbed Sora, grabbed Dorn’s collar, and dragged them both toward the stairs.

Behind her, Alder collapsed, his body finally giving out.

But the chamber door was open.

And Subject Zero was waking up.

They reached the stairwell. Two levels up. One level up. The eastern gate.

Then they felt it.

A presence.

It rose from below, climbing the stairs not with speed, but with inevitability. Each step echoed through the metal corridor like a heartbeat.

Vex turned.

The figure emerged from the darkness.

Its skin pale as bone. Its eyes were empty voids. No iris. No pupil. Just white nothing. Its hair hung in lank strands. Its body was covered in scars, surgical incisions, places where flesh had been opened and closed and opened again.

Subject Zero.

It looked at Vex. Its empty eyes passed over her, over Sora, over the unconscious Dorn.

Then it looked at Lena.

And stopped.

For a long moment, nothing moved. The creature stared at the girl. Lena stared back, her brown eyes wide, her small body trembling in her mother’s arms.

The creature’s head tilted. Something flickered in its empty eyes. Recognition? Confusion? Hunger?

Then it turned.

It walked past them, toward the upper levels. Toward the stairs. Toward the throne room where Julian and Darwin were fighting.

But with each step, the air grew colder. The lights flickered. The shadows lengthened.

Vex’s instincts screamed. "We need to warn them."

She ran.

Behind her, Subject Zero climbed.

It was going to the throne room.

And nothing was going to stop it.