Location: Atlas Safehouse, Tavara Highlands
The wind howled outside the secluded stone mansion nestled in the highlands, its walls reinforced but aged with time. Inside, a warm fire crackled while Victor sat across from Damien, their conversation heavy with the tension of unresolved questions.
Damien leaned forward, his voice low. "You didn't just bring him back because he's a clone. There's more to V-One's existence… isn't there?"
Victor's gaze didn't waver. "He's the key to understanding everything Dominion built. Their science. Their strategy. Their fear."
Damien clenched his fists. "And you trust him not to turn on us?"
Victor paused. "He doesn't know how to be human. But he wants to learn. And sometimes… that's more powerful than being born one."
---
Location: Atlas Data Core Room
Zuri typed rapidly at the terminal while Echo floated as a hologram beside her, transmitting decrypted code.
"These strings match Dominion's neurological override patterns," Echo explained. "But someone rewrote them—recently."
Zuri frowned. "That's impossible. Only I had access to his override sequencing... and I didn't touch this."
Echo's tone changed. "Then someone else inside Atlas did."
Zuri's breath hitched. "A traitor?"
Echo's projection pulsed. "Or a ghost in the system. Either way, someone is tampering with V-One's identity code."
---
Location: Training Arena, Midnight Session
Nora faced V-One under the floodlights. He stood shirtless, muscles rippling under artificial moonlight, expression unreadable. She tossed him a staff.
"You've improved," she said.
"I process your movements now," he replied. "But I haven't learned unpredictability."
She grinned. "That's because unpredictability isn't taught. It's lived."
They sparred fiercely. V-One's strikes were clean, but lacked the instinctive chaos that made Nora dangerous. She knocked him off-balance and pinned him to the mat.
"You think like a machine," she said, breathing hard. "But fighting isn't always logical. You have to feel."
V-One stared up at her, chest rising and falling.
"I don't know how."
She didn't move from her position above him. "Then let me show you."
---
Location: Dominion Covert Operations Vessel – Orbiting Tavara
In the shadows of the stratosphere, a sleek black vessel remained cloaked in low orbit. Inside, Commander Thorne stood before a projection of V-One's neural imprint.
"He's beginning to deviate," Thorne said coldly. "If he continues this path, he could destabilize the entire plan."
The Dominion AI responded: "Then send the trigger."
Thorne nodded. "Operation Nemesis begins now. We let him remember what we buried."
A final command was input, and far below, something deep within V-One's neural core began to flicker… an old memory file slowly unlocking—a locked vault of agony and rage.