Sparks and Silence
The storm had passed... but silence wasn't peace. It echoed louder than thunder ever could.
Riven sat at the edge of the abandoned metro platform, knees pulled up, elbows resting on them. His fingers curled around the memory orb — the faint purple light pulsing softly, casting ghostly glows across his tired face.
His eyes shimmered with it.
Not just from the light... but from the weight it carried.
Pain.
Questions.
Hope, maybe — but the kind that burned slowly. Like a spark refusing to die.
(-_-メ)
Behind him, Kael lay slumped across a dusty bench, breath shallow but steady. The sharp mechanical hum from earlier was gone now.
Human again.
Alive.
His mask — once cruelly fused to his face — now lay cracked beside him like a symbol of everything he used to be.
A prisoner.
A weapon.
A ghost of someone else's control.
(｡•́︿•̀｡)
Kael's silver hair clung to his forehead, wet with sweat, and his fingers twitched like they were still fighting something invisible.
Riven didn't say anything.
He didn't have to.
He didn't blame him either.
---
"His vitals are holding," Liora's voice echoed softly in his mind, gentler than usual.
"Pulse is stabilizing. Neural patterns... messy, but syncing."
Riven exhaled, the breath shaking slightly.
"Will he be okay?"
"Eventually. I think."
"Whatever Echo did when she gave you that orb — it wasn't just data. It unlocked something... deeper. Primal. Emotions can rebuild a mind..."
"...Or break it even more."
He looked over at Kael again.
That terrifying figure he had once faced...
He didn't look dangerous anymore.
He looked like a boy caught in the middle of a war he never asked for.
Just... young.
(つ﹏⊂)
---
"Do you remember anything?" Riven asked, his voice soft — almost fragile.
Kael blinked at the cracked ceiling above them. His lips parted slowly.
"Pain," he whispered.
"The chamber. The collar..."
A pause.
"I remember screaming... but no one heard me." (ಥ_ಥ)
Riven's heart clenched.
He gave a small nod.
"I did."
Kael turned to him — eyes searching, unsure, full of something broken.
"Were we... friends? Before?"
That question hit harder than it should have.
Riven looked away for a moment. Then back.
"I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe not yet. But... we will be."
Kael's lips twitched — a smile not quite formed, but trying.
A beginning.
A fragile one.
But real.
(◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
---
Later, they huddled around a flickering heater, half-broken, stolen from forgotten tunnels.
It hissed and sparked, casting uneven warmth in the cold air.
Kael said nothing.
Just stared.
Riven finally broke the silence.
"There are more, aren't there?"
"Confirmed," Liora answered.
"The Foundation's logs listed six core subjects. You have two. Four remain... active."
Riven's jaw clenched.
"Dante?"
"Most likely Subject 003. High exposure. High control. Zero empathy."
His blood chilled.
"And Echo?"
"...Unknown."
"She doesn't match any files. Either she was wiped... or never meant to exist."
That last part hit harder than anything.
The unknown scared Riven more than enemies did.
Someone like Echo...
Was she a glitch? A savior? A trap?
(•_•;)
---
"Do you trust her?" Kael asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Riven looked down at the orb again.
Still warm. Still alive.
Still... hers.
"I don't know," he said. "But she saved you. That's enough... for now."
Sometimes, that had to be enough.
Trust could wait.
Survival couldn't.
---
Kael stood slowly, unsteady but determined.
"I'm ready."
Riven raised a brow.
"Sure?"
Kael nodded once.
"I'm done being quiet." (ง •̀_•́)ง
Liora's voice chimed in again — snark back in full force.
"Well, if everyone's done brooding like drama queens, I've picked up a signal. Old relay tower — pinged a Foundation beacon two hours ago."
Riven narrowed his eyes.
"Sector 12..."
He stood.
"We go at sunrise."
He looked up through the cracks in the metro ceiling.
Beyond that was the sky.
The world.
The war.
Hunters.
Drones.
Secrets.
And memories too sharp to forget.
But this time...
He wasn't alone.
Not anymore.
(｡•̀‿-｡)✨
---
Burn Marks and Beacons
The sky wasn't black anymore…
But the sun still refused to rise.
A pale gray light crept across the crumbling skeleton of the city.
Riven moved through the broken streets like a ghost — Kael silent beside him, both weaving through the ruins of a world long forgotten. Collapsed buildings loomed like empty gods. Rusted monorails curved above them, lifeless veins of an old machine.
The wind carried the scent of wet ash, charred stone, and distant fire.
The surface wasn't safer than the underground.
Just... quieter.
(-_-メ)
Kael kept his hood up, head lowered, footsteps light. His half-healed face remained hidden — but his eyes… his eyes were different now.
No longer blank.
They moved. Watched. Understood.
He was alive again.
---
"You're being tracked," Liora's voice dropped suddenly in Riven's mind.
"Not Foundation drones. Something colder… older."
Riven tensed.
"Ghost-class?"
"No signals. No sound. Could be... a Fractured."
His fingers twitched.
Under his glove, the sigil stirred — not glowing, but humming.
Waiting.
"I hate walking into things blind," he muttered.
"Welcome to being a fugitive," Liora replied, dry as ever.
Kael glanced over with a half-smirk.
"She always like that?"
"Worse," Riven sighed. "You're hearing her on a good day."
"Rude," Liora huffed.
"I'm your only friend with a built-in satellite scan and sarcasm chip. You'd be dead without me." (≖_≖ )
---
They reached the outskirts of an old transport yard.
Steel and silence.
Twisted train cars stretched across the ground like metal bones. Ahead, a blinking beacon flickered every ten seconds — dim. Struggling.
Riven stopped.
"That the relay tower?"
"What's left of it," Liora replied.
"Signal's dying, but I can patch into its backlogs. Gimme two minutes."
"Cover me," Riven said. He knelt beside the rusted panel, plugged a wire from his wrist into the ancient socket — and sparks crackled out.
Kael stood behind him, alert. Watching rooftops. Shadows.
Then... his voice cut the silence.
"Why did you come back for me?"
Riven kept working, fingers moving steady — but his voice lowered.
"Because they made us both into weapons."
A pause.
"I figured someone should try undoing that."
Kael looked down, hood shadowing his face.
"I don't know who I am anymore."
"You're Kael," Riven said simply.
"And you're not alone."
(つω≦●）
---
"Got it," Liora chimed in.
"Data dump logged here 12 hours ago. Not Foundation. Someone else accessed this tower."
Riven's brows furrowed.
"Who?"
"That's the scary part… There's no signature."
"It's like the system was hacked by nothing."
Kael stiffened.
"What does that even mean?"
"It means someone's covering their tracks better than me," Liora muttered.
"And that's terrifying."
But before Riven could react—
A sharp pulse cut through the air.
High-pitched.
Metallic.
His head whipped to the side.
Far rooftop.
Two blocks over.
A flash of red.
Sniper.
"DOWN!"
Riven lunged — grabbing Kael and pulling him behind a rusted shell of a tram.
CRACK—!!
Stone exploded where they'd just stood.
"THAT'S NOT FOUNDATION TECH!"
"I'M JAMMED!" Liora screamed, static stuttering in Riven's skull.
Another shot.
Closer.
Then...
A whisper.
Not through the air — through the memory.
"Riven."
He looked up — heart hammering.
(⊙_☉)
Across the yard...
A figure.
Still. Shadowed.
Long coat. Thin frame.
A mask of smooth black glass — no mouth. No eyes.
Just a single red line down the center like a scar.
Not a drone.
Not Foundation.
Something else.
A predator.
---
Kael snarled, teeth clenched.
"Let me take them."
"No."
Riven grabbed his arm, holding him back.
"They want us to charge. That's the trap."
He focused — sigil glowing faintly under the glove.
Time bent.
Reality flickered.
Shift.
Two seconds stretched.
Long enough to run.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
(ง •̀_•́)ง💨
They vanished into the alley, boots hammering soaked pavement.
Adrenaline burned in their lungs.
They crashed into a stairwell and collapsed behind a concrete wall — breath ragged, hearts screaming.
"Still think this was a smart plan?" Liora panted.
"No choice," Riven snapped. "We need that server."
Kael looked at him, eyes narrowed, sweat rolling down his cheek.
"That thing…"
"It wasn't Foundation, was it?"
Riven shook his head.
"No."
His voice dropped.
"That was something worse." (ー_ー)!!
----
Far away...
Back at the transport yard...
The masked figure crouched in silence, fingers brushing the shell casing on the ground.
It picked it up.
Turned it slowly in gloved hands.
Then whispered —
"001 is adapting. Good."
And just like smoke—
It vanished.
Into wind and nothing.
(º_º)
---
Broken Circuits, Buried Names
Not all memories were erased.
Some were just... buried.
(╯︵╰,)
----
The vault was forgotten by the world.
But it hadn't forgotten them.
Deep beneath collapsed transit tunnels and layers of earth, the server vault waited — sealed beneath stone, silence, and secrets.
From the outside, it looked like nothing.
A rusted blast door.
Half-covered in moss.
Old Foundation markings nearly erased.
But Riven stood still — staring at it.
He knew.
This place remembered.
"Signal confirmed," Liora said, her voice quieter than usual.
"Secondary Echo-server facility. Records show it went dark before you escaped."
Kael stood at Riven's side, arms folded, scanning the ruin with sharp eyes.
"Why hide memory data here?"
Riven's voice was low.
"Because some of us weren't supposed to forget."
And others… weren't supposed to exist.
---
They forced the blast door open.
The groan of ancient metal echoed through the empty dark.
Air spilled out like a gasp from a sealed tomb.
Dust danced. Shadows stirred.
Inside — a graveyard of forgotten code.
Rows of blackened server towers sagged under the weight of decay. Dead screens. Tangled wires. Mold clinging to everything like veins of the dead.
Kael stepped cautiously.
"This place feels… wrong."
Riven said nothing.
His eyes were already locked on the central console.
He walked to it, slowly. Deliberately.
Placed a hand on the interface.
His sigil blinked. Faint. Familiar.
"Interface detected," Liora announced.
"Vaults contain neural memory cores. Accessing now… decrypting old logs."
"Start with Subject 001," Riven said.
Liora hesitated.
"That's… you."
"I know." (-_-メ)
----
A low hum filled the chamber.
Static.
Lights flickered orange.
Then — the memory bloomed.
A projection, warped with age. Fuzzy around the edges.
A hospital room.
A small boy sat on the bed. Ten, maybe younger.
Dark hair. Tired eyes. A familiar pain etched into his face.
Riven.
Younger. Frailer. Lost.
At the edge of the frame — another boy stood.
Taller. Confident. A silver streak in his hair.
Holding a toy sword like it meant something.
Dante.
(╥﹏╥)
-------
"Don't worry, Riven," Dante's voice echoed from the past.
"If anyone tries to take you away… I'll stop them. Always."
The boy on the bed tried to smile.
"Promise?"
"I swear it."
The image froze mid-frame.
Then — blinked out.
Gone.
-----
Riven stepped back, the silence crawling into his lungs.
Kael looked at him, unsure.
"That was…"
"A long time ago," Riven replied.
His voice was hollow — like the room.
"There are more files," Lioraoffered.
"Want me to open the next one?"
Riven paused.
"No," he said softly.
"Not yet."
-----
Suddenly — click.
Kael turned fast.
"What was that?"
Metal shifted.
Stone grated.
A wall near the rear of the chamber slidopen, revealing a narrow, unlit tunnel.
"That's… not on any blueprint," Liora whispered.
"Something triggered a hidden sub-access path."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"Trap?"
"Maybe," Riven said.
"Or a trail."
And without hesitation — he walked toward it.
Kael followed.
(ง •̀_•́)ง
---
The tunnel led to a chamber smaller and colder than the last.
The walls were lined with fractured data conduits. At the center of the room stood a sealed glass case, soft glow pulsing beneath it.
Inside — a single drive.
Red sigil.
Ancient tech. High-grade encoding. Still alive.
"That's a neural memory core," Liora said,
"Only used for live recordings. Emotional state, thought patterns, memory fragments — everything."
Riven stepped forward.
He wiped the dust away — and read the name burned into the side.
SUBJECT 006 — ECHO (☉｡☉)!
His heart skipped.
Kael moved closer.
"That girl…"
"She was one of us," Riven whispered.
But Liora's voice turned cold.
"Then… why isn't her file in any system?"
The question hung in the air like a guillotine.
No one had an answer.
The silence — crushing.
----
Then—
Metallic footsteps.
Fast. Echoing down the corridor.
"INCOMING!"
"Same signal — the Ghost is back!" Liora barked.
No time.
Riven grabbed the drive and slipped it into his pouch.
"MOVE!"
Kael didn't wait this time.
They bolted.
---
Back in the vault —
The air shifted.
The Ghost entered the chamber.
Silent. Precise.
It walked to the now-empty case.
Stared. Still.
Then — extended one hand.
Red static hummed at its fingertips.
It spoke — voice flat. Inhuman. Icy:
"Subject 006: compromised.
Observation will continue."
Then it turned.
And vanished into the dark.
---
Run Code // Break Chain
Sometimes, to escape a trap,
you have to break the rules that built it.
✧(ʘᗩʘ')
---
The tunnels were tight, cold, and endless.
Their boots pounded against the wet metal floors.
Drips echoed off rusted pipes.
No light. No signs. Just black and breath.
Riven ran — hard. His lungs burned.
Behind him, Kael chased, silent, focused.
No words.
No questions.
Only survival.
Inside Riven's pouch, the memory core glowed —
thump
thump
like a heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
And from behind — something followed.
Always.
Relentlessly.
---
"He's getting closer," Liora said inside Riven's head. Her voice buzzed with urgency.
"That Ghost — it's learning. It's adapting like an AI. But not artificial. Smarter."
"That's not helpful, Liora!" Riven gasped, leaping over debris.
"Then run faster!" (ꐦ°᷄д°᷅)
---
They hit a cross-section — five tunnels stretched ahead like open jaws.
All dark. All wrong.
Kael halted beside him.
"Which one?"
"I don't know!"
"Too much interference," Liora snapped.
"I can't scan underground. You're blind."
No time to think.
Riven picked the centerpath.
They ran.
---
Turn. Turn. Turn again.
Their footsteps echoed like whispers in a war zone.
Then—
Wall.
Dead end.
Kael skidded to a halt.
"This was a trap."
"Yeah, thanks! I noticed!"
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡
Behind them — footsteps.
Slow.
Precise.
Hunting.
---
And then...
He appeared.
The Ghost.
Tall.
Faceless.
A red slash glowing across its mask like a wound that never healed.
Its steps echoed like countdowns.
"He's not chasing you," Liora whispered.
"He's after the core. It's pulling him in."
Kael stepped forward, fists up.
"Then let's give him a reason to stop."
"No." Riven blocked him.
"He'swaiting."
The Ghost didn't charge.
Didn't even flinch.
It knew.
It was confident.
Too confident.
---
"Okay," Liora said suddenly. "You're gonna hate this — but I have an idea."
"We don't have time for drama, Liora!"
"I'm going to overload your time ability. Short-circuit it.
It'll glitch time — confuse his sensors for a few seconds.
It'll hurt. Maybe knock you out. But it's your only shot."
"Wait. Time-glitch?"
"A broken moment. You move through it.
He can't."
"…That's insane."
"Didn't you say you liked insane plans?"
(͡°▿ ʖ͡°)
---
The Ghost took a step forward.
Red energy hummed across its hand.
Riven raised his palm — sigil burning blue like a collapsing star.
Then — pain.
A surge like lightning.
A shockwave through his spine.
He screamed.
And then...
Time shattered.
---
The air around them fractured.
Walls bent.
Reality flickered like a broken screen.
Glitch lines danced in the air like static spiders.
The Ghost — frozen mid-step.
Mask flickering.
Image breaking.
Kael was caught in the ripple — moving in slow blur.
Voices drowned in water.
But Riven grabbed Kael — dragged him forward — through the tear in the world.
A doorway opened ahead.
It didn't exist.
But the glitch made it real.
Just for a second.
They jumped.
---
Snap.
They crashed into a tunnel.
Different.
Wider. Brighter. Clean.
Riven hit the ground hard, chest heaving.
"Where… are we?"
"You just pulled part of the past into the now," Liora said, stunned.
"This tunnel was decommissioned years ago.
But you... made it exist again."
"So I bent time?"
"No."
"You broke it. For one second. But that's enough." (☉｡☉)!
---
Kael sat up, shaking off the disorientation.
"You good?"
Riven nodded.
Barely.
"Just... tired."
He reached into his pouch.
The memory core still pulsed.
Brighter than before.
Kael stared.
"That's hers, isn't it?"
Riven whispered:
"Echo. Subject 006."
"Are you going to open it?"
Riven stared at it for a long moment.
"Not yet. We need to be somewhere safe first."
---
Back in the old tunnel...
The Ghost stood alone.
Unmoving.
Watching glitch-static fade from the walls.
Then, it lifted a hand to its mask.
Spoke into a hidden line:
"Target escaped.
Core recovered.
Awaiting orders."
A cold voice responded.
"Proceed to Phase Two.
Wake the others."
---
What Echo Left Behind
Names can be erased. But memories?
They always Echo.
(•̥̥̥ _ •̥̥̥ )
---
The sun hadn't touched this place in days.
The signal station sat forgotten, deep beneath Sector 12.
Its walls were cracked.
Screens hung lifeless on rusted frames.
Dust floated like falling snow — slow, quiet, weightless.
Riven sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by shadows.
In his hands: the memory core.
It glowed softly.
Not dangerous.
Not loud.
Just... there.
Alive.
Kael slept in the corner — finally breathing steady, finally still.
"Still thinking about it?"
Liora's voice flickered in his head, quiet this time. Not teasing. Not commanding. Just... gentle.
"I said I'd open it when we were safe."
"And this counts as safe?"
"No," headmitted, eyes on the orb. "But it's quiet. And I need to know."
He set the core on the cracked floor.
His palm hovered above it — sigil dimly glowing.
The orb pulsed in response — once, twice — then spun.
And opened.
-------
Light bloomed.
A shimmer of violet spread across the room.
And from it — a memory emerged.
A girl, no older than fifteen, appeared.
Projection warped with static.
But her eyes were sharp. Her coat long. Her stance... defiant.
Echo.
"Test log: Subject 006. Memory checkpoint — day seventy-four."
Her voice was steady.
Worn down, yes. But not broken.
"I've stopped fighting the injections. It doesn't matter. They'll keep coming.
But I started watching them. Learning."
The screen glitched — then continued.
"They think I'm broken.
But I remember more than they want.
My name isn't Echo.
It never was."
A pause.
Her eyes met the lens.
"They gave me that name after they erased the real one."
"If someone finds this — find the others.
We weren't just weapons.
We were supposed to change the world."
The image froze.
Her face held mid-breath.
Then — it faded.
Gone.
---
Riven didn't move.
He just sat in the quiet hum that followed — the ghost of her voice still hanging in the air.
"She remembered," Liora whispered.
"Even after they erased everything. She held on."
"Some part of her still fought," Riven said softly.
Across the room, Kael stirred.
He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
His gaze drifted to the spot where the memory had flickered out.
"She's strong."
Riven nodded.
"She didn't just survive.
She left a map."
---
"There's more," Liora said after a beat.
"Deeper layers inside the core. But they're locked behind heavy encryption.
We'll need better tech to access them."
"Where?"
"Old Foundation relay hub. Just east of this zone. Still has partial power."
Riven stood.
His hand hovered over the now-dormant core.
Its light had dimmed. But its pulse continued — steady, defiant.
"Then that's where we go next."
---
✦ Meanwhile…
High above — on the broken rooftop of a ruined highrise — someone stood in the wind.
A girl.
Barefoot.
Cloaked in a shredded coat.
Her hair danced with the wind, but her body never moved.
Her eyes flickered between violet and silver — like static.
Carved into her collarbone, raw but healing:
SUBJECT 005
She stared down at the storm brewing below.
The tunnels. The signals.
The rising chaos.
And whispered — voice laced with memory and fire:
"So... the ghost remembers."
Then she vanished into the smoke.
---
✦ Elsewhere…
In the underground's coldest chamber,
Dante stood alone in a sealed observation room.
No sound.
Only the glow of one screen — showing Echo's memory log.
The same one Riven had just watched.
Her face. Her voice. Her final words.
A soldier in the back coughed nervously.
"Sir… we didn't know she left a trace."
No answer.
Dante didn't blink.
Didn't flinch.
He just watched.
Silent.
Still.
Then — slowly — he turned.
Walked to a steel vault.
Pressed a code.
The door hissed open with a mechanical exhale.
Inside:
Six floating cores.
Each glowing red.
Each labeled.
Four still active.
But one pulsed erratically.
SUBJECT 005 — SIGNAL DETECTED.
Dante stared at it.
Long. Quiet. Calculating.
Then he whispered:
"They're waking up faster than expected."
He turned to the soldier.
"Prepare Unit 004."
"But sir — 004's unstable—"
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"So is Riven."
-----
Author's Note:
Echo left a message.
But someone else left a warning.
Two memories.
Two paths.
And not everyone wants the truth remembered.
The deeper Riven goes…
the closer he gets to her.