Zane's ears rang from something inside his head. The escorting footsteps, the hum of AI machines, all of it was gone. Yet somehow the pressure still pulsed through him.
Breathing felt strange, almost like his lungs had forgotten how to work. Each breath was shallow, disconnected. His fingers twitched. His legs felt heavier than they should. It was as if gravity itself had shifted and his body was still trying to adjust.
They had dressed him in a free body long pajama, fitting his body build as he was escorted to a room that didn't feel like one.
The room was white, too white. No corners. No shadows. Just smooth walls that gave him nothing to hold onto. His mind reached for something—sound, motion, warmth—but all it got was silence. A thick, cold silence pressed against his thoughts.
Then, out of nowhere, a voice cleared its throat. "Ahemmmm." It echoed around him, deep and sharp, as if the walls had spoken. It was too clear to be real, too smooth to be fully human.
"Subject 0000001. Zane Everhart." Zane spun around but there was no one there. The voice came from everywhere at once.
"Among the casualties in Sector B-12A it appears you are the only survivor of Ascension Protocol, barely," the voice said.
His throat tightened. "Who are you?" he rasped, voice gravelly.
"I am Dr. Steven Ray. One of the Overseers."
Zane frowned. "Overseers?"
The wall fractured for a second, a ripple like broken glass beneath a frozen screen. A memory clawing through code.
On that spot the speaker's image appeared, thin and older, sharp eyes glowing cyber-blue behind his glasses. The black lab coat he wore pulsed with soft electric lines.
"The Overseers," Dr. Ray went on, "are the minds behind Project Ascension. We set its rules, watch its results, shape its future. And you, Zane Everhart, are the first glitch we did not code."
The word hit Zane like a punch to the gut. "Glitch? I was not even supposed to survive?"
"Yes," Ray said flatly. "Your pod failed. Neural syncing failed. You had eighty-seven percent brain corruption. Yet you still stabilized."
Zane's hands trembled, not from fear…he wished it was fear.
Then a faint, impossible scent hit him: rose water and citrus, a smell that did not belong in this sterile box of light. But it stabbed through him like a spike.
Mom. The hospital room, fluorescent lights buzzing, her skin waxy, her smile tired. Wires ran from her wrist to a slow-beeping monitor.
"Promise me, Zane," she whispered in his thoughts "Promise you will come back."
Her hand, cold and fragile but stronger than it should have been, tightened around his. That grip stayed with him, wrapped around his bones.
He staggered back. The room swam. The white walls pressed in as if they knew. He swayed, catching himself with one hand. That memory did more than flash, it pulled at his heart.
"Why? Why am I still here?" he asked, voice barely more than a whisper.
"Unknown," Dr. Ray answered. "But anomalies bring insight. And maybe, in your case, hope."
Zane looked up, eyes burning. "She is not gone. You scrubbed the records but you did not touch the bond. I feel it and that is something your data cannot erase."
"That data should not accessible to you, not yet."
"I do not care about data," Zane snapped. "I remember how she smiled at me, how she always waited on the porch when I got home. I made a promise."
The wall shifted again. Ray's image faded. Now data logs and vitals appeared, along with a blinking line that read:
ASC_PROT_01: FRACTURED CODE
"You are no longer just human," Ray said. "You are part of the protocol now, modified and changed in ways we do not fully understand."
"Modified how?" Zane rasped.
Ray tilted his head. "Your brain map does not match any known human scan. You react to danger before it happens. Your heartbeat spikes before a threat arrives. You predict patterns, maybe even influence outcomes. All these were patterns your display showed us."
Zane blinked. The air felt charged. Every light pulse on the wall, every moment in that room, he could feel.
"That is not instinct," Ray went on. "That is preconscious processing as we know it. You are not just alive, Zane. You read the simulation like a second language."
"I still remember her," Zane said quietly, ignoring Ray's message to him. "You did not take that from me."
A sudden flicker cut in. The screen showed an image of his mother, broken and stuttering like a damaged signal.
"Za—I'm—so proud—"
"No," he whispered, stepping back. "Stop it!"
The image snapped away.
"This is your fracture," Ray said calmly. "A split between two lives: one you were born to, and one we made."
Zane clenched his fists, heart pounding. "I came here for one reason. I needed credits for her treatment. I did not volunteer for your experiment to be caged."
"No one chooses to become a god," Ray said, voice cold. "But you already are one. You have not just accepted it yet."
The room changed. Lights dimmed into deep blue. A circle glowed under Zane's feet. Strange blue runes formed around him like digital symbols mixed with ancient script.
His vision flickered. Data floated before him:
{INITIALIZING MISSION INTERFACE: PLAYER ONE - ASCENSION
Test: Fracture Simulation. Psychological Endurance. Emotional Recall. Combat Readiness.
Goal: Reclaim Full Memory
Simulation Starting…}
"Stop it!" he yelled, slamming his hands into the floor.
A pulse burst outwards like a wave, cracking the ground and sending sparks flying. Cameras shattered. The walls quaked.
His hands shook. His eyes glowed blue. The simulation disappeared.
He backed away, chest heaving.
Then the door behind him hissed open and five guards entered, armor clad and rifles charged with plasma units.
"Hands in the air!" they shouted.
Zane raised his hands but something changed in him. His vision blurred.
{SYSTEM: Dual Consciousness Detected - Host Integrity Failing
Override Engaged: Identity 'ZAIN' Downloading...}
Zane's head tilted. His arms fell. His face went still and his body collapsed on his knee.
Dr. Ray's voice came over the speakers. "Zane Everhart, respond."
Zane did not move.
A guard moved closer and jabbed him with his rifle. Nothing. He jabbed again.
Click.
In one blur, Zane grabbed the gun, spun, and locked the soldier in a tight hold, weapon at his head.
"Do. Not. Move," he said to the other officers in a voice that was deeper and sharper, not his.
The guards tensed.
"Let him go!" one barked, rifles lifting.
Zain studied them. "Let him go? Such soft bodies. I can feel every weak part of you."
"Zane?" Dr. Ray's voice cut in. "Stand down."
Zain blinked slowly, head tilting to the voice. "Oh, the milk ghost speaks."
He flashed a crooked grin. "Tell me, does your god code always wear such pathetic skin?"
Zain's body twitched. A glitch ran across his face. The HUD read:
{SYSTEM OVERRIDE: Transitioning User Interface
NEW IDENTITY: ZAIN - Corrupted Host
Status: Ten minutes until host recovery
Threats Detected: Five. Eliminate to Ascend
Primary Objective: Locate Mother}
His eyes gleamed. The soldier quivered.
"You have ten seconds!" another guard yelled, rifles steady.
Zain smiled. He threw the hostage's rifle to the side, then snapped the soldier's neck. Plasma bolts struck the dead man's back.
In seconds, Zain moved like a force, not a man. He crushed one guard's rifle, headbutted him until the helmet cracked. The guard went limp.
The next guard tried to shoot but Zain was already there, sweeping his legs out. Zain's fist slammed into his ribs. Silence followed.
Two guards hesitated. Zain met their eyes with a grin.
Before they could act, he ripped one rifle from its sling and snapped it in his hand. He headbutted the guards together as their body hit the floor.
The last guard turned to run.
Zain glitched. Then a hand landed on the runner's shoulder, a quiet question followed: "Your blood is humming. That trembling under your skin, is that what fear feels like on this side?"
The guard froze.
Snap. His body fell.
Zain stood over the wreckage. Five trained soldiers went down in less than thirty seconds. He rolled his neck in relief cracks, breathing steady, but his hands trembled. Something inside him was waking up.
Silence crept in again. Then thunderous footsteps and alarms behind the door. Dr. Ray's voice echoed: "Zane! You must resist! That body still belongs to—"
"To me," Zain growled turning sharply to Dr Ray. "He does not even know what he is yet, so shut up, holographic milk ghost."
{ANTI-GLITCH PROTOCOL DEPLOYMENT: T MINUS 06:44}
Zain twitched as a voice pushed through: "You will come back to me, won't you, Zane?"
He blinked. A bed. A woman he did not know—or did he? A memory too real to ignore.
"Mother," he whispered, shaking his head to clear it. "What a fragile thing to fight for."
{Objective Reinstated: Locate Mother - Coordinates Unknown}
He turned and dashed towards the smooth white walls. Three terrifying punch tore the wall open. Routes lit up in his vision ahead. He ran.
"Full lockdown on Sector B!" Ray yelled, hands on his ear. "Do not let him escape!"
But Zain was gone, lost in the corridors as alarms blared behind him.
Inside the shell of his body a voice screamed: Clawing.
Zane.
And as he raced into the dark, a whisper slipped from his lips with a smirk: "You'll never find her without me."