Unlocking the PastI slam the data spike into his chest.Zero jerks, his entire body tensing like a coiled wire as the foreign code surges into his system. His head snaps back, a garbled noise escaping his throat—half human, half raw static. His glowing white eyes flicker violently, his form glitching as reality itself fights to hold him together.For a moment, I think it’s working.Then, suddenly—Zero roars.A wave of sheer force erupts from his body, slamming into me like a truck. I’m thrown back, my breath vanishing as I crash against the warped Nexus floor. Pain explodes through my ribs, and I barely manage to roll away before Zero’s next strike shatters the ground where I am lying.I scramble to my feet, my heart pounding. The data spike is in. The memories are inside him now, fighting their way to the surface. But I don’t know if it’ll be enough.His body convulses, the Nexus distorting around him as conflicting commands tear through his mind.He’s resisting.But The Overseers

A War of WillsDarren’s eyes flickered. Blue. White. Blue again.He was fighting.But so were they.The Overseers weren’t about to let him go. Their control was suffocating, pressing into him, dragging him under. I could see it in the way his body shuddered, the way his hands trembled mid-strike.But the worst part?The moment of hesitation was getting shorter.He still heard me, but the Overseers' grip was tightening. I was losing him.I gritted my teeth and dodged another blow, barely twisting in time to avoid his fist. The air cracked apart from the force, the shockwave slamming into my chest like a wrecking ball.I dug my boots into the ground, bracing myself. “Come on, man—I know you’re in there!”Darren staggered, his hands clutching his head for the briefest second. A ragged breath tore from his throat. His lips parted—his voice hoarse—“Tony… I—”His body seized violently, a strangled scream ripping from his chest. The Nexus itself shook, a high-pitched screech echoing through

The System’s Collapse BeginsMy knuckles crashed against Darren’s face, the impact sending a sharp crack through the air. His head snapped to the side, and for a fraction of a second, I saw it—the flicker.The mask—**the cold, empty, merciless expression of Zero—**fractured.Beneath it, just for an instant, Darren’s real face broke through.His eyes widened in shock, confusion flashing through them. His breath hitched like a drowning man suddenly remembering how to breathe.“Darren,” I gasped, stepping forward. “Come back to me, man. I know you’re in there.”His fingers twitched at his sides. His lips parted like he wanted to say something.And then—A sound ripped through the Nexus, low and inhuman, a metallic shriek that sent static tearing across my comms.Kane’s voice broke through, alarmed. “Tony! They’re activating a failsafe!”I didn’t have time to react before Darren’s body jerked violently, his limbs locking up, back arching unnaturally. His expression twisted in pain as his

Darren’s ReawakeningBlinding white light swallowed everything. For a moment, I didn’t exist. There was no air, no ground, no thought—just silence.Then, like a dam breaking, reality snapped back.I gasped, hitting the ground hard. Pain flared through my ribs as I rolled onto my hands and knees, struggling to breathe. My body felt like it had been shredded and stitched back together in an instant.Static hissed in my ears. The Nexus was failing.I forced my eyes open.And there he was.Darren stood at the center of the storm, his entire body flickering between Zero and himself. Glitches rippled across his skin like cracks in reality, but his eyes—his real eyes—were locked onto me.He was back.For real this time.A slow smirk tugged at his lips. “You look like hell, Tony.”I let out a breathless laugh. “Yeah, well... it’s been a day.”But before I could say anything else, the world shuddered violently.A metallic scream tore through the Nexus, shaking everything down to the code itsel

The Death of The OverseersThe world was coming apart at the seams.The Nexus had collapsed, but The Overseers had not vanished. They had changed, taking on monstrous forms within the raw, unraveling remains of the system. Twisted, shapeless entities, flickering in and out of reality, towering over us. They loomed, their presence warping the air, stretching it like melted glass.A deep, resonating hum filled the space around me, vibrating inside my skull like a swarm of wasps. It was not sound—not in the way a human ear should perceive it—but a pulse of raw authority, a pressure that threatened to crush me from the inside out.I gritted my teeth, clenching my fists to keep my mind from unraveling.Darren stood beside me, his breath unsteady but his stance firm. His body was still battered from the battle before, but he would not yield. Neither would I.Kane’s voice crackled through the remains of our comms, strained and urgent. “Tony, Darren—you need to listen. The Core is still here,