2025-01-08 11:09:19Aiden’s POV
The chill in the air was like a cold slap to the face as I slipped through the cracked entrance of the Helios facility, my heart pounding in my chest. Every step felt like it might be my last. The facility loomed before me, its massive, industrial architecture like a looming specter from my nightmares. I had never felt so exposed. "This is it," Kara’s voice crackled in my earpiece, low and urgent. "You’ve got one shot, Aiden. Don’t blow it." I clenched my fist around the blaster at my side. "No turning back now," I muttered under my breath, as I pressed on. The facility’s security was as tight as I’d imagined, layers of encryption guarding every inch of its vast network. My neural implant barely made it past the first set of firewalls before it was nearly shredded by the countermeasures. The resistance had given me the coordinates, but even they hadn’t fully grasped how deep Malrik’s reach had sunk into this place. I crouched low, moving silently across the darkened hallway. The facility was a labyrinth of cold steel walls and sterile corridors, far too quiet for my comfort. No guards... at least, not on the surface. But I knew better. The real threat wasn’t what I could see; it was what I couldn’t. "I’ve got eyes on you," Kara’s voice whispered again. "Keep going down the west wing. You’ll find the lab ahead. I’m tracking your route. You’re still clear for now." I nodded, though she couldn’t see it. My pulse hammered in my ears. The silence was maddening. Every footstep I took seemed to echo through the facility like a drumbeat of impending doom. As I approached the designated area, the air seemed to thicken, a palpable sense of danger surrounding me. I turned a corner, and there they were. Malrik’s elite enforcers. They were waiting for me. The harsh hum of their weapons flickered in the dim light, the red glare of their cybernetic optics scanning the darkened corridor. There were six of them—silent, efficient, lethal. Their black armor gleamed like shadows, the insignia of Malrik’s command emblazoned on their shoulders. I froze. The odds were stacked against me. But there was no time to retreat. "Kara," I whispered urgently into my earpiece. "I’ve been spotted. I need a distraction. Now." For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, a burst of static crackled in my earpiece, followed by a string of curses from Kara. "Damn it, Aiden! I’ll trigger the diversion now. Just hold on." I didn’t wait for her to finish. I surged forward, ducking into a side alcove. One enforcer passed within inches of me, his footsteps too quiet to hear until it was almost too late. My breath hitched in my throat, but I remained still, pressing myself into the shadows. The seconds stretched into eternity. Finally, Kara’s voice came through the earpiece, tinged with relief. "The diversion’s set. Go!" Without thinking, I darted across the hallway, my pulse quickening as the guards turned toward the noise at the far end of the hall. I didn’t look back, pushing myself faster, harder. Every instinct screamed at me to keep moving. The door to the lab loomed ahead. I punched in the override code Kara had given me, watching the green light flicker as the door unlocked. My heart raced as I stepped inside. The air inside was sterile, a faint smell of metal and chemicals filling my nostrils. And then... the horror hit me. The room was filled with stasis pods—dozens of them. Each one contained a player, suspended in a state between life and death, their bodies frozen in time. Their faces were contorted in pain, their eyes vacant and empty. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to look away, but my stomach churned. The experiments they were conducting here... they were nothing short of monstrous. My eyes scanned the room, my mind racing. This was beyond anything I’d imagined. Mind control, memory manipulation... the bodies of players used as nothing more than pawns in Malrik’s twisted games. I moved further into the lab, my boots clicking softly on the cold, metal floor. My hand was shaking as I reached for one of the pods, the glass surface fogged with condensation. I ran my fingers over it, trying to steady my breathing. "Aiden, focus!" Kara’s voice crackled again, sharp with concern. "You need to find what we came for. Mila’s... she’s here, right?" I nodded, though she couldn’t see me. Mila. She had to be here. If there was a chance—any chance—I could find her, I had to take it. I turned and moved down the line of stasis pods, each one more horrifying than the last. Then, I saw it. At the far end of the room, a pod stood out from the others. It was more advanced—sleeker, more sophisticated. A single, soft blue light pulsed inside it, casting an eerie glow on the otherwise dark room. I stepped closer, my heart hammering in my chest. The figure inside the pod was unmistakable. It was Mila. Her body was still, her chest rising and falling gently as if she were merely sleeping. Her skin was pale, but there was life in her—she wasn’t dead. But she wasn’t alive either. Her hair, once wild and untamed, now lay flat against the cold glass. The sight of her, suspended in this unnatural state, tore at my chest. This wasn’t just about Malrik’s manipulations. This was personal. I pressed my hand against the pod, my heart aching as I whispered her name. “Mila...” No response. I couldn’t feel her presence like I had before. No trace of the energy I once knew was there. It was like she was trapped—her consciousness, her mind, held captive in this sterile prison. I knew, in that moment, that this was Malrik’s final, cruel move. He hadn’t just killed her. He had trapped her in a living hell. A coma. A nightmare. "Aiden... Aiden, are you okay?" Kara’s voice cut through my thoughts, desperate. "What’s happening?" I swallowed hard, trying to push back the nausea that threatened to overwhelm me. "Kara, it’s her. It’s Mila. She’s... she’s alive, but in a coma. They’ve kept her here. All this time." I felt the weight of it all pressing down on me—the knowledge that I’d come this far, only to find that Mila was still a prisoner, trapped in some twisted experiment. Before I could say another word, a voice echoed through the room, a hollow laugh cutting through the silence. “You’ve come far, Aiden,” Malrik’s hologram appeared before me, his form flickering with static. His cold eyes locked onto mine, a predatory smile curling at his lips. “But are you ready to face the truth about yourself?” I froze, my blood running cold. The truth? What the hell was he talking about? "What truth?" I asked, my voice a low growl. Malrik’s smile widened. “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.” The hologram flickered and disappeared, leaving nothing but silence and the steady hum of the facility around me. But that silence was deafening. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. Not when the truth was staring me in the face.
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Chapter 192: A Fractured Peace
Aiden’s POV“Do you ever think we’ll ever truly be free, Zane?” I ask as I lean against a crumbling wall outside what used to be the resistance’s safehouse. The early morning light struggles through thick smoke that still clings to the city. My voice, rough from disuse, echoes off the battered concrete.Zane, his face a mixture of weariness and defiance, glances at me. “Freedom? It’s a luxury we never had, Aiden. We’re just surviving day by day.”I shake my head, staring out at a skyline that bears scars of war. “I was trying to live a normal life,” I murmur, almost to myself. “I thought with the Abyss gone, we could rebuild… that we could finally have some semblance of peace.”A distant siren wails, and my stomach tightens. The calm is deceptive—fragile, like a thin sheet of ice on a turbulent river. I push off the wall, my eyes hardening. “But peace is just a pause between battles, isn’t it? And now... something tells me this quiet won’t last.”Before Zane can reply, a sharp, metall
