The underground camp wasn't a city. It wasn't even a shelter.
It was a ruin turned prison. A grave made to feel like home.
They called it Haven.
It lay buried beneath layers of cracked stone and old subway tunnels, hidden beneath broken trains and rusted metal. The air was cold, damp. The lights were faint and yellow, strung with wires that sparked when touched. Fires burned in barrels. Footsteps echoed too loudly. Whispers never stopped.
Mira held Elian's hand tightly as they walked through the camp. People stared.
No one smiled.
No one ever smiled here.
The moment they arrived, guards pushed them apart. Elian was wheeled away on a broken gurney while Mira shouted and fought to follow.
"Where are you taking him?!"
"He's half-machine!" one of the guards barked. "He doesn't go with the rest."
"He's not one of them! He's human!"
"He's a risk!"
They shoved her back.
Elian looked at her as he disappeared through a metal door, his eyes wide and full of fear.
"Mira!"
She ran after him, but two men grabbed her arms.
"Mira!"
Then the doors slammed.
He was gone.
Again.
—
They put Elian in a cold room made of steel and stone. One dim bulb buzzed above. A crackling panel monitored his vitals. He didn't understand any of it. His chest still hurt. His arm felt like someone else's.
He touched his face. One side felt warm, soft. The other was smooth, too smooth — cold like polished bone. He ran his fingers across it slowly.
His reflection in the cracked mirror showed the truth.
He was not the boy from yesterday anymore.
He was something in-between.
Something people hated.
The small round bot that had followed him from Dome 17 sat in the corner, shaking slightly, blinking. It hadn't spoken since they arrived.
Neither had he.
A tall man in dark clothing stepped into the room an hour later. His eyes were red around the edges. His voice was slow and heavy.
"What are you?"
Elian stared at him.
"Your father did this to you?"
He nodded.
The man walked closer, observing the tech in his chest, the silver threads under his skin, the small pulses of blue light that ran down his shoulder.
"This AI system… it doesn't match any model we've seen. It's not hostile. Yet."
"He saved me," Elian whispered. "My dad saved me."
The man's face twitched for a second — just a second.
"I knew your father," he said. "Kalen Vale. He was brilliant. One of the best engineers left. But he broke protocol. He used forbidden tech. He gave a child a Machine's heart."
Elian flinched.
"I'm not a Machine."
"We'll see," the man said quietly, turning away.
—
Mira was finally let out into the general camp. Her hands were raw. Her hair full of dust. The cold had settled in her bones.
People looked at her with quiet judgment.
She heard them whisper.
"That's the girl who came with the half-bot."
"Why bring him here? She's stupid."
"Watch her. She's not clean."
No one offered her water.
No one gave her a blanket.
Even the kids stayed away.
She sat against the wall, her head in her hands, shaking. She had dragged Elian across broken ground, through fire and smoke, watched his father die, nearly died herself — and now they treated her like she was nothing.
She almost regretted coming.
Almost.
But not for him.
Never for him.
She wiped her tears and stood up.
"Where is the council?" she asked a guard.
He ignored her.
"I need to see someone," she said louder. "Anyone who matters. Elian is— he's not what they think."
The guard finally looked at her. "You should be more worried about yourself."
"What?"
He pointed to the watchtower.
"They're voting."
"Voting?"
"If the boy stays. Or gets thrown back out."
Her blood froze.
"No…"
She ran.
—
In the chamber above the camp, five people sat behind a table. Survivors. Leaders. Broken people trying to hold on to power with weak hands.
The man who had spoken to Elian stood beside them.
"We don't know what the child is. His father embedded unknown tech inside him. A hybrid core. Not traceable. Not tested. Possibly unstable."
The council murmured.
"He's just a child," one woman argued.
"Children die all the time," another said coldly. "So do entire domes."
"And if the Machine finds us because of him?"
Silence.
One of them raised a hand.
"Let him be tested. If he fails, we cut the core out."
"And if he survives?"
"Then maybe… he's something we need."
Behind the door, Elian sat alone.
And behind that door, Mira listened.
She closed her eyes.
And made a decision.
She was going to break him out.
Whatever he was.
Whoever he had become.
She would not let them take him again.
Not after everything.
Not after the sky rained fire
That night, under the hum of weak lights and the whispers of broken men, Mira took a knife from the supply room.
And slipped into the dark.
Because Elian wasn't going to die in that place.
Not while she was still breathing.