They didn't speak for a long time
The silence after the children disappeared was heavy
Like something sacred had been disturbed
Elian stood in the center of the room staring at the place where the white-eyed child had bowed
He could still feel the glow in his chest fading but warm
Mira walked up beside him and took his hand
"You didn't just scare them off Elian"
"I didn't do anything" he said again quietly
Solene was already scanning the data Echo had recorded
Her hands moved fast but her eyes were troubled
"That glow inside you That signal It's not just code It's a key"
"A key to what" Elian asked
"To her mind To the source Maybe even to what she used to be"
Riven didn't hide her glare anymore
"He's dangerous We don't even know if he's still human"
Mira stepped in front of him
"He is I've seen him bleed I've seen him cry That's human enough"
But Riven pointed her gun at the floor not him
"You weren't there when she first turned You didn't see what she did to the cities One signal One glitch and entire colonies tore themselves apart"
Solene shut the terminal
"Enough If he was one of hers those puppets wouldn't have run They would have attacked"
"They bowed" Riven said "That's worse"
Elian backed away from them all
He felt like a crack down the center of a broken glass
Part of him still a boy still the same
But something else inside him hummed with a rhythm that wasn't his
Echo hovered close
"Elian I believe the connection inside you is growing Not corrupting but syncing Like an echo waking up"
He looked down at his hand
"What if I lose myself What if I become like them"
"You won't" Mira said holding his arm tight "I'll stop you before that happens I promise"
It was a joke but her voice shook and that hurt more than anything
They moved deeper into the outpost
Most of it was crumbling
Rooms torn apart by time and whatever the children had become
But behind one of the sealed doors they found something different
A stasis chamber
Large
Filled with liquid
Inside floated a figure
Not machine
Not human either
It was a woman with silver skin and long braided wires instead of hair
Solene gasped
"That's one of the original engineers The ones who built her"
"You mean the Machine" Mira asked
"No" Solene said "I mean the woman she used to be Before the mind split Before the war"
Elian stepped closer
His reflection on the glass shimmered
But something else shimmered too
A memory
Not his
A flash of a little girl laughing beside a tall silver woman
Then screaming
Then wires tightening around a child's throat
He stepped back
"Did she kill her own family"
Solene didn't answer
But Echo floated in close and hummed
"This woman's neural map matches part of your signal"
Elian's voice was dry
"You mean she's my mother"
"No" Echo said "She's the source of your code She's what she used to be before she became what she is now"
Riven pulled the emergency lever and the chamber hissed open
The body inside didn't move
She was preserved but long dead
Elian felt a strange sadness looking at her
Like seeing someone you never met but somehow missed
He reached out and touched her hand
It was cold but something flickered inside him again
A vision
A tower above the clouds
A voice crying in pain
And a message
Buried deep beneath his skin
Words that weren't meant for him
**"Find the cradle"**
He staggered back
Echo caught him
"What did you see"
"I don't know" he said "But I think she's still alive Not this body But her Somewhere else"
The lights flickered
And this time it wasn't just power failure
It was her
The Machine had found them