A light noise was heard.
It wasn't sound, not exactly, more like the whisper of static that existed between one heartbeat and the next.
Liam floated somewhere inside it, weightless, shapeless. His last memory was Hale's voice and the sting of the needle descending toward his neck.
Then, silence.
Then, this.
His mind flickered with scattered images of faces, blood, the metallic gleam of laboratories until a faint pulse rippled through his body. It was like electricity searching for a home.
He tried to open his eyes.
He couldn't.
His body was gone, or maybe it just wasn't responding.
"Reconstruction?" Liam's thought echoed in the void. "What are you?"
The light surged. Painless, but consuming. His consciousness fractured one piece clinging to identity, another pulled toward something deeper, colder, mechanical.
Then a voice, faint and distorted "He's still alive… barely."
The Facility Sublevel Three
The alarms had been blaring for nine straight minutes before the first breach occurred. Red strobes pulsed through the smoke-choked corridors as gunfire echoed like thunder.
Kira Voss moved like a shadow between flashes of light, her combat suit reflecting nothing. A tactical visor flickered data across her eyes enemy positions, signal jammers, the countdown until the automated defense grid rebooted.
"Specter," she barked through comms. "Left flank clear?"
"Clear enough," came the gravelly reply. "Two guards down. Cameras looped."
Behind them, a lean young man crouched beside a control panel, fingers flying over a portable console. His hood was half torn, his voice anxious but focused.
"Got it, secondary firewall breached. You've got a three-minute window before internal sensors reset."
Kira gave him a nod. "Good work, Orion."
Orion Hale didn't look up. His dark eyes reflected the streaming data. "Let's make those three minutes worth it."
Behind them, Dr. Rein Halden checked a vial glowing faintly blue. He was older, gaunt, his face marked with the exhaustion of years of guilt. "If the readings are accurate," he murmured, "the subject is alive… but deteriorating fast."
Specter grunted, loading a charge pack into his rifle. "Alive or not, this is suicide."
Kira smirked. "Then it's just another night at work."
The four of them advanced through the corridor, passing the bodies of automated drones Liam had destroyed earlier. Sparks hissed from broken panels, the smell of ozone sharp in the air.
Inside the Core Chamber
The room was circular, lined with black glass and cables that descended like metallic vines. In the center, a containment pod, suspended in a field of shimmering energy. Inside it floated Liam Blackwood.
His body was pale, muscles twitching beneath cracked restraints. The fluid surrounding him pulsed faintly, glowing from within.
Dr. Halden's voice trembled. "He's… changing."
"Define 'changing,'" Specter muttered.
"His vitals are beyond human range. Neural activity is exponential, it's like his mind is rebuilding itself around the System's architecture."
Kira approached the pod, staring at the man inside. Even half-dead, Liam looked formidable, a sculpted weapon wrapped in stillness. "This is the one who tore through an entire Kairon strike unit?"
"Project Blackwood-09," Halden said quietly. "The perfect soldier. And the government's biggest mistake."
Orion's gaze flicked to the monitors. "If he wakes up and doesn't know who we are, he'll tear us apart before we explain."
Kira smirked. "Then we better be quick on introductions."
She placed a hand on the console. "Halden, wake him."
The scientist hesitated. "If I override the sedation field, it could destabilize the neural core. His mind isn't..."
"Do it."
Halden exhaled, entered the sequence, and the pod hissed. The liquid began to drain.
Liam's Mind
Darkness cracked open.
Air filled his lungs like fire.
His senses returned all at once, the taste of metal, the weight of restraints, the echo of voices nearby. He opened his eyes.
The world was blurry. Silhouettes moved behind glass strangers, not Kairon uniforms.
His throat ached when he spoke. "Where… am I?"
"Safe," a female voice said calmly and confident. "For now."
Liam blinked hard until her face came into focus. Kira Voss stood before him, visor retracted, sharp eyes assessing him like a weapon she wasn't sure she should use.
"Who are you?" he rasped.
"The people who just saved your life," she replied.
Liam ignored the prompt, testing his wrists. The bindings hissed open under Kira's command. He fell forward, catching himself on shaking arms. His body trembled, unsteady but recovering fast.
"Why?" he asked, voice low.
Kira exchanged a look with Halden. The older man stepped forward, guilt written in every movement. "Because I'm the man who helped create you. And I intend to destroy what we made."
Liam's eyes locked onto him, recognition flaring. "Halden."
"You remember," the scientist whispered. "Good. Then you know what they'll do if we don't move."
Liam's muscles tensed. "They're coming."
"Engage," Liam said.
Specter cracked his neck and grinned. "Finally, something we agree on."
Facility Breach!!!
The walls shook as explosive charges detonated in the upper levels. The air smelled of burned steel and chaos.
Kira's team moved with precision, Specter taking point, Orion monitoring drones through hacked feeds, Halden dragging a portable data core containing stolen Kairon blueprints.
Liam followed, bare feet splashing through the remnants of containment fluid. Each step steadied him, the System recalibrating with eerie efficiency.
He spotted a fallen soldier's rifle and picked it up. The weight was familiar, comforting. He checked the mag, exhaled slowly. "Still feels like old times."
Specter glanced at him. "You always this calm before a firefight?"
Liam's answer was simple: "I don't remember being anything else."
The doors ahead blew open, Kairon troopers flooded in, armored, coordinated.
"Contact!" Orion shouted.
Liam didn't hesitate. He stepped forward, rifle raised, movements fluid and lethal. Each shot is precise, bursts of blue plasma lighting the hall. Troopers fell before they could even aim.
Specter covered the flank, grinning. "Not bad for a corpse."
"Focus," Kira snapped. "Keep formation!"
The firefight was pure chaos. Sparks rained from shattered lights; the air vibrated with the pulse of energy weapons. Liam moved like a ghost among soldiers, instincts guiding him faster than thought.
He dropped the last trooper with a single controlled burst, then spun as another squad emerged from a side corridor. But before he could fire, a pulse grenade detonated, flooding the hall with sonic pressure.
Everyone went down hard.
Liam's vision fuzzed with static. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard the metallic echo of boots.
Captain Hale stepped out of the smoke, eyes locked on him.
For a heartbeat, neither spoke. The world around them burned, smoke, alarms, chaos but that silence carried more weight than gunfire.
"Still running, Blackwood?" Hale said coldly.
"Still chasing ghosts?" he replied.
His jaw tightened. "You're a threat to everything we built."
"And you're a lie wearing a uniform."
He raised his weapon, a sleek energy pistol glowing white-hot. "You should've stayed dead."
Liam didn't move. His hands trembled not from fear, but something else. The white light reflecting in Hale's eyes looked like something familiar. Regret?
Before either could act, Kira's voice cut through the tension. "Orion! Now!"
A blinding flash erupted smoke grenades. The corridor filled with static interference as The Shadow Cell vanished into the haze.
Outside Extraction Point
The team emerged into the rain soaked night, retreating to a hidden aircraft waiting beyond the perimeter. Engines hummed as they boarded.
Liam slumped into a seat, silent, staring out the open hatch as the facility burned behind them.
Halden approached, holding a data pad. "You need to rest. The System's integration is accelerating."
"What happens when it finishes?" Liam asked quietly.
The scientist hesitated. "I don't know."
Kira strapped in across from him, eyes studying his expression. "We pulled you out because we need you, Blackwood. But if you lose control..."
"Then end me," he finished for her.
The engines roared. Rain streaked across the glass. Somewhere behind the clouds, dawn was rising.
Liam looked down at his trembling hand. For the first time, he wasn't sure if it was still his own.
The lights inside the aircraft flickered once. Twice.
Then everything went dark.