At first, Ash thought he'd gone deaf.
The silence was too complete, like the world had folded in on itself.
The white void dimmed, flickering into a pale gray.
Fractures spread across it like cracks in glass.
Zero-B stood beside him, flickering in and out, static clinging to his outline.
"Ash," he said, "the system lost control."
Ash swallowed, voice shaking.
"Is that… good?"
Zero-B tilted his head.
"Uncertain.
Stability is collapsing.
We must exit the link before it folds."
The void trembled again.
A jagged pattern of black static spread through the air, growing and branching like veins. Ash felt a cold pressure building behind his eyes, like something was pushing...
No.
Pulling.
"Zero-B, something's dragging me!"
Zero-B reacted instantly, grabbing Ash's wrist with both hands.
The static around him surged, distorting his form, but his grip never loosened.
"Hold to me.
Do not let the system isolate you."
But the pull increased, violent, invisible fingers yanking Ash deeper into the gray.
Ash shouted:
"It's trying to separate us!"
Zero-B braced himself, anchoring his feet on nothing, leaning back as he pulled with all the strength his unstable form could generate.
Silver sparks shot from their connection point.
"Ash, focus on anything familiar!" Zero-B said.
"Any anchor outside!"
Ash scanned his mind desperately..
Palo shouting his name.
Silva's trembling voice.
The cold forest air.
The weight of his own heartbeat.
One memory flared brighter than the rest:
Palo grabbing him moments before the synchronization started, voice raw:
"Stay with me! Don't let them take you!"
Ash felt warmth surge in his chest.
The pull weakened.
Zero-B's flickering slowed.
"Good," Zero-B said.
"You are stabilizing."
But then the system voice returned.Broken, glitching..
SYNC—ERROR— ERROR— INITIATING— BACKUP— HOST— CAPTURE—
Black static tendrils shot upward and wrapped around Zero-B's legs.
He staggered.
"Ash, go! The system is targeting me as backup".
"No!" Ash shouted, refusing to let go.
"I'm not leaving you!"
Zero-B's voice glitched.
"Ash… your survival probability drops".
"I don't care!"
The static lashed upward, coiling around Zero-B's torso.
Pieces of him began breaking into pixel-like fragments.
Ash tightened his grip with both hands, heart pounding.
The tendrils were pulling Zero-B away. Slowly, but relentlessly.
Zero-B met Ash's eyes.
"Do not let go," he said softly.
"You didn't," Ash whispered back.
The void crackled, sound returning in pops and distortions.
Zero-B struggled, but the static was dragging him down into a black fracture in the ground. A breach opening beneath him like a digital sinkhole.
"Ash, if it consumes me..."
"I'm not letting it!"
Static tore across the link, exploding like shattered glass.
Zero-B's form dissolved down to half his chest, his lower body already gone into the breach.
Still, he held Ash's wrist.
Still, he didn't let go.
"Ash…
You must wake up."
Ash's eyes widened.
"Wake? What do you mean wake up?! We're still inside".
Zero-B's voice softened, glitching around the edges.
"The system will collapse in… seconds.
When it crashes…
only one of us will be expelled."
Ash's throat tightened.
"No! NO! don't say that".
Zero-B held on, even as his arm shimmered with static.
"Ash…
You are the original.
The world outside is yours.
You must return."
The breach pulled harder.
Zero-B's arm began to stretch unnaturally, pixelating.
Ash screamed:
"ZERO-B, STAY WITH ME!"
Zero-B blinked once. Slowly, as if memorizing the sight of Ash's face.
Then he whispered:
"Directive updated.
I will follow…
if possible."
The void shattered.
Ash felt himself flung upward, like being shot out of a cannon.
Zero-B's hand slipped from his.
A single spark of silver followed Ash as everything went white.
Then,...
Ash's eyes snapped open.
He was back in the physical world.
Palo was holding him, shaking him.
"Ash! ASH! are you conscious?!"
Silva was screaming Zero-B's name.
The Founder stared at the chamber, horrified.
Inside the broken Link Chamber,
in the center of the cracked, smoking floor..
Zero-B was gone.