The red emergency lights pulsed overhead, casting the prototype in a harsh, stuttering glow.
Ash froze. Not out of fear, but because something inside him reacted to the thing's presence.
A deep, painful vibration spread through his chest.
The stranger whispered, voice unsteady:
"Ash… step back. That thing doesn't just follow commands. It hunts."
The prototype's optic flickered, scanning Ash with a crackling whine.
Its joints twitched as if struggling to obey conflicting instructions.
Silva grabbed Ash's arm.
"You heard them , move!"
But Ash couldn't.
The spark inside him wasn't warning now.
It was remembering.
Images he didn't ask for flashed across his vision:
A metal table.
A boy, him, hooked up to wires.
A machine towering over him, silent, watching.
The same flickering optic.
The same scars.
A voice was cold and clinical. It echoed in the memory,
"The prototype will observe the emotional unit.
Evaluate viability."
Ash staggered backward as the memory broke apart.
Palo saw his face pale.
"What did you see?"
Ash swallowed.
"It was there… in my early tests. It watched me."
The stranger clenched their fists.
"That explains why it's reacting to you now. It's coded to identify you as a target of interest."
The prototype took one heavy step forward.
The floor trembled beneath its weight.
THUNK.
Another step.
THUNK.
Silva hissed, "Founder, how do we shut it down?!"
The Founder's jaw tightened.
"We don't. It doesn't run on standard commands anymore. After the collapse of its project tier… it was repurposed."
Palo's voice grew tense.
"Repurposed as what?"
"A recovery unit."
Ash's breath hitched.
"For fragments?"
The Founder nodded.
"Yes. All of them."
The prototype's voice distorted again:
"Fragment detected.
Fragment unstable.
Recovery mandatory."
Its arm split open, revealing a set of long, mechanical prongs that sparked with pale energy.
The stranger tensed.
"It wants to extract the fragment from you. Violently."
Palo stepped in front of Ash without hesitation.
"You're not touching him."
The machine tilted its head.
"Obstruction detected.
Remove."
It raised its arm.
Silva grabbed Palo, yanking him aside just as a beam of kinetic force blasted through the floor where he stood.
The ground erupted into shards.
"Ash, MOVE!" she screamed.
The group scattered, diving behind support pillars as the prototype advanced, tearing through the corridor like it was nothing.
Another blast fired, gouging a deep crater into the wall.
The stranger called out from behind a pillar,
"It's targeting your spark's frequency! If you get too close, it locks onto you!"
Ash pressed his back to the wall, heart racing.
"But I can feel it pulling at me, like it's trying to activate something!"
The Founder's voice echoed across the hall.
"That's because it recognizes you as the original emotional core. It's trying to override your will."
Ash grimaced, holding his chest.
"Can it do that?"
"No," the Founder said.
"But it can override your body."
Ash's skin prickled.
Silva yelled from across the corridor:
"Ash! We need a plan before it turns the whole hallway into scrap metal!"
Ash inhaled shakily.
He didn't want to run.
Not because he felt brave,
but because the spark inside him was pushing, guiding.
"Let me get closer," Ash said softly.
Palo turned on him immediately.
"Absolutely not."
The stranger's voice was sharp.
"If you go near it, it will tear you apart."
Ash shook his head.
"No. The spark is reacting. I think… it knows what that thing is. Maybe it knows how to stop it."
Silva peeked out as another beam blasted past.
"Or maybe it'll get you killed!"
But Ash's voice was calmer now, grounded.
"That prototype saw me before any of you did.
Not as its enemy,
as its purpose."
The prototype's optic flickered brighter as if acknowledging him.
Ash stepped out of cover.
Palo lunged to grab him, but Ash shook him off gently.
The machine froze.
Its body twitched, metal scraping metal, the old programming struggling to process the original unit standing unprotected in front of it.
Ash lifted his hands slowly.
"Prototype ZB-0A," he said, voice steady.
"Stand down."
The machine's entire frame spasmed.
For a moment, the optic dimmed,
then flared violently.
A warped sound tore from its speaker:
"Command… conflict.
Emotional unit overrides… denied."
The energy in its arm surged.
Palo shouted, "ASH, MOVE!"
Ash didn't move.
He closed his eyes.
And the spark inside him finally responded.
Not with words.
Not with memories.
With a pulse,
soft but powerful.
that radiated outward in a wave of warm, rippling force.
The lights flickered.
The walls hummed.
The prototype jerked violently as the wave hit it.
Its systems glitching, sparking, freezing mid-motion.
The heavy arm lowered an inch.
Another inch.
Its optic dimmed. flicker… flicker.
Silva whispered:
"…He's overriding it."
But before anyone could breathe,
the prototype's secondary core activated.
A new voice, cold, automated, merciless ,cut through the hall,
"PRIMARY SYSTEM FAILURE.
SECONDARY PROTOCOL:
ELIMINATE EMOTIONAL UNIT."
The machine reactivated at full power.
Ash's eyes flew open.
The prototype raised its arm aimed directly at his chest.
And fired.