The steel door slid open. The sound was like a blade slicing through the air. Cold air rushed out, carrying the smell of ozone and burnt metal. Trung stood motionless, his heart pounding in slow intervals. Before his eyes could fully adjust to the dazzling cyan light, he saw her a slender figure, black hair tied high, a silver armor tightly clinging to her body, reflecting the light like water flowing on steel.
She turned around. Her face was breathtakingly beautiful, yet cold as a statue that had lost its soul. Her eyes opened, clear as a mirror surface, reflecting his image the man she once loved, now just a biological signal scanned and recognized by the system.
"M-01. Activate retrieval mode. Target: eliminate the prime entity."
That voice was steady, emotionless, without a single heartbeat. Trung softly whispered: "Mai…"
No response. Only a raise of the hand, her palm flashing a cyan energy beam shot straight out, tearing the air. Trung ducked, the light searing past his hair, hitting the wall behind, leaving a scorched black mark.
He yelled, his voice hoarse:
"Mai! I don't want to fight you!"
Her voice answered, hollow:
"Emotional function: disabled. Subject is unauthorized contact. Annihilate."
She lunged. Too fast, impossibly fast. No longer human. Her spinning kick sent a gust of wind whistling, crashing into his chest. Trung raised his arm to block, sparks flying, his skin tearing, exposing the red hot metal beneath the flesh. He stepped back, gasping for breath:
"Listen to me! You are being controlled!"
"Incorrect. I am myself. I was created to cleanse all vulnerabilities."
Trung clenched his fist, his voice rough as grinding iron:
"No. That is why humans exist. Because of love, people are willing to die for each other."
Mai tilted her head, looking at him like a foreign object.
"Emotion is a flaw. It makes humans weak. I… am more perfected than her."
He smiled sadly, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth:
"If that is perfection… then I'd rather live with the defect."
She offered a faint smile a cold smile, like a program attempting to simulate a memory of happiness but missing the beat.
"Memory confirmed: on September 12, 2060, you said that phrase. Under the rain. At Ánh Dương Bridge. I have stored it."
Trung was stunned. He couldn't believe his ears. The scene in the rain rushed back she in her white raincoat, holding a hot cup of coffee, looking at him soaking wet and laughing:
"You're so silly, standing in the rain waiting for someone just to say sorry."
"Because I was afraid… if I was any later, you would forget me."
"Really silly. But I like it."
That scene, that laughter all flashed like an electric shock in his mind, then vanished.
"You… remember?"
"No. I retrieve data. The memory no longer belongs to me."
The sentence was like a stab. He took half a step back, his chest throbbing, his breath ragged.
The room seemed to shrink, the cyan light reflecting on his face, highlighting the SÁT THÁT scar on his chest the symbol of resistance, now trembling with pain.
"If you are truly no longer you…" he said softly, "then I will find you again, even if I have to destroy this entire world."
The light in her eyes flickered. Once. Then twice… Like a heartbeat that had skipped a beat. She spoke very softly:
"You still call me Mai."
"Because that is the name of the person I love."
The air in the room vibrated as if electrified.
Another voice rang out from a deep, cold speaker, as if echoing from the earth's core:
"M-01: activate protection mode. Prime Sample has breached the sector."
The door behind them slammed shut. A series of cyborg figures, half machine, half flesh, poured out, their eyes red like hot coals. Their bodies cast long shadows, moving synchronously like a mechanical ant swarm.
Trung spun around, drawing his rifle. His voice deepened, almost a vow:
"If you want to stop me… you'll have to go through my corpse."
Mai stood amidst the swarm of mechanical soldiers, her voice like mist:
"I don't want to hurt you, but the command has been entered."
"Then let me remember you with blood."
He charged... Fire hammers, electric bullets steel and flesh collided in deafening explosions. Every punch, every spin, was a roar of instinct. The sound of metal slamming into bone echoed like a battle drum the rhythm of a warrior lost in a future desert.
One cyborg hurled a plasma mace Trung dodged, spun, and kicked its neck, the electricity sparking. Another jumped from behind; he half-turned, his mechanical arm snapping out a blade, cleaving its head off synthetic blood splattered, sticking to his cheek like paint.
Amidst the chaos, Mai stood still. Unmoving, only observing. Something drifted lightly in her cyan eyes perhaps a command, perhaps an emotion. A single tear fell from her eye.
Was it a tear, or oil? No one knew… But it fell slowly, hit the floor, and made a small, cracking sound like a breaking heart.
"Trung…" she whispered, almost inaudibly.
He didn't hear.
He was fighting, living, trying to hold onto a fragile belief that if he kept standing, she would still remember. When the last gunshot faded, the room was left only with smoke. The corpses of the hybrids lay scattered across the steel floor.
Trung stood amidst the ruins, his breath heavy, blood mixing with electricity from the torn wound on his shoulder. He threw his rifle aside, looked around, and saw her, approaching. Her eyes were clouded. The cyan light was dim. She trembled, her voice breaking:
"You… please… leave here…"
"No. I won't leave you."
"If you don't go… they will use you to perfect me…"
"I don't care!"
Her voice choked like a snapping string:
"I don't want to see you… disappear… like me."
He reached out and touched her cheek… It was cold as steel, but inside he felt a very slight vibration, like a pulse.
"You're alive. In here."
"No… just memories."
"Then I will save those memories. Because memories are also a soul."
The warning lights turned deep red, a long, piercing siren wailing. The system voice echoed throughout the ceiling:
"Data conflict detected in M-01. Artificial neural core lock. Activate bio-destruction protocol."
Mai jolted, sinking to her knees, clutching her head, crying softly:
"Aaa! Trung! Get out!"
He embraced her, yelling amidst the siren:
"No! I'm here!"
Through the intercom, Dũng's voice rang out hoarsely:
"Trung! The upper door exploded! Get out now! Or the whole sector will collapse!"
He tried to pull Mai up, but the energy cables connecting from her neck to the floor glowed brightly, like shackles. She gave a weak smile her final smile, genuine as the dawn.
"Thank you… for coming to find me."
Then her hand flashed, electricity shooting out, pushing him away from the energy surge. He was thrown backward through the door, falling heavily. The door slammed shut, locking tight, the cyan light cutting through the narrow gap like the eye of death.
Trung tried to crawl up, blood dripping from his lip down his neck.
Inside, the light flickered, then exploded.
The sound was like a thousand souls screaming in the wind. And amidst the explosion, he heard clearly, very clearly, a whisper faint as the final breath of the wind:
"Trung… I… love you."
The base shook violently. He screamed, pounding his hand against the steel door:
"MAIIIII…!!!"
The sound echoed back, cold and hollow. Outside, the sand blew wildly. The wind wailed like a cry. He knelt, his eyes blazing red.
The SÁT THÁT scar on his chest began to glow, spreading, as if reacting to the pain.
"If your soul is trapped inside a machine…" he said slowly, each word like flowing blood,
"Then I will smash that entire machine."
The wind swirled around him, throwing red sand into the sky.
Amidst the dust and blood, Trần Trung half man, half steel stood up again. There was no more weeping. Only footsteps walking towards the darkness.
And from deep within the earth, like a final farewell, Mai's voice echoed one last time, fading into the electric waves:
"You must live. For the children."