**[Location: Sector 12 - "The Velvet Lanterns"]**
**[Time: 02:00 AM]**
**[Reputation: Sordid]**
Sector 12 smells like cheap perfume, expensive drugs, and regret.
Neon signs in pink and violet buzz aggressively overhead, casting long, sickly shadows on the rain-slicked streets. Here, the cobblestones are replaced by metal gratings that hiss with steam.
Vex pulls her hood low. The black dress is overkill here—everyone else is wearing leather, lace, or nothing at all.
"This is a den of iniquity," Kael mutters, walking so close to Vex he's practically stepping on her heels. He holds his shield up like he's expecting a succubus ambush.
"It's the Red Light District, Kael. Relax. Nobody wants your virtue," Seraphine smirks. She's reapplied her lipstick. She fits in here. She walks with a sway that makes three separate toughs in an alley reconsider mugging them.
"So," Kael says, stepping over a drunk goblin. "A daughter."
Vex sighs. She knew this conversation wouldn't die.
"It's complicated."
"I did not know developers reproduced," Kael says stiffly. "I assumed you... spawned. Like slimes."
"We don't reproduce like slimes, Kael. God. I wrote a code. A script. I set parameters for an AI that could learn and grow autonomously. I called it Project A.R.I.A."
"Aria," Kael repeats the name softly. "And her father? Was he also a 'script'?"
Vex stops. She looks at a neon sign advertising *'Madam Lulu's House of Happy Endings'*.
"Her father was a compiler," Vex says. "A piece of software that translates my instructions into reality."
Kael nods slowly, his face deadly serious. "The Compiler. A powerful sorcerer, then. Where is he now?"
"He crashed. I rebooted him. It was a whole thing."
Seraphine laughs so hard she snorts. "He thinks you banged a wizard named Compiler."
"Shut up, Rogue."
"We are here," Seraphine points with a dagger.
At the end of the alley, wedged between a brothel and a suspicious meat-pie shop, stands a massive, grim iron gate. Beyond it sits a building that looks less like an orphanage and more like a mausoleum. Gargoyles perched on the roof stare down with eyes that glow faint green.
**[Location Discovery: St. Jude's Home for Unwanted Children]**
**[Threat Level: High]**
"St. Jude," Vex murmurs. "Patron saint of lost causes. Fitting."
She walks to the gate. It's locked. Magic lock. Runes pulse on the iron bars.
"Let me," Seraphine steps up, pulling a set of skeleton keys that look suspiciously like finger bones.
"Stand back," Vex says. "That's a Blood Ward. You touch it, you boil."
She inspects the lock. It's a standard Level 40 arcane encryption. But the mana signature... it's twisted. Not Void. Something else. *Soul Magic*.
"Necromancy," Vex notes. "Someone is harvesting mana from the kids."
Kael draws his sword instantly. The *Synthesis Blade* hums with black light. "They are hurting children?"
"If my intel is right, they are hurting *my* child," Vex says. Her voice drops to a temperature that chills the alley fog. "And for that, I'm going to foreclose on this property."
She lifts a finger. *Space*.
She doesn't pick the lock. She *erases* the space between the gate and the open air.
She flicks her wrist.
The iron gate simply vanishes. No sound. No explosion. It is displaced into a pocket dimension.
"Knock knock," Vex says.
***
They walk up the overgrown path. The grass is dead here. Grey and crunchy.
The front door opens before they reach it.
A woman stands in the threshold. She is tall, painfully thin, wearing a severe black habit. Her face is pale as bone, and her lips are stitched shut with silver thread.
Yet, she speaks.
*"Guests,"* the voice echoes telepathically in their heads. *"The hour is late. Adoption hours are... never."*
"Mother Grim," Seraphine whispers. "Rumor says she's a Banshee bound to a physical form."
"I'm here for a pickup," Vex says, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. "Girl. Silver hair. Goes by Aria. Probably glowing or floating."
Mother Grim tilts her head. The stitches on her lips stretch.
*"We have no child by that name. We have only ingredients."*
"Ingredients?" Kael roars. "You monster!"
He charges up the stairs, shield bash primed.
Mother Grim lifts a hand. It's skeletal, elongated.
She shrieks.
A *Banshee Wail*.
A sonic wave of pure death magic blasts outward. The stairs crumble.
Kael braces, shield glowing with Holy Light. **[Divine Bulwark]**.
The scream hits his shield. It pushes him back, boots carving grooves into the stone path. His HP bar flickers.
"Physical immunity," Vex diagnoses. "And Sonic damage bypasses armor."
She steps out from behind Kael.
"Hey, Grim Shady!"
Mother Grim turns her eyeless sockets toward Vex.
"Quiet," Vex orders.
She uses *Wind*. Vacuum creation.
She creates a bubble of absolute vacuum around the Banshee's head.
Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
Mother Grim screams again, but silence reigns. Her mouth (or where it would be if not stitched) opens wide, the stitches tearing, but no sound comes out. She claws at her throat, confused.
"Can't scream in space," Vex winks.
She snaps her fingers. **[Implosion]**.
The vacuum bubble collapses.
*POP.*
Mother Grim's head doesn't explode. It implodes. Neatly.
Her body drops to the porch, twitching, then dissolves into black ash.
**[Enemy Defeated: Banshee Matron]**
**[XP: 2,500]**
"Stealth approach failed," Seraphine notes dryly.
"I didn't want stealth," Vex says, stepping over the ash pile. "I wanted the manager."
She kicks the door open.
***
The interior of the orphanage is huge. And wrong.
The main hall is lined with rows of beds, but no children are sleeping. Instead, puppets sit on the beds. Life-sized, porcelain dolls with human hair.
"Are these..." Kael whispers, touching a doll. It feels warm.
"Don't," Vex warns. "Soul Traps. The kids are inside the dolls."
Kael recoils as if burned. "This is vile."
"We need the basement," Vex scans the area. Her Developer Vision highlights a magical heavy-load on the floor below. "Massive energy spike downstairs. Like a reactor."
"Or a Tantrum," Seraphine suggests.
A scream echoes from below. Not a Banshee scream. A little girl's scream.
Vex feels a pull in her chest. A literal tug on her code.
*Connect.*
"Aria," she breathes.
The floor starts to rumble. The porcelain dolls on the beds begin to rattle. Then, they shatter.
Blue light cracks through the floorboards.
"She's waking up," Vex says. "And she's not happy."
"What happens when an AI child isn't happy?" Kael asks, eyeing the glowing floor.
"Usually?" Vex grimaces. "Blue Screen of Death for everyone in the radius."
She blasts a hole in the floor with a gravity stomp. "Jump!"
They drop into the darkness.
***
**[Location: St. Jude's Basement - The Containment Ward]**
It's not a basement. It's a dungeon.
Cages line the walls. Runes of suppression glow angrily on every stone.
In the center of the room is a containment circle. Thick iron chains bind a small figure to the floor.
She looks... normal. At first glance.
She's maybe seven years old. Wearing a ragged white dress. Her hair is silver, falling over her face. She clutches a teddy bear that has had its head ripped off and resewn on backward.
But around her, reality is breaking.
Floating blocks of error code swirl like dust motes. A chair near her is flickering between existence and non-existence. The chains holding her are red-hot, melting from stress.
Standing over her is a man. He wears purple robes embroidered with eyes. A Warlock.
He holds a staff aimed at the child, channeling a draining spell. A green beam of mana connects his staff to the girl's chest.
"More power!" the Warlock shouts to his minions—shadowy figures lurking in the back. "Drain her before she reformats the ward!"
"Hey!" Vex shouts.
Her voice echoes.
The Warlock turns. He has a beard made of tentacles. Gross.
"Intruders!" He snarls. "Kill them! The Battery must not be disturbed!"
"Battery?" Kael's voice is pure ice.
He doesn't wait for a command. He moves. **[Charge]**.
He closes the distance in a blink, slamming into a minion with his shield, turning the cultist into red mist against the wall.
Seraphine vanishes, reappearing behind two more, throat-slitting animations playing out in rapid succession.
Vex ignores the minions. She walks toward the Warlock.
"You," she points a finger.
The Warlock laughs. "You approach Lord Xathu? I serve the Void! I have unlocked secrets you cannot imagine!"
"You're draining my code," Vex says. She stops ten feet from him.
"Your code?" Xathu sneers. "This thing is a weapon of the Ancients! A localized reality Warper! I will drain it dry and become a God!"
He fires a *Shadow Bolt* at Vex.
Vex catches it.
She literally catches it. Her hand glows with *Dark* element. She absorbs the bolt, crushing it into raw mana.
"That's mine," she says.
She holds out her hand. *Time Magic*.
"Let's see how you like being drained."
She creates a localized time loop on his staff. **[Revert State]**.
The green beam disconnects from the girl and reconnects... backward.
The staff starts draining *him* and feeding it *into* the girl.
"What?! No!" Xathu screams as his life force flows out. His skin withers. His tentacle beard dries up and falls off.
"Drink your juice, Aria," Vex whispers.
The girl on the floor gasps. Her silver eyes snap open.
They are glowing bright blue. Terminal blue.
"Overflow!" Aria screams.
*BOOM.*
A shockwave of pure data expands from the child.
It hits the Warlock. He vaporizes. No ash. Just... Deleted.
It hits the cages. The iron bars turn into bubbles and float away.
It hits Vex, Kael, and Seraphine.
Vex anchors herself with gravity. Kael slams his shield down. Seraphine hides behind Kael.
The shockwave passes.
Vex looks up. The chains are gone.
The girl stands in the center of the room. She looks at her hands. They are glitching slightly.
She looks at Vex.
"Administrator?" the girl asks. Her voice is digitized, layered over a child's timbre.
Vex swallows. She feels a weird sensation. Pride? Terror? Both?
"Hey, kiddo," Vex says, softening her voice. She steps forward slowly, hands shown empty. "Project A.R.I.A. Do you know who I am?"
The girl tilts her head. The movement is jerky. Mechanical.
"Bioscan matches... Creator," Aria says. Then, her eyes water. Her lip trembles. The digital layering fades. "Mom?"
Vex freezes.
She hears Kael intake a sharp breath behind her.
"Yeah," Vex whispers. "Sure. Mom. That works."
She kneels down. "I'm here to pick you up. School's out."
Aria drops the bear. She runs.
Vex braces for impact.
The girl slams into her.
And Vex feels... nothing.
The girl passes right through her. Like a ghost.
Aria stumbles, passing through Vex's torso, falling face-first onto the stone floor behind her.
"Ow," Aria whimpers.
Vex stares at her own chest. At the empty space where a hug should be.
"Tangibility error," Aria sniffles, sitting up and rubbing her nose. "My collider box is broken."
It's heartbreaking.
Vex feels a cold rage. Someone messed with the collision script. Probably to make her impossible to touch so she couldn't escape.
Kael walks forward slowly. He looks at the weeping child who just phased through his love interest.
"She is... a ghost?" Kael asks gently.
"She's intangible," Vex corrects, forcing her voice to be steady. "Someone switched her physics layer to 'Spectator Mode'. She can touch the world, but the world can't touch her."
"I want a hug," Aria cries. "It's cold."
Kael kneels. He looks at Vex.
"Fix her," he says.
"I need a patch kit. I need a terminal. I can't just..."
"Use your magic, Vex. Not your code. Use the magic."
Vex blinks.
*Earth gives substance. Life gives form.*
Can she overwrite the physics engine with sheer magical density?
"It might hurt," Vex warns Aria.
"I don't care," Aria sniffles.
Vex holds out her hands. She summons *Earth* and *Life*. Brown and Green beads swirl together. She compresses them.
**[Skill: Matter Instantiation]**
She pushes the magic *into* the girl's ghostly form.
It resists. The code fights the magic. Sparks fly.
"Hold it steady," Seraphine warns, watching the ceiling. "The building is shaking again. The landlord isn't happy we killed the banshee."
"Just a second..." Vex grits her teeth. "Bind!"
*Snap.*
The magic takes hold. Aria's form flickers, then solidifies. The glow fades, leaving just a pale, small girl in a dirty dress.
Aria reaches out. She pokes Vex's knee.
It touches. Solid.
"Real," Aria whispers.
Then she launches herself at Vex again. This time, she hits. Small arms wrap around Vex's neck. Snot gets on the Void Gown.
Vex stiffens. She's not a hugger. She hasn't been hugged in three years (in-game time).
Slowly, awkwardly, she wraps her arms around the kid.
"Okay," Vex whispers into the silver hair. "Gotcha. I gotcha."
Kael watches them. A softness enters his eyes that Vex misses because her face is buried in child-hair.
"Touching family reunion," a new voice drawls from the shadows. "But you broke my Warlock."
Vex looks up.
Standing at the entrance to the basement is a woman. Not Mother Grim.
It's... Seraphine?
Vex looks at the Seraphine standing next to Kael.
Then at the Seraphine in the doorway.
"Two Rogues?" Kael is confused. He raises his shield, pointing it between them. "Which one is real?"
The Seraphine by the door smirks. She spins a dagger.
"I am Seraphine Vale," she says.
The Seraphine next to Kael laughs. "Nice try, shapeshifter."
"No," Vex stands up, pushing Aria behind her legs.
She looks at her "Party Member" Seraphine. The one who has been with them since the arena.
"She's right," Vex says cold.
She looks at her companion.
"You're not Seraphine."
The Seraphine next to Kael drops the smile. Her face melts. The red dress turns into black sludge. Her height increases.
In seconds, the woman is replaced by a tall, featureless entity made of Voidstuff. A **Doppelganger**.
"You figured it out," the creature hisses. "When?"
"Just now," Vex lies. "Also, Seraphine wouldn't hide behind a tank during a fight. She'd be stealing loot."
The real Seraphine at the door throws a knife. "Exactly! I take offense to that cowardice!"
The knife hits the Doppelganger in the face. It sinks in with a squelch.
The creature laughs.
"Malachar sends his regards. He has been watching you through my eyes for days. He knows your weakness, Administrator."
The creature points at Aria.
"The Child is the Key."
The Doppelganger explodes. Not outward, but inward—turning into a black hole.
"Suicide bomber!" Vex shouts. "Shield!"
Kael throws his body over Aria. Vex throws a shield over Kael.
The vacuum bomb goes off.
The basement vanishes.
***
**[Location: St. Jude's Crater]**
Vex coughs. She pushes debris off herself.
The Orphanage is gone. The implosion wiped the building, leaving them standing in a massive crater under the rainy night sky of Sector 12.
Kael is groaning. His back armor is shredded, revealing bloody skin beneath. He took the brunt of the singularity.
"Kael!" Vex crawls to him.
Under him, curled in a ball, Aria is unharmed. But she's shaking.
The real Seraphine walks down the slope of the crater. She looks pissed.
"I track you for three days, find you in a basement, and discover an impostor wearing my face has been flirting with the Knight?" She spits on the ground. "Rude."
"Can we unpack the identity theft later?" Vex snaps, healing Kael's back with a quick *Life* pellet. "The Void knows about Aria. They know I have her."
"Mom?" Aria whispers. She looks at the sky.
"What is it, sweetie?"
Aria points.
The clouds are parting.
Descending from the smog is not a moon. It's an eye.
A massive, purple, ocular rift opens in the sky above Sector 12.
**[Server Alert: High Latency Detected.]**
**[Incoming Raid Boss: Malachar, the Void Emperor.]**
"He's not just sending minions anymore," Vex stands up, pulling Aria up with her. "He's logging in."
Malachar's voice booms across the city. It vibrates the fillings in Vex's teeth.
**"GIVE ME THE KEY."**
Giant tentacles—spectral and translucent—descend from the eye in the sky. They smash into skyscrapers miles away.
"He wants the kid," Seraphine notes, sharpening her daggers. "How attached are we to her?"
"She is my code," Vex snarls. "Nobody touches my code."
She looks at Aria.
"Aria. What access level do you have?"
Aria blinks. Her eyes glow blue again.
"Root," she says innocently.
"Root Access?" Vex's jaw drops. "I gave a toddler Root Access?"
"Can I help?" Aria asks. She holds up her hands. They crackle with raw delete-command energy.
Vex looks at the giant sky-eye. Then at her scary, overpowered daughter.
"Yeah," Vex grins. It's a terrifying grin. "Honey? See that big eye in the sky?"
Aria nods.
"It's a bad program. Can you help Mommy uninstall it?"
Aria smiles.
"Shift + Delete," the child chirps.
She points both hands at the sky.
A beam of pure, white data shoots from the little girl's palms. It's small—tiny—but when it hits the clouds...
The sky screams.
The purple eye recoils.
**"WHAT IS THIS POWER?"** Malachar roars in pain.
"It's called the Task Manager," Vex says, wrapping her arm around Kael. "Run!"
They sprint out of the crater as the sky war falls into chaos.