The stairs released a creaking noise under Aether weight, protesting from decades of not being used.
He paused three steps up, one hand against the metal wall and looking back at the capsule that had been his prison. Or he supposed a lifeline considering how long he had gone without food. Then he glanced back up to see how the light had cast everything in the stairwell into shades of blood and shadow.
"If they could see it now, I wonder how livid they would be?" He held his chin with a chuckle.
The underground facility was meant to last for a century. With cracks and signs of decay only showing after at least ninety years. But based on the golden balls words, he had only been sleeping for a decade.
"It only took ten years for a place that bankrupted an entire continent to become ruined."
All that money, all those resources, all that desperate-
"Are you kidding me!?" A voice shrieked in his mind.
Aether blinked before looking around but finding nothing.
"How the hell did it break so fast!? Another voice shouted.
"Maybe we got scam-"
"That's impossible!"
Those voices… Hahaha, don't tell me-
Golden light bloomed in his peripheral vision. Aether turned his head slowly and found a dozen orbs floating in the stairwell behind him.
"You followed me," he said flatly. "I guess I should expect this?"
"Damn it wasn't on purpose or something we expected." Another orb with a female voice groaned. "We were supposed to fully fade but…"
"You guys are stuck here like parasites."
"We were pulled-"
"Or curses."
"Couldn't you frame it as something better-"
"Maybe haunting would be better. I did pissed-"
"Aether please, be serious!" The orbs pulsed with indignant rage.
He chuckled but his smile held a hint of chill and curiosity. "Regardless of why, this is interesting."
"It isn't! Instead of finally resting, we are forced to watch you screw up everything!"
"Maybe he change-"
"I didn't." He cut off that train of thought before then gesturing to the area around. "But sadly I can't ruin everything, since most of it already fucked. I'm just enjoying the view… You guys should have invested better."
He then continued climbing as the orbs followed behind.
"We invested an entire continent worth… How the hell-"
"Maybe you guys got lied to."
"Impossible!" An orb snapped. "It represents one of humanity's last hopes."
"Did it?" Aether ran his fingers over the wall as he closed in on the door. "Then how come it couldn't even last a half the time you guys expected to."
"There must be a reason…"
"Would it even matter?"
"It would because it kept you safe."
Aether sighed at the orb words. It set off the others to speak but he was getting annoyed with their tedious ramblings. He didn't want to hear them comment about everything he did or worse, start to agree with them. There had to be a way to shut them up, a way to cut whatever was connecting them.
He felt it then.
A clicking sensation in his mind, like finding a door and then pushing it shut before turning the lock.
The voices were cut off, and he finally had peace again.
He stopped walking before glancing back and not seeing the orbs. He held his chin before muttering. "Did that really work? Hm… If I can close it-"
He began imagining that same door before turning the lock and pulling it open. Instantly countless golden balls appeared behind him, all swaying in confusion.
"What just happened!?"
"Did you just cut us off-"
He then closed it again.
Silence descends once more.
Aether smiled. "Alright, this is the best gift I have ever received."
He experimented as he climbed, opening and closing the filter at random intervals, watching the orbs' reactions shift from confusion to understanding to impotent fury.
"-can you stop-"
Click and then silence.
"-at least have the decency-"
Click and then nothing.
"-why are you so petty-"
Click.
"Perfect," Aether said as he reached the metal door "We're going to get along fine, parasites. As long as you understand the rules."
He pushed the door open, and to his surprise it fell down. The area shook after the door crashed down with dust spreading around. With a chuckle he stepped over the fallen door and into the next vault room.
Core Lock Chamber.
It had been the underground vault heart, supplying every room with power, including his own capsule. Now it was a graveyard of ambition with nothing left but carnage.
He saw multiple cylindrical generators lined the walls, big enough to hide in was scorched black and broken. The cores inside had shattered into fragments while the air itself felt wrong with an odd static feel passing by.
That should be the magic in the area. He thought before he opened back up the connection.
Instantly countless golden balls appeared around but from their quiet reaction, he could tell the sight was hitting them hard.
"I… I can't believe this." One of the golden orbs drifted a bit. "This is Dr. Kaine station, how did it become this messed up."
Aether walked towards the generator before pointing. "Dr. Kaine made this?"
Silence fell on the area before the same female orb spoke up. "She was the lead engineer on the Core Lock room… She was-no… Is one of the most brilliant person I have ever known…"
"Ahh, I used to remember her bringing up all types of coffee and drinks…"
"But she died…"
"How?" He traced a finger over the generator.
"She stayed behind." Another orb drifted closer but his voice was low. "A breach happened, forcing everyone to begin evacuating… Everyone was supposed to-"
"But she didn't. She went back to the control station to make sure everything continued running. At least long enough for-"
"For my capsule," Aether finished softly. "To make sure I didn't die."
"She saved your life," the feminine orb said. "Her last act was protecting you."
Aether stood there for a long moment, his hand still resting on the scorched metal. "That's almost sweet," he said finally.
"She died for you!" One of the orbs snapped, some of the anger returning. "The least you could do is—"
"She died to keep humanity's hope alive, not because she cared about me personally." Aether corrected, his voice gentle but firm. "She died for the idea of me and what you all wanted me to be." He turned to face the orbs directly.
"Does that really matter?"
"To me it does." Aether glanced back at the workstation. "However I do respect her for helping me stay alive, so I suppose she is a bit better than you shit bags. Maybe she can bump up from a parasite to a worm."
He closed the filter before they could respond and moved deeper into the chamber.
After a bit he reached what looked to be the gravity machine and to his amusement, it was broken spectacularly.
The cylinder had cracks on with shards of glass somehow sticking to the metal frame that was leaking oil. Even the rings surrounding it had crumbled into pieces, stained by dried up blood.
He opened the connection as he continued forward.
"Don't-"
Just as countless orbs appeared, he felt a terrifying pressure crash down.