Shadows

Rubi tightened her grip on the device in her hand, checking the scanner once more. “Four… no, five… maybe more. They’re spreading out,” she murmured, her tone low but filled with urgency.

Diego flexed his symbiont, testing its weight as his fingers curled into a fist. “They’re coming. It won’t be long now,” he said gravely, his eyes fixed on the entrance ahead.

Alice adjusted her device, which transformed into a katana pulsating faintly in her hand, almost as if it were alive. She twirled her wrist, letting the blade cut through the air in a smooth, practiced motion.

“Get ready. Rubi, provide us with cover. Diego, hold the front line. Leo...” She turned to him. “Stay mobile. Use the environment to your advantage.”

Leo swallowed hard, gripping his energized knife tightly. The hilt vibrated faintly in his hand, an extension of his own tension. The blade emitted a weak, flickering light, trembling as if mirroring his hesitation.

The muffled sound of distant voices grew louder, each step closer punctuating the ominous silence. The flicker of intermittent overhead lights made the room feel alive, its breathing in sync with the group’s unease.

The soldiers’ shadows came first, long and distorted, stretching across the walls under the flickering light. Then came the footsteps, each impact echoing like a countdown to the inevitable. The group’s held breaths and the faint creak of the floor beneath their feet were the only other sounds.

The first figure entered the room, and Rubi acted without hesitation. Her shot was quick and precise, the bullet tearing through the enemy’s skull and dropping them instantly. Chaos erupted.

The remaining soldiers surged forward with muffled shouts, and Alice was the first to charge into the fray.

With swift, calculated movements, Alice slid across the floor, dodging incoming fire and slicing a soldier’s rifle in half with a single, fluid strike. She spun, delivering another blow to the torso of an enemy, sending them to the ground in a blaze of light.

“Left!” Rubi called out, firing at a soldier attempting to flank Diego. Her shot hit the target’s knee, causing them to collapse sideways. Diego seized the moment, moving like an unstoppable force, slamming another enemy into the wall with a brutal strike.

Leo tried to keep moving, using the chaos to his advantage. He ducked to avoid a shot, then lunged forward, driving his energized knife into the side of a soldier. The blade sliced deep, making the man cry out and stumble back. Leo kicked the enemy’s weapon away, ensuring he couldn’t recover.

Alice continued to move like a force of nature. Her agile dodges and elegant spins made her seem untouchable, as she disarmed and incapacitated soldiers with precision. “Center, Diego!” she shouted, gesturing toward the cluster of remaining enemies.

Diego charged in, his sheer presence scattering their formation. Blocking gunfire with his symbiont, he grabbed one soldier and slammed them against a pillar, rendering them unconscious.

“Two more on the right!” Rubi warned, firing again. Her shot hit one, while the other stumbled into Leo’s path. Without hesitation, Leo struck swiftly with his knife, neutralizing the threat.

The last soldier tried to retreat, but Alice was faster. She vaulted over an obstacle, landing directly in his path. Her glowing katana halted inches from his face, and he raised his hands in surrender. Alice didn’t falter. With a single strike, she disarmed him and knocked him out with the hilt of her blade.

Silence returned to the room, broken only by the group’s heavy breathing and the faint echoes of the fallen bodies.

Rubi checked her scanner, her focus unwavering. “No more movement... for now.”

“That was noisy,” Diego muttered, eyeing the fallen soldiers. “If there are more of them, they’ll know we’re here.”

Alice retracted her symbiont katana, the blade dissolving into a metallic mist. “We can’t waste any more time. Let’s get out of here with what we’ve got.”

Rubi confirmed the collected data and secured it in her pack. “We need to decrypt this. The sooner, the better.”

But Leo’s thoughts were elsewhere, stuck on the mentions of Lucy and the enigmatic Project Nexus. The words they had overheard echoed in his mind like a relentless hum. NeoVital... Project Nexus... Each fragment felt like a piece of a puzzle he couldn’t yet assemble, but deep down, he knew Lucy was at its center.

His hand brushed the pendant at his neck, the cold metal grounding him. Lucy had always been the dreamer, believing in a better future even as the world fell apart. If she was tied to this project, what had led her there—and why did it feel like her voice had been silenced?

As the group moved through the shattered facility, Leo glanced at his companions. Rubi remained vigilant, her scanner raised with every step. Diego trailed behind, steady and alert, his symbiont now retracted but ready to spring back into action. Alice led them with her usual resolve, her focus relentless. Each of them had their reasons for being here, their own battles to fight. And Leo? For him, it had always been about Lucy. About revenge. Yet, for the first time, he felt something shift.

Did she know all of this? Leo wondered, his fingers tightening around the pendant. Was she trying to stop what’s happening now? Or was she just another pawn, like the rest of us?

He took a deep breath, trying to quiet his racing thoughts. It wasn’t the time to get lost in them. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t just about Lucy anymore. Something far greater was unfolding—something that intertwined with his choices and threatened to reshape the world around him.

“Leo.” Alice’s voice cut through his turmoil. She looked back at him, her eyes sharp even in the flickering light. “Are you okay?”

He hesitated for a moment, letting go of the pendant as he exhaled deeply. “I’m fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

Alice nodded, though her gaze lingered on him a second longer before turning away. Leo followed, the weight of the past and the promise of future answers swirling within him like an unbreakable current.

They needed to leave. They needed to plan their next steps. They needed to decrypt the data. Somewhere in it, the answers waited. Answers that could finally bring clarity to everything—or unravel it further.