Spinning fast, the big incinerator cannons made a sound so loud it wiped out the lab alarms completely. Backward he flew - Vance gave up any thought of fighting back then and there. Holding position versus Vanguard purge-troopers using only a carbon-steel blade and weak armor? Not possible. Axiom moved before thinking, driven by raw signals flashing along their shared neural link. That huge shadow-lynx grabbed the thick fabric at Vance's neck and yanked him sideways, pulling him hard behind the solid metal frame of a vacant tank seconds before fire tore through the hall.
Fires of plasma surged through the space. From the start, intense heat cracked the flawless white coating on the walls while turning leftover chemicals in the idle centrifuges to vapor. The air shuddered under sudden pressure.
Down he crashed onto the shiny floor, pain exploding through his frame. A sharp grinding ran from his rebuilt foot, climbing into his pelvis like frozen bone scraping bone. As he jerked sideways, the rough wiring in his left arm tightened - hot metal threads tearing slowly through tissue. Atop it all, the mark on the back of his neck pulsed with icy dread, humming toward something old buried far below ground. Bones creaking under skin too thin, each shift required silent bargaining with a body coming undone.
Bolts of blue light spat from Silas's small plasma gun as he leapt behind a metal table. The purge troopers' heavy suits soaked up the hits without slowing down.
Fifty feet away, fire licked at the ceiling tiles. Silas yelled through the noise, voice cracking - his lab coat, once crisp white, edged in soot and split near the cuff. Thirty-eight seconds left when he said it: the air ducts would release poison by then
A sharp crack tore across the battlefield - like metal giving way deep underwater - just as Vance started mapping his way out of the gunfire. The noise hit before he could finish counting angles, freezing his thoughts mid-step.
A blast tore through the core chamber. Metal split apart under pressure. Smoke filled the air fast. The main reservoir gave way without warning.
A sudden rush of thick, ink-like time-stuff roared over the spotless floor, spilling in huge volumes. Footsteps stopped dead - soldiers in heavy armor skidded sideways when the slick flood hit the wooden panels beneath them.
Out came Elena Rostova from the broken remains.
Her form held nothing of the shattered lab experiment she once was. From her eyes poured a fierce purple glow, swallowing up the dim orange flashes around her. Glass shards cracked underfoot as she moved forward, though cuts never formed on her soles - no red marks stained the ground. Tubes, once bolted deep into her back along the vertebrae, now dangled loose, split open, dripping pale divine fluid across the floor.
A flash of movement - the squad leader shouted at his team, swinging the bulky flame weapon around to aim at the small figure standing there, her hair like snow under the dim light.
A slight shift in Elena's posture caught the eye. Not smooth - this turn defied how living things move. Jolted into place, it felt like time itself skipped a beat. Reality blinked, missing a piece it should have held.
A sharp pull came from his finger. The gun stayed silent.
Out of nowhere, Elena stood close - thirty feet of water behind her, yet no movement seen. Her hand rose. Pale fingers, light as breath, closed around the helmet's thick shield. The Vanguard soldier did not brace. She pulled nothing. Still, the grip held firm.
Out of nowhere, violet power burst from her hands, shooting straight into the layered armor. Just as the soldier started yelling, everything went quiet - his gear imploding under sudden, crushing force. Metal sheets folded fast, sinking down like wet paper, leaving behind a thick heap of mangled steel and something far worse.
Out of nowhere, the last three soldiers started shooting, fear tearing through their tight ranks.
White-knuckled fingers clutched the blade, Vance staring only at the ground. Inside his skull, that engine howled - golden teeth biting into bone with every breath. Close like this, the chaos nearby gnawed on something older, deeper: the splinter of a dead god lodged under skin. Her presence scraped raw against it, Elena humming out of tune with everything he held broken inside.
Lightning shards ripped into empty air - the spot she'd just left. Gone before they hit, she reappeared behind the next soldier. Without pause, she shoved a splintered edge of tank glass deep into the weak point below his helmet. He fell. Around she turned, swinging frayed tubes like lashes through hot wind. Thick cords cracked against two more soldiers' chests. A surge ripped along the wires, smashing into their bulky incinerator guns without warning. As circuits burst apart, flames erupted mid-grip - swallowing each soldier whole in a sudden glare born from broken power cells.
Heavy quiet rushed into the room again, cut through by steam from bubbling plating, while dark liquid fell drip by drip off metal edges.
Silas dragged himself off the cold slab, voice tight. "Take the lift," he said, blood on his chin, staring past the scattered tools toward her. Time left - fifteen heartbeats till the room fills."
From the edge of her vision, Elena shifted her face to the distant corner, light spilling from her eyes across broken pieces. Not stopping at Silas or the smoldering remains of Vanguard's shell, she went further, her stare cutting through smoke until it landed on a narrow gap near the metal tank foundation - there, half hidden, crouched Vance and Axiom.
A sharp cold burned across Vance's neck, sudden and deep. Spoken through her, something measured him - paused on the gleam beneath bone where gold turned slow inside his ribs. Once, long back, Elena stood mythic in memory: perfect cells, unmatched mind, born right. Now it struck clear - she moved only because shadowed wills yanked tight below, restless under stone.
A growl ripped from Axiom, deep enough to stir the dark liquid gathering near their feet. Though the creature bristled, charged with shadowed sparks, Vance wrenched tight on the link between them. His grip twisted its focus away - toward the thick metal doors waiting at the rear wall.
Onward," Vance said, rising from the ground. The rebuilt foot supported him, yet a jolt of pain blurred the edges of what he saw.
Over by the elevator, Silas stood with his forearm device wired into the service slot. Just then, thick green-tinged smoke started seeping through overhead vents in the lab. With a quiet pressurized sound, the metal doors slid apart. That mist meant one thing - the system had triggered its built-in toxin release to wipe out whatever living traces were left.
Inside the lift, Vance moved fast, Axiom close behind. Right after, Silas jumped in - fingers smashing the rise-fast button without pause.
Just then, the doors started closing. Vance turned to see the wrecked lab behind him.
Only when the metal shutters clamped shut did she blink. Smoke curled around her boots, thick and sour. The glow in her gaze didn't fade, even after he vanished behind cold walls. Green mist pooled like spilled paint, ignored. Vance was gone. She stood. Still.
Upward jolted the elevator, its thick metal teeth clamping shut as it dragged them out of the dark world below.
Falling into the rear wall, Vance gasped, each breath thin and sharp, carrying the sour hint of escaping fumes. Instead of speaking, Silas sank low across from him, fingers locked around a dead weapon, eyes fixed on rising numbers above the door. Moving without pause, Axiom circled the tight cabin, muscles coiled beneath fur that crackled like static after thunder. Withdrawn yet alert, the lynx vibrated with anger - not fear - at having turned away from what hunted them.
That she released us," Silas murmured, words bare of the pride he once wore so loud. His gaze lifted, searching not for answers but a reason that made sense. She had power enough to break us, same as the soldiers on the ground - yet chose stillness instead
Vance stretched an arm behind, fingertips crusted with grime and blood brushing the cold bump on his scalp. That patch of flesh pulsed like a signal, just as the machine foretold - locking onto something buried deep beneath. Killing him down there wasn't necessary anymore. A thread already pulled tight between them, invisible, unbroken.
Floating upward, the lift's drone filling the silence, Vance spoke with a tired whisper. Not allowing escape - that's what she did. The door opened by her hand, yet we stayed trapped in place.