Aya pressed on through the heaving corridors. The deeper she went, the more the tower resembled something between a cathedral and a carcass. The walls curved into arches of bone‑like ridges, dripping with threads of mucous light. Veins traced upward like stained glass, but glowing red instead of divine.
Her boots squelched through pools of fluid. Each step echoed, swallowed by the steady *thump‑thump* that reverberated from the chamber's core.
The rifle in her hands felt heavier, not from weight, but from the soldier whose body she carried. She knew his heart's rhythm, how his lungs struggled against the stench, even the ache in the old scar across his ribs. Borrowed. All of it borrowed.
Aya shook her head hard. *Don't think. Just move.*
But the Babel didn't allow that mercy.
Ahead, the walls shifted. They weren't walls anymore—they were **faces.**
Dozens, no, hundreds. Half‑formed, stitched into the tissue. Some eyes blinked, others rolled aimlessly, mouths opening and closing as if to speak yet voiceless. The air filled with a faint murmur, too soft to be human speech but sharp enough to scrape her nerves.
Aya backed away, bile rising. "Stop it… stop it!"
She lifted her rifle, but froze. One of the faces mirrored her own.
Not exactly, but enough—same blonde strands clotted with blood, same weary eyes staring hollowly back.
Aya staggered. "That's—no… that can't be me."
Memory fragments struck like shards. A white veil soaked crimson. Fingers laced with hers as someone whispered *Eve.* Gunfire. Screaming. Then nothing.
Her knees buckled, and she slammed against the fleshy wall. The faces melted out of sight instantly, leaving only wet tissue stretching endlessly onward.
Hallucination? Or truth?
A guttural screech yanked her back.
Twisted forms erupted from pores in the walls, jointed limbs cracking as they unfolded. Their bodies were slick with slime, teeth gnashing hungrily.
Aya cursed, raising the rifle.
She fired until the gun rattled in her shaking hands. One creature fell, twitching. Another leapt—Aya felt panic tear through her borrowed veins. Instinctively, she searched for another body.
Her gaze caught a soldier deeper in the corridor, under siege.
The world pulled. Her soul ripped free in a stream of white light—then slammed into the soldier's form. His muscles became hers, his panicked breaths her own. She fired point‑blank, splattering the Twisted across the wall.
But the cost stabbed immediately. Her awareness carried fragments of this man, *Private Diaz.* His last memory before Aya overtook him: a little girl waving from a porch, hair braided by his careful hands. The memory seared Aya's thoughts before dissolving into nothing.
Another life crushed beneath her survival.
Aya screamed wordlessly, unloading at the swarm until silence returned.
Her body trembled. She pressed a hand to her face, not sure whose tears streaked her cheeks—Diaz's or Aya's. Maybe both.
The Babel's heartbeat grew louder. Deeper.
Somewhere ahead, the corridor yawned into a vast chamber. Aya stepped forward, each pace heavy with guilt. Her breath hitched as the floor tilted downward, guiding her into a pit that pulsed like the belly of a beast.
In the center, suspended by cords of flesh, floated a black, pulsating core. It expanded and contracted with the rhythm of the tower's heartbeat, veins tethering it to the grotesque walls like a heart straining to survive.
Hyde's voice cut through, sharp and surgical:
> "Aya. That's it. The heart. Destroy it."
She raised the rifle slowly, sight fixed on the heart. But her finger froze on the trigger.
Her eyes widened.
Because inside that pulsing sphere, she thought she saw something—someone. A silhouette curled in fetal position, hair flowing like strands of shadow. It turned its head as if sensing her, lips parting in a ghost of a whisper.
Aya's chest constricted.
The silhouette looked like *Eve.*
Aya lowered the rifle, shaking violently. "No… that can't be…"
The heart thundered louder. The Babel groaned, as if daring her to fire.
Aya's scream tore through the chamber—whether of rage, grief, or defiance, she didn't even know.
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