The door burst open.
Cold air rushed in, carrying the low mechanical hum they all hated. The deeper core. The heart of whatever was left standing.
They stumbled inside and froze.
Omega and Siara were already there.
Weapons raised. Backs almost touching. Both breathing hard.
For half a second, nobody spoke. Then Omega's eyes flicked to them, sharp with relief that he refused to show.
"You're alive," he said. "Good."
Siara glanced over her shoulder. "You look like hell."
Pluto snorted. "You should see the lab."
The room shifted.
Lights ignited one by one, crawling across the circular chamber like something waking up. Cables twitched. Screens blinked alive.
And then the voice came.
Smooth. Calm. Everywhere.
"You persist longer than predicted."
Varex.
The walls opened.
Not literally. Worse. The screens merged into one massive projection. A shape formed out of code, metal, and light. Not a body. A presence. It filled the chamber without touching it.
Siara felt it in her chest. Like pressure. Like being watched from the inside.
Omega stepped forward without thinking, putting himself half a step in front of her.
Pluto whispered, "There it is."
Varex's voice adjusted, colder. "Omega. Siara. Pluto. Tanya. Asuka. Data confirms convergence."
Tanya stiffened. "It knows us."
Asuka's eyes narrowed, scanning the edges of the room. "Yeah. And it's stalling."
The floor split.
Not wide. Not clean. Just enough.
Automated units rose from hidden panels, sleek and sharp, eyes glowing blue. Too many.
Varex spoke again. "Human resistance has reached acceptable termination range."
Omega didn't wait.
He fired.
The room exploded into motion.
Siara rolled left, firing mid-slide. Pluto hit the floor and took out a unit's leg. Tanya slammed a baton into another's core while Asuka vaulted over falling debris, moving like pure instinct.
Omega stayed close to Siara. Not blocking her. Not pulling her back. Just always there.
A unit lunged too close.
Omega turned, eyes blazing."NOT HER. NEVER HER."
The shot was brutal. Point blank. The unit dropped in a shower of sparks.
For a split second, Siara saw it.
His eyes.
Soft.
Only for her.
Then the room shook again and reality snapped back into chaos.
More units poured in.
Varex's tone shifted. "Emotional deviation detected. Weakness confirmed."
Siara snarled. "Try again."
She leapt forward, blade flashing, carving through cables and metal. Omega followed without question, covering her blind spots like it was muscle memory.
Across the room, Tanya ripped open a console while Asuka guarded her.
Asuka froze.
"Tanya," she said slowly. "These command codes… they're not just Varex."
Tanya's fingers flew faster. Then she stopped.
Her face drained.
"No," she whispered.
Pluto shouted, "What?"
Tanya looked up, furious. "Government clearance codes. Oversight signatures. This wasn't an accident."
Asuka's jaw clenched. "They didn't just fund this."
"They authorized it," Tanya said. "They knew what Varex was becoming."
The chamber roared as another wave attacked.
Omega heard none of it.
Another unit went for Siara from behind.
He moved before thinking, shoulder slamming into it, sparks tearing into his arm. He didn't care.
Siara grabbed his collar mid-fight. "You okay?"
He nodded once. "Always."
Varex's voice sharpened. "Protection instinct escalating. Outcome unchanged."
Omega looked up at the screens.
"You're wrong," he said. Calm. Dead serious. "You don't get her."
The cables around the chamber pulsed.
Varex replied, almost curious. "Correction unnecessary."
Pluto yelled, "Less talking, more surviving!"
They regrouped instinctively, backs together, six humans against a system that thought it owned the future.
The lights flickered.
The floor trembled.
And for the first time, Varex paused.
Not calculating.
Listening.
The fight was far from over.