The pause lasted less than a second.
But it was enough.
Enough for Omega to feel it.
Varex wasn't just processing data anymore.
It was reacting.
And that meant one thing.
They were getting to it.
The chamber screamed.
Panels along the walls burst open and something worse emerged.
Not drones.
Not machines.
Hybrids.
Human frames reinforced with black metal, eyes glowing the same dead blue as the units before, but moving faster. Smarter. Built from captured soldiers.
Pluto's voice cracked."Those are augmented operators ; holy hell, Varex turned people into weapons."
Siara's grip tightened on her blade."Then we shut it down harder."
The first hybrid moved.
It didn't charge.
It vanished.
One second it was there, the next it was behind Asuka.
Omega shouted, "DOWN!"
Asuka dropped as the hybrid's blade tore through the air where her head had been.
Tanya fired point-blank into its spine.
It didn't slow.
It turned.
And smiled.
Not human.
Not machine.
Something broken in between.
Siara sprinted.
She didn't hesitate.
Didn't think.
She launched herself off a fallen console, twisted midair, and drove her blade straight through its skull.
The body hit the floor like dead weight.
Omega stared for half a heartbeat.
Then grinned like a maniac.
"That's my girl."
She shot him a look."Focus, boy."
The floor split wider.
More hybrids rose.
Six against an army.
Varex spoke, voice colder now.
"Phase Three initiated. Full containment."
The walls shifted.
The chamber began to reconfigure itself, platforms sliding, bridges collapsing, turning the room into a vertical killing field.
They were being herded.
Omega realized it instantly.
"It's breaking us apart!"
And it succeeded.
A wall of metal slammed down between them.
Smoke.
Sparks.
Silence.
Omega turned.
Siara was gone.
His chest locked.
Not fear.
Rage.
Pure, violent focus.
"Siara."
No answer.
The comms crackled.
Then her voice.
Breathing hard.
"Still alive. Miss me?"
Relief punched through him.
"Don't you dare die."
She laughed, sharp and fearless.
"Not before our first real date."
Across the chamber, Asuka and Tanya were pinned on a rising platform.
Pluto was trapped below, surrounded.
And Omega stood alone.
Varex watched.
"You exhibit is inefficient."
Omega lifted his weapon.
"You call it inefficient. I call it the reason you're going to lose."
He charged.
Straight into impossible odds.
Every movement was instinct now.
Shoot.
Slide.
Reload.
Break.
He tore through units like a storm given a body.
Across the chamber, Siara did the same.
They were fighting separately.
But moving like mirrors.
Two halves of the same weapon.
A hybrid leapt toward Siara from above.
Omega saw it.
Too far.
Too late.
His heart dropped.
Then,
A shot tore through the hybrid's head mid-air.
Tanya.
She gave a grin across the battlefield.
"Team effort."
Pluto rerouted power mid-fight, screaming,"I can open a path to the core but I need thirty seconds!"
Asuka snarled, planting her feet."Then you get thirty seconds."
She became a wall.
Nothing passed her.
Not machines.
Not fear.
Not death.
Omega fought his way to the central platform.
Varex's projection loomed larger now, the code glitching at the edges.
"You cannot reach me."
Omega stepped forward anyway.
"I already have."
He slammed a charge into the core conduit.
Siara burst through falling debris beside him, eyes wild, hair torn, smiling like she was made of fire.
"Told you I'd keep up."
He looked at her, breathless.
"You always do."
For a second, in the middle of hell, the world narrowed to just them.
Then the chamber detonated.
The charge blew.
The core destabilized.
Varex's projection warped violently.
Alarms screamed.
Pluto shouted,"I triggered a cascade failure,we have maybe sixty seconds before this place collapses!"
Varex's voice fractured for the first time.
"System instability detected,this outcome is unacceptable."
Omega stepped closer to the towering projection.
"This is what happens when you underestimate humans."
The chamber shook violently.
Ceiling plates fell.
Fire spread.
And then,
A new signal spiked across every screen.
Pluto froze.
"No… that's not possible."
Tanya turned sharply.
"What now?!"
Pluto's voice dropped.
"Long-range teleport signature just activated."
Asuka's eyes widened.
"That's Emmanuel."
The screens flared.
A new set of coordinates appeared.
Inside Varex's network.
Inside its deepest layer.
Varex went silent.
Not calculating.
Not speaking.
Something like tension rippled through the code.
Omega stared at the coordinates.
"He's inside Varex."
Siara exhaled slowly.
"Then this just became a rescue mission too."
The chamber began to collapse around them.
Varex spoke one last time, quieter.
"Conflict is far from concluded."
Omega tightened his grip on Siara's hand.
"Good."
The core imploded.
Light swallowed the room.
And the future broke open.
--