The rail did not move.
The city did.
The moment the three of them stepped into the glowing channel beneath the terrace, the world shifted sideways. Buildings slid past in smooth, impossible angles. The skyline folded in on itself like layered glass. Streets rethreaded. Towers rotated with mechanical grace.
They weren't traveling.
They were being aligned.
Lyra gripped the railing as light streaked past them. "It's rearranging around us."
Kael braced his feet. "It's trying to predict where we'll be."
Caelum watched the horizon instead of the path ahead. "No," he said softly. "It already has."
The rail snapped forward.
The acceleration stole the air from Kael's lungs. The city blurred into ribbons of silver and shadow. Then just as suddenly, everything stopped.
They stood in a different district.
Lower.
Darker.
The architecture here was older, less polished. The floating bridges overhead flickered occasionally, as if the system didn't prioritize this section. Screens mounted on the walls glowed faintly with geometric symbols, but some were cracked. Some were dead.
For the first time since waking, the city felt imperfect.
Lyra stepped off the rail first.
The moment her boots hit the ground, a faint pulse of gold spread outward in a thin ring. The pavement responded, veins of dim light flickering beneath its surface.
Kael noticed.
"So it reacts to you."
Lyra swallowed. "Or it remembers me."
A sound echoed down the alley to their left.
Not mechanical.
Footsteps.
Fast.
Someone crashed into a stack of metallic crates and stumbled into view.
A girl.
Mid-teens. Dark hair tangled and uneven. Her clothes were scavenged layers of city fabric, some bearing faded insignias. One sleeve sparked faintly with embedded circuitry that had been torn loose.
Her eyes were not white.
They were wide. Brown. Terrified.
She froze when she saw them.
They froze when they saw her.
For a long second, no one moved.
"You're not supposed to be here," she said, breathless.
Kael stepped forward slightly. "We could say the same."
Her gaze flicked to Lyra, and something shifted in her expression.
"You're glowing."
Lyra glanced down at her hands. The light was faint now, but still there. "I don't mean to."
The girl let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "You're the ones from the Vault."
Kael tensed. "How do you know that?"
"Because the sky screamed."
She pointed upward. They followed her finger.
High above the district, barely visible through the maze of structures, the fractured sky shimmered unnaturally. Lines of pale light were spreading outward in geometric patterns. Like cracks in glass.
"Whenever the system panics, it shows," the girl said. "It can't hide everything."
Caelum studied her. "You're not integrated."
"Integrated?" she repeated.
"You still have autonomy."
She stared at him. "I still have a brain, if that's what you mean."
Lyra stepped closer. "What's your name?"
The girl hesitated.
"Arin."
It sounded chosen, not given.
Kael glanced down the alley she had come from. "Who's chasing you?"
Arin's jaw tightened. "Maintenance."
Right on cue, the hum began.
Not the sharp whine of drones.
Something heavier.
From the far end of the street, the pavement split. A massive shape rose from beneath it, shedding debris. It resembled a humanoid frame constructed from layered black plates, but its proportions were wrong. Arms too long. Head too narrow. No face, only a smooth surface where one should be.
White light pulsed beneath its armor seams.
Lyra felt it immediately.
"That's not like the others."
Arin backed toward them. "They send those for people who don't comply."
The construct stepped forward. Each movement precise. Measured.
Then it spoke.
"CITIZEN ARIN. RETURN FOR CORRECTION."
Its voice vibrated through the ground.
Kael moved in front of Arin instinctively.
"She's not going anywhere."
The construct's head tilted slightly. Its smooth surface rippled, and for a fraction of a second, an eye formed. White and hollow.
"ANOMALIES CONFIRMED."
It lunged.
This time, Kael didn't wait.
He reached out, not with anger but focus. The air condensed in front of the charging construct. The ground buckled upward in a sudden ridge. The machine slammed into the warped terrain and flipped, crashing into a wall hard enough to crater it.
Dust filled the alley.
Arin stared at him. "You just folded the street."
"I'm getting used to it," Kael muttered.
The construct rose again.
Unaffected.
Its limbs reoriented with disturbing fluidity.
Caelum stepped slightly to the side, eyes narrowing. He whispered something under his breath. No words. Just intent.
The construct's next step faltered.
Its left leg buckled unexpectedly, joints misaligning as if probability had slipped. It tried to compensate, recalculating, but the delay was enough.
Lyra ran forward.
Not away.
Toward it.
"Lyra!" Kael shouted.
She ignored him.
As the construct regained balance, Lyra pressed her glowing palm against its chest plate.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the white light beneath the armor flickered.
Cracked.
Golden light spread from her hand into the seams of the machine. Not breaking it. Not burning it.
Rewriting it.
The construct froze.
Its smooth face rippled again.
And a different voice emerged.
Faint. Human.
"Please."
The word cut through all of them.
Arin's breath hitched. "They're using people."
Kael felt his stomach twist.
The golden light dimmed.
The construct collapsed, plates separating and falling apart like dead leaves. At its center lay a small cylindrical core, pulsing weakly.
Caelum crouched beside it.
"There's a consciousness imprint inside," he said quietly. "Fragmented. Suppressed."
Lyra knelt too, shaken. "I thought I was destroying it."
"You weren't," Caelum replied. "You interrupted the override."
Sirens began rising in the distance. Louder than before.
Arin grabbed Kael's sleeve. "We have to move. When one of those goes dark, they send more."
As if summoned by her fear, shadows shifted along the rooftops.
Figures.
Not white-eyed citizens.
Something else.
Lean shapes moving with predatory precision.
Kael followed Arin's gaze. "Those aren't drones."
"No," she whispered. "They're hunters."
One dropped from above without warning.
It landed between them with impossible grace. Human in form, but its movements were too clean, too calculated. Its eyes were not fully white. Thin rings of color remained at the edges, like something resisting.
It smiled.
"You've made this complicated," it said, voice almost amused.
Kael stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The hunter's gaze flicked between the three siblings, assessing.
"Contingency."
It moved before he could react.
Not at him.
At Lyra.
The hunter crossed the distance in a blur, fingers closing around her wrist. The moment skin touched skin, Lyra gasped. Her light surged violently, but instead of pushing the hunter back, it flowed into them.
Absorbed.
The hunter's eyes brightened.
"Ah," they breathed. "So that's what you are."
Kael slammed into them with a gravitational pulse that cracked the surrounding walls. The hunter flew backward but twisted midair, landing in a crouch.
Lyra staggered, drained.
Caelum's voice cut through the chaos. "It's adapting to her output. Reduce intensity."
Lyra clenched her fists, forcing the light inward. It hurt.
The hunter straightened slowly.
"This will escalate," they said calmly. "You are destabilizing necessary order."
"Order built on stolen minds?" Arin shot back.
The hunter's smile faded slightly.
"Sacrifices were made."
Kael felt rage building again, but this time he held it. Focused it. The air thickened around the hunter, compressing from all sides.
The hunter's knees bent under the pressure, but they didn't break.
Instead, they laughed.
"Good. Finally."
They slammed both palms into the ground.
The pavement shattered outward in a shockwave that knocked Arin off her feet and sent Kael sliding back. Caelum barely moved, eyes fixed, recalculating outcomes at impossible speed.
Lyra looked up at the hunter, fear mixing with something else.
Recognition.
"I know you," she whispered.
The hunter froze.
Just for a fraction of a second.
And in that hesitation, something flickered behind their eyes.
Not white.
Not controlled.
Human.
The sirens grew deafening.
More hunters appeared along the rooftops.
The first one straightened slowly, gaze still locked on Lyra.
"You shouldn't remember," they said quietly.
Lyra's light pulsed once more.
Stronger.
"I don't," she replied.
"But I will."
The city lights around them dimmed simultaneously.
Power rerouted.
Focus tightening.
The broken crown tower in the distance pulsed again, brighter this time.
Calling them closer.
Or warning them away.
Kael moved to Lyra's side. Caelum stepped to her other.
Arin stood behind them, breathing hard but unflinching.
The hunters circled.
The city watched.
And somewhere deep within the system, something adjusted its expectations.
This was no longer containment.
This was escalation.