Fragments of Fire

In a damp, dim tunnel beneath Old Shibuya, Raizen played the recovered fragment again. Juno’s digital voice echoed:

Juno (recording):

“Vermia… she built the failsafe. If I’m gone, she can bring the truth back.”

Meiko (staring at the floor):

“She was one of us… before Echelon erased her.”

K1D turned sharply.

K1D:

*“She didn’t vanish. She disappeared herself.”

---

They followed the coordinates embedded in the fragment to an old intelligence lab, long destroyed in a fire.

K1D:

“This place is… cursed data. No one touches it.”

The doors were sealed with voice authentication.

Raizen stepped forward.

He spoke Juno’s last words.

The doors opened.

---

Inside, holograms flickered on.

A woman with silver dreadlocks and glowing cyber-eyes appeared—Vermia, in pre-recorded form.

Vermia (recording):

“If you’re seeing this… then Juno failed. And I probably did too.”

She uploaded a tracking virus into Raizen’s implant:

“Find me. I’m still breathing. Barely.”

---

Meiko, disturbed, pulled Raizen aside.

Meiko:

“Why her? Why trust Vermia?”

Raizen:

“Because Juno trusted her. That’s enough.”

Meiko:

“You don’t understand. She was my mentor. And she betrayed all of us.”

---

In an Echelon field unit, Operative Dawg briefed with a smirk.

Dawg:

“Let the boy chase ghosts. I’ll catch him at the funeral.”

He activated his neural tracker.

Raizen's signal lit up in red.

---

In a dingy ramen shop, the trio met Suto, a one-eyed data courier and ex-grid rat.

Suto:

“Vermia’s been seen… inside the red zones. She’s protected by firewalls you don’t even want to name.”

He offered a deal: data for payment.

Raizen handed over a sliver of Juno’s memory.

K1D: “Are you insane?”

---

Moments later, Suto tried to run.

K1D caught him mid-transmission.

Raizen:

“You were never going to help us.”

Suto (grinning):

“No one helps ghosts, kid.”

K1D wiped his memory. Brutally.

---

The team boarded an underground rail pod heading toward Sector Ember—a no-law zone buried in failed experiments.

But halfway in, the pod shut down.

Dawg had arrived.

---

Dawg boarded the train, slow steps echoing.

Dawg:

“I expected a child. Not a rebel.”

Raizen didn’t answer. He attacked first—

The car filled with sparks and digital screeches.

---

Dawg was no normal enforcer.

He adapted with every move Raizen made. He copied Raizen’s fighting algorithm.

K1D:

“He’s mirroring you! Shift your style!”

Raizen closed his eyes. Let instinct guide him.

---

As Dawg prepared a kill blow, Meiko shot him in the back with an ion disruptor.

He fell—glitching, roaring, but not dead.

Raizen:

“That won’t stop him forever.”

---

They escaped through the emergency vent and arrived in Sector Ember.

Everything was burning—literal fires, digital instability, voices screaming through static.

K1D: “Welcome to hell.”

---

A gang of rogue intellects cornered them. Their leader: Wedge, a woman with wires for hair and drones for eyes.

Wedge:

“You’ve entered without offering data. That’s punishable.”

Raizen offered a fragment of his own memory.

She paused—

Then allowed them passage.

---

Deep in Ember’s core, they found it: a data stream bearing Vermia’s encryption key.

It pulsed like a heartbeat.

Raizen synced his implant.

It triggered a wave of pain—visions, screams, and a location:

“The Rifted Vault.”

---

The surge overwhelmed Raizen. His thoughts unraveled. He couldn’t distinguish his own memories from Juno’s.

Raizen (panicking):

“What if I’m not even me anymore?”

Meiko:

“You’re more than you ever were.”

---

Outside Ember, Dawg rose from the rubble.

Eyes red. Blood dripping.

He tapped his neck. Activated a last resort: GRAVEMIND Protocol.

“No more hunting. Now we erase.”

---

They reached the base of the Rifted Vault—an ancient underground structure rumored to hold deleted AIs and forbidden truths.

The door recognized Raizen’s voice.

It opened.

---

The vault glowed with ancient code.

Dozens of broken consciousnesses whispered as the group walked.

A cracked cry echoed through the walls.

Vermia’s voice.

Raizen:

“We found her.”

---

Before they could reach her, a Firewall Construct emerged—an AI-formed beast built from forgotten code.

It lunged at Raizen.

Raizen (whispering):

“Let’s see if you can lie to me too.”

---

With K1D’s data link and Meiko’s cover fire, Raizen used the virus Vermia gave him back in Scene 3.

He overloaded the firewall.

It burst into glitch and sparks.

The path to Vermia opened.

---

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