Chương 129: 128: A Big Mistake

The training field lay silent behind them as the group of trainees crept through the frozen corridors, their footsteps echoing strangely through the unnatural stillness. Around them, the world remained suspended in place. A Stepper stood frozen mid-stride, a scientist remained caught with a coffee cup halfway to his lips, and dust particles hung motionless within shafts of pale light that cut through the dim hallways.

Sera giggled as she pointed towards a particularly unfortunate-looking operative who had been frozen in the middle of adjusting his collar.

"Look at him. He's been fixing his collar for... however long this has been." Kasina snorted.

"I'd be more concerned about the guy who looks like he's about to sneeze." She pointed towards a nearby Stepper whose face was contorted into an unmistakable pre-sneeze expression.

"Imagine being frozen right before a sneeze. That has to be torture."

"I'd rather be frozen mid-bite," Milo said, already drifting towards a table where someone had abandoned a half-eaten pastry.

"At least I'd die happy."

"Nobody's dying," Liora said, although there was very little conviction in her voice.

"Probably." Gideon shook his head as he passed a scientist hunched over a console.

"This is so weird. Everything's stopped, but we're still moving. Why?"

"Korhess's shield," Kasina explained, her voice carrying a note of wonder.

"She expanded it to cover the whole Nest. We're inside her moving-time bubble."

"Lucky us," Milo muttered, reaching for the pastry. Sera immediately caught his wrist.

"I wouldn't eat that." Milo looked at her.

"Why?"

"It's been sitting there for... I don't even know how long. Time might be frozen, but germs aren't necessarily going to respect the rules." Milo stared at the pastry. His expression slowly changed.

"That's actually a really good point." He withdrew his hand.

"Tragic." The group continued deeper into the facility, their earlier fear gradually giving way to curiosity. They passed through a mess hall where trays of food remained suspended exactly where they had been left, some of the trainees grabbing sealed snacks, apples, and pastries that had been abandoned before the freeze. Milo stuffed a packet into his jacket.

"Score."

"You're going to get caught," Gideon warned.

"By who? Everyone's frozen."

"That is not how consequences work." They continued through the corridors before eventually reaching a supply closet. Several minutes later, they emerged carrying an assortment of questionable treasures: a pair of goggles, a half-empty box of ammunition, several sealed ration packs, and a strange metallic device that none of them could identify. Sera held up a sleek silver gadget.

"Ooh. This looks expensive."

"You don't even know what it does," Liora said. Sera turned it over in her hands.

"It looks cool. That's enough."

"That is exactly how people get killed in this facility."

"Details." Their curiosity eventually carried them into the Operative wing, where the trainees slowed to a collective stop. The quarters were nothing like their dormitories. Velvet curtains framed enormous windows. King-sized beds occupied spacious rooms, private bathrooms gleamed with marble fixtures, and stocked cabinets contained enough food and drink to make the entire trainee block jealous. Milo immediately launched himself onto one of the beds.

"Oh my God!" He bounced once. Twice.

"This is the softest thing I've ever felt!" Gideon stared at him.

"You're going to get us killed."

"They have pillows the size of my entire body!"

"Get off the bed!"

"Never! I'm sleeping here forever!" Liora had already wandered into the bathroom.

"They have a bathtub with jets." She stared at it in disbelief.

"A bathtub. With jets. Who knew Operatives lived like this?"

"We did," Sera said dryly.

"That's literally why everyone wants to become one."

"Still. This is insane." Noel wandered over to the wardrobe and pulled open the doors. His eyes widened.

"Look at these suits! These must cost more than my entire training stipend!"

"Everything in this room costs more than your training stipend," Rhett said flatly. He remained leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded, wearing his usual scowl, although the faint amusement in his eyes betrayed him.

"You're jumping on an Operative's bed. You're going to leave a wrinkle, and they'll trace it back to you." Milo bounced harder.

"Let them try. They have to catch us first."

"You're insufferable."

"You love me."

"I tolerate you. There's a difference." Nina, her round face flushed with excitement, had already moved to the drawers. She pulled one open and froze.

"There's a whole drawer of snacks." Everyone looked over.

"A whole drawer!" she repeated.

"Who needs a drawer of snacks?"

"Operatives," Sera replied dryly.

"That's who." Nina immediately began gathering packets into her arms.

"I'm taking some."

"Don't—" She stuffed another packet into her jacket.

"—take all of them," Sera finished. Nina paused.

"Oh." She looked down at the growing pile in her arms.

"Right." Milo rolled onto his back, staring up at the enormous ceiling.

"Guys, I've changed my mind." Gideon sighed.

"What now?"

"We should become Operatives." Rhett snorted.

"You'd last three days."

"Four."

"Two."

"Three and a half." None of them were thinking about the catastrophe waiting above them. And, for the moment, nobody was there to stop them. Nina had already stuffed several chocolate bars and a bag of chips into her pockets, judging by the packaging, each one expensive enough to have cost more than a week's worth of meals.

"For the apocalypse," she explained.

"It's called preparation." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"You're going to get us killed."

"Then I'll die happy." The group eventually dragged themselves away from the Operative suites and continued their exploration, following Kasina's lead towards the engineering workshops. The moment they entered, their earlier restraint disappeared. The workshops were a treasure trove of discarded technology. Broken weapons filled storage racks, experimental gadgets sat in open containers, and half-finished devices covered workbenches beneath layers of dust.

Prototype components had been tossed into bins with handwritten labels such as FAILED, OBSOLETE, and DO NOT REACTIVATE. Milo stared at the nearest container.

"Jackpot." He immediately began rummaging through it.

"These are all rejects!" Gideon folded his arms.

"Discarded for a reason." Milo held up a strange cylindrical device.

"That makes them more interesting." Sera pulled another object from a nearby bin. It was small and angular, with a single button on its surface and several tiny lights blinking in an otherwise incomprehensible sequence. She turned it over.

"What does this do?" Milo leaned closer.

"Press it and find out." Sera stared at him.

"Absolutely not."

"Coward."

"Survivor." Rhett picked up a metallic gauntlet from another container. Residual energy crackled weakly across its surface.

"This one still has power." Everyone looked at him. Rhett slowly lowered it.

"Probably wouldn't recommend touching it to your face." Gideon nodded.

"Noted." Nina, meanwhile, had discovered something considerably more useful. She held up a compact device with a glassy centre and several rotating components.

"What's this?" She pressed the activation switch. A holographic projection immediately unfolded above her palm, expanding into a three-dimensional model of the facility. Corridors appeared in translucent blue, rooms unfolded layer by layer, and dozens of tiny markers blinked throughout the structure. Nina's eyes widened.

"Whoa." Kasina leaned over her shoulder.

"What is it?"

"It's a mapping device." Nina rotated it slightly, watching the holographic structure turn with it.

"It can track everything in the building." Gideon's expression changed.

"That could actually be useful." Nina slipped it into her pocket.

"Already in my pocket." Gideon stared at her.

"You didn't even ask."

"You were going to say yes."

"I was."

"See?" The trainees descended upon the discarded prototypes like vultures. Anything remotely interesting was claimed. Anything that appeared safe was tested. Anything that made an alarming noise was immediately thrown back into the bin while everyone laughed. Before long, their discoveries had acquired names that were considerably more memorable than their actual designations. There was the "Wobbler," a device that vibrated violently whenever someone held it.

The "Zappy Stick," which produced a harmless but startling electrical discharge. The "Mystery Button," which nobody dared activate despite Milo repeatedly insisting that it was probably the most important invention in the entire facility. They argued over whose prototype was the best, traded gadgets between themselves, and stuffed anything remotely valuable into their bags. For several minutes, the frozen catastrophe outside ceased to matter.

They were just trainees again, wandering through places they were absolutely forbidden to enter and stealing discarded technology from scientists who would probably never even notice it was missing. For a while, the idea of where to go next was almost exciting.

"Could we try the Talon headquarters?" Milo suggested. Everyone stopped. Several trainees slowly turned to look at him.

"The Talon headquarters?" Liora repeated.

"Yeah. Why not? Everything's frozen. We could look around, maybe find something interesting." Nobody answered. They simply looked at one another. Sera's expression gradually shifted from curiosity to disbelief.

"Are you insane?"

"I'm just asking."

"You're asking if we should break into the headquarters of the Talons."

"Well... yes." Rhett shook his head immediately.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not suicidal." Milo glanced around the group. Nobody disagreed. Gideon folded his arms.

"You're assuming everything in there is frozen."

"Everything else is."

"Most things," Gideon corrected.

"We don't know how the Talons work. We don't know if they're affected by whatever Korhess did." A nervous silence followed. Liora's eyes widened slightly.

"A Talon could be moving." Milo's grin disappeared.

"Even now?"

"Possibly," Gideon said.

"And if one of them is active while everything else is frozen, what do you think happens when a group of trainees wanders into their headquarters?"

"Death," Nina said.

"Immediate death," Rhett added.

"Extremely embarrassing death," Sera said. Milo sighed.

"Fine. No Talon headquarters."

"Good." They exchanged another look, the temptation fading beneath the much more practical realization that the risk would be astronomical. There were plenty of other places to explore. Places without legendary hunters who might still be moving. They continued down the corridor, weapons and stolen prototypes rattling softly against their bodies.

They had brought several of the weapons and gadgets they had taken from the training field and Operative quarters with them, carrying them just in case their little excursion stopped being harmless. Rifles hung over shoulders, pistols were tucked into holsters, and various experimental devices had been stuffed into bags and pockets, though none of them were entirely certain what half of the gadgets actually did. They were still arguing over the Zappy Stick when they turned the corner. Every voice stopped.

In the middle of the corridor, slumped against the wall, was a girl. Her body was completely still. Two of them recognized her immediately. Liora's hand flew to her mouth. Gideon froze mid-step.

"That's her," Liora whispered.

"The blue-haired girl. From the corridor. The one who killed Amalgamation."

"Holy sh—""She's strong enough to kill an experiment. What does that make her?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Gideon breathed.

"That's her." But she looked different now. Her hair was still blue, but it was wrong. Too still. Too heavy. Her dress, if it could be called a dress, was midnight silk that left her stomach bare, and her body was covered in strange cobalt geometric markings that glowed faintly beneath her skin. A translucent blindfold covered her eyes, swaying gently as though stirred by an invisible breeze. She looked like she was dying. Her skin was pale, almost grey, and her breathing was so shallow it was barely visible.

The tattoos across her body pulsed weakly, fading in and out like a heartbeat struggling to find its rhythm. Milo's eyes widened.

"Wait." He eagerly reached into his pocket and pulled out the strange device they had taken from the discarded prototypes.

"Maybe this can help her." Rhett stared at him.

"You have absolutely no idea what that thing does."

"That's why I'm using it."

"Milo…" Milo pressed the button. The device clicked. Its screen flickered once before displaying a single word. DECIPHERER A mechanical voice spoke.

"Phenomenon detected. Analysis initiated." Everyone went quiet. The device projected a faint lattice of light across Katherine's body.

"Subject is experiencing partial ontological erasure." Milo's grin disappeared.

"Uh…" The device continued.

"Previous event identified as fragmentation followed by expurgation." Nina frowned.

"What does that mean?" The Decipherer answered immediately.

"Fragmentation divides a subject according to the user's intended partition. In this instance, the subject did not divide into two entities." The device paused.

"Subject divided into nine." Everyone stared at Katherine.

"Eight fragments were subsequently lost." Gideon's expression hardened.

"How?"

"Seven fragments were destroyed by backlash. One fragment was exposed to reversed linguistic force and eradicated." Kasina swallowed.

"Eradicated?"

"Correct. The reversed word did not destroy a copy of the subject. It removed the subject from the applicable conceptual framework." Milo slowly lowered the device.

"So…" The Decipherer continued.

"Expurgation subsequently targeted the subject as a whole." Liora's face went pale.

"Meaning?"

"The distinction between original and fragment became irrelevant. Expurgation attempted to remove Katherine Ichor herself from existence." Silence. Even the device seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet corridor.

"But she survived," Nina whispered.

"Correction." The Decipherer's light shifted across Katherine's body.

"She has not survived in the conventional sense." Everyone stared.

"Her continued existence is the result of emergency linguistic countermeasures." Milo blinked.

"What does that mean?" The Decipherer displayed a series of words. IRONY. UNDERSTATEMENT. OXYMORON. METAPHOR. Katherine Ichor employed multiple literary constructs simultaneously to prevent expurgation from resolving her existence into a single, removable definition. Gideon stared at the screen.

"She fought being erased… with grammar?"

"Approximately." Milo looked almost offended.

"That is the coolest thing I've ever heard." Rhett looked at him.

"She's literally dying."

"I know." The Decipherer continued.

"Subject currently exists in a partially obliterated state. Her physical form remains present, but portions of her ontological definition have been removed." Nina's eyes widened.

"So she's fading."

"Yes."

"Can she move?"

"Negative."

"Can she wake up?" A pause.

"Uncertain." The device scanned her again.

"Subject is currently exhibiting progressive existential degradation." Kasina stepped closer.

"What happens if it continues?"

"Eventually, there will be insufficient definition remaining for the subject to distinguish herself from absence." Nobody spoke. The Decipherer's projection faded. Milo stared at the device.

"What did all that mean?" Rhett slowly turned towards him.

"Milo, I think your device is faulty." Milo frowned.

"They're all faulty." Despite everything, Nina almost laughed.

"She's alive," Nina breathed.

"Barely," Sera said.

"What happened to her?"

"I don't know."

"She looks so... broken."

"She's pretty," Noel observed, his voice carrying a note of genuine admiration.

"Even half-dead, she's... hauntingly beautiful." Rhett stared at him.

"I don't think she's half anything. She's pale as chalk. That's a corpse. There's no blood in her."

"Noel has a point," Nina admitted.

"Look at her. She's like something out of a dream."

"Or a nightmare."

"Same thing, sometimes." Kasina stepped forward, her expression softening.

"We need to help her."

"Absolutely not." Liora's voice was sharp.

"She warned us. She said if we ever saw her again, she would kill us."

"She's unconscious! She can't kill anyone!"

"That doesn't mean we should touch her! Look at her! She's covered in weird tattoos! She's wearing a blindfold for some reason! And the energy coming off her... it's wrong!"

"Her body's barely holding together," Gideon said quietly.

"Whatever happened to her, she's fading. Like a memory that's forgetting itself." Noel frowned.

"But look at her. She's clearly been through something terrible. We can't just leave her here."

"We absolutely can," Rhett said.

"That's exactly what we can do." Kasina took another step forward.

"We need to save her."

"Kasina, don't—" But Kasina was already reaching out, her fingers brushing against Katherine's arm. For a moment, nothing happened. The cobalt markings beneath Katherine's skin flickered. One of the tattoos briefly brightened. Kasina's fingers went cold. Her eyes widened. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her body went rigid, and she collapsed to the ground, her eyes unblinking, her face frozen in a mask of shock. Her skin was already pale, already hollow, as though something vital had been drained from her.

The trainees stared. Nobody screamed. They had been trained for situations like this. They did not scream. They did not panic. They fired. Liora raised her rifle and unloaded a burst into Katherine's chest. Gideon followed with his sidearm. Sera and the others opened fire with whatever weapons they had taken, the gunfire echoing through the frozen corridor. The bullets struck Katherine's body. They did nothing.

Her tattoos glowed brighter with every impact, absorbing the force and drinking it in like water into dry earth. Milo raised the scanner he had pocketed from engineering and aimed it at Katherine, desperately trying to determine the limits of her strength. The numbers climbed. Higher. Higher. The display flickered. Cracked. The device died in his hands.

"Her strength is off the charts," he breathed.

"She's... she's not even at full power. She's half-dead, and the scanner couldn't handle her." Gideon swallowed.

"Then we can't win."

"Not with what we have," Liora said. The trainees backed away slowly, their weapons still raised, their eyes fixed upon Katherine's unmoving form. A subtle movement passed through her hair. The blue strands began to shift, slowly clumping together as they joined and thickened into long, wet tentacles that writhed across the floor. They were cobalt, with vivid pink undersides, and they moved with a life of their own, reaching blindly through the corridor as though searching for something they could not yet find.

Four additional arms emerged from her sides, their fingers twitching as cobalt markings shimmered across their skin. The eye on her navel slowly began to open. Liora's voice dropped to a whisper.

"We need to leave." A beat.

"Now." The trainees turned and ran. Sera and Milo each seized one of Kasina's arms and dragged her limp body between them as they fled through the frozen corridors. Their footsteps pounded against the stone floor, weapons clattering against their bodies as they ran. Nobody looked back. Nobody dared.