The Mind Below

The vault’s door groaned open like the gates of a forgotten god, spilling out cold light that shimmered with corrupted code. Raizen Kurogane stepped forward first, sweat clinging to his brow despite the chill. His boots sank slightly into the data-soaked floor, every step echoing like whispers through time. The air was thick—heavy with unprocessed knowledge, lost minds, and secrets deemed too dangerous to ever see daylight again.

Behind him, Meiko moved quietly, her eyes shifting as if expecting shadows to move on their own. K1D brought up the rear, his chrome mask twitching with mild static interference.

"This place is older than Echelon," K1D muttered. "It's where they buried everything they couldn’t control."

Raizen didn't reply. He was already hearing her voice—Vermia’s. It wasn’t coming from a speaker, but from the very walls, flowing into his neural interface like a dream stitched from broken code.

“You finally found the truth, didn’t you, Raizen?”

The voice was gentle. Maternal, almost. But it held the weight of a fallen titan.

They turned a corner and entered a chamber lit by floating data crystals, each one spinning slowly, flickering with trapped memories. At the far end, suspended in a stasis field, was Vermia.

Or what was left of her.

She hung upright, tubes running through her arms, neural wires laced into the ports on her skull. Her hair, once silver, was charred and falling out in strands. But her eyes… her eyes burned with recognition when they met Raizen’s.

“Juno’s echo said you would come,” she said, her voice glitching slightly as her consciousness fought the restraints. “He always believed you’d be the one.”

Raizen stepped closer, unable to hide the pain in his voice. “Why didn’t you save him? Why did they erase everything?”

“They didn’t erase,” she answered. “They rewrote.”

Meiko stepped forward too now, hesitant. “I thought you were dead.”

“I was,” Vermia replied. “Until I reprogrammed my death.”

K1D whistled low, impressed. “Damn. Old school.”

She turned to him slightly. “And you… are his shadow. His failsafe.”

Raizen looked to K1D, but the hacker simply lowered his head. “She’s right. I was programmed by Juno to protect you… if things fell apart.”

"You knew this whole time?" Raizen asked, his voice barely more than a breath.

"I didn't remember until last night," K1D confessed. "The last fragment triggered my buried protocol."

Suddenly, alarms blared deep in the chamber. A red pulse filled the vault like blood rising through the floor.

“He’s here,” Vermia whispered.

From the opposite end of the chamber, Operative Dawg entered—arms spread, grin wide, body laced with cybernetic muscle and rage.

"Family reunion?" he said mockingly. "Cute. Let me burn it down."

Meiko drew her neural pistol and fired without hesitation. Dawg dodged, letting the round spark off his metal shoulder. “Nice try, sweetheart. But I’m built different.”

Raizen didn’t wait. He lunged, activating Hyperfocus mid-leap. Time slowed. He traced the trajectory of Dawg’s incoming fist and ducked under it, slamming an EMP baton into the enforcer’s rib.

Dawg staggered, but didn’t fall. Instead, he laughed. “You think you’re the first genius I’ve broken, boy? You're just another mind with a death wish.”

The chamber turned to chaos.

Vermia’s restraints began to falter as the energy around her fluctuated. Sparks danced across the cables, and her body twitched. “You need to finish the transfer, Raizen!” she shouted. “Download my memories into the chip—before he destroys me.”

Raizen dodged another blow and called out, “K1D! Plug me in!”

“On it!”

Wires extended from Raizen’s wrist port as K1D jammed the connection into Vermia’s core node. Data flowed like fire, pouring into his brain. Her thoughts, her memories, her pain. All of it.

Images flashed—

• Juno laughing beside Vermia, designing a firewall that could feel.

• The first time Meiko cried in Vermia’s arms, after failing her third psych-evaluation.

• The moment Echelon gave the kill order.

• The day Vermia chose death over obedience.

Raizen screamed. It was too much.

And then—nothing.

Silence.

Just him… standing in a pure white memory space.

And Juno.

His brother stood beside him, smiling. Not a glitch. Not a fragment. But Juno.

“You finally made it,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”

Raizen’s voice trembled. “Why did you leave me?”

“I didn’t,” Juno said. “They tried to erase me. But Vermia hid pieces of me inside people she trusted. You’re the last one. The one who could finish what we started.”

“I can’t do this alone.”

“You won’t,” Juno said. “Now wake up. He’s going to kill you if you don’t.”

Raizen’s eyes snapped open in the real world just in time to see Dawg raising a fist over his head.

But Raizen was faster now.

Smarter.

He hacked Dawg’s limb mid-swing and redirected the neural signals, forcing it to strike backwards into a support beam. Metal shattered.

The roof above the vault began to collapse.

“No!” Dawg roared. “You little—”

But a beam fell between them, splitting the ground. Raizen grabbed K1D and Meiko as the floor cracked open. He reached toward Vermia—just for a second.

Their fingers brushed.

“Find the others,” she whispered. “Set us free.”

Then the light swallowed her.

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