The leviathan struck the stone floor with a force that rattled Ramona’s teeth, the shockwave violently buckling the ancient foundations. Dust choked the air in a thick, gray pall, smelling of sulfur and pulverized stone.
Ramona didn't hesitate or retreat. The cavern was imploding around them, the Black Division's operatives had vanished, and this nightmare was the sole barrier between them and the escape tunnel. Her muscles screamed in protest, but cold calculation overrode the pain. She had already mapped its weaknesses.
“Gary! The left shoulder!” she yelled, her voice cutting through the falling debris.
Gary didn't waste a heartbeat on questions. He swung the heavy plasma scattergun toward the monster's flank and squeezed the trigger.
A blinding blue arc slammed into the joint, obliterating a chunk of black armor. The creature bellowed, a sound of raw agony that vibrated through Ramona’s boots, and stumbled sideways exactly as she had predicted.
“Lina, eyes!” Ramona shouted.
Lina dropped to one knee amidst the falling masonry, sighting down her rifle barrel with ironclad focus. “I have it.”
Ramona sprinted forward, diving directly beneath the creature's sweeping, clawed arm.
Gravel sprayed her back as the massive talons missed her by inches, carving deep gouges into the rock. Her eyes locked onto the exposed gap beneath the shoulder joint, where thick, fibrous cables and dark, viscous veins throbbed rhythmically around a searing red core.
There.
Three seconds between the core's intense pulse and the extension of its right arm. She timed her breathing against the erratic heartbeat of the monster.
The crimson light flared.
Ramona lunged. The creature's massive arm swept back toward her, but she slid smoothly across the slick stone, driving the blade of the Fang deep into the exposed joint.
The beast shrieked, a high-pitched, synthetic sound of pure torment. Ramona twisted the dagger viciously and ripped sideways, opening a geyser of black fluid that hissed as it hit the floor.
In retaliation, the creature lashed out blindly with its other hand.
The backhand caught Ramona across her already-bruised ribs, launching her backward through the air. She slammed violently into the twisted wreckage of the transport, the breath forcefully knocked from her lungs in a sharp gasp. Pain flared white-hot across her side, leaving her temporarily paralyzed and gasping for air.
From her vantage point, Lina fired three rapid, controlled rounds straight into the creature's exposed shoulder wound. Gary followed instantly, unleashing a devastating secondary plasma blast that finally forced the lumbering giant backward.
Overwhelmed, the creature reached up, grabbed the handle of the Fang embedded in its flesh, and ripped it free, hurling the blade blindly across the chamber.
Ramona watched her weapon clatter and disappear beneath a mound of rubble.
For the first time, the fury in the creature's glowing red eyes flickered, replaced by something far more unsettling. Recognition.
“Ramona,” it rasped.
The voice didn't sound like a mindless beast. It came from deep within its distorted throat, heavily modulated and chillingly familiar.
Slowly, painfully, Ramona pushed herself up onto one hand, her chest burning.
Gary stared at the monster, his face pale under the soot. “It... it knows your name?”
Ramona ignored him, her intense gaze locked onto the towering form. “Who are you?”
The creature's chest split open slightly wider, exposing the raw, pulsing core beneath the shattered armor plating.
“You were not supposed to return,” it whispered, the mechanical tones dripping with ancient despair.
A cold shiver raced down Ramona's spine. The Black Division commander had said the exact same thing moments before fleeing. Your memories survived the rebirth.
The creature took a slow, heavy step forward. “You died before the Gate opened.”
Ramona's hand tightened convulsively around her rifle. “What Gate?”
“The one they are preparing to open again.”
Suddenly, a profound, bone-deep vibration rolled through the chamber. Dust rained down from the vaulted ceiling as cracks webbed across the ancient stone blocks.
Gary looked up in alarm, his eyes wide. “Please tell me that's not another one of them.”
“It isn't,” Ramona said, her instincts flaring.
She turned her attention toward the upper tunnel they had originally entered through. The seismic hum wasn't coming from the creature. It was surging upward from the dark abyss beneath their feet. Something colossal was waking up in the deep earth.
Lina rapidly checked the remaining ammunition in her magazine. “Then we need to leave. Now.”
“Agreed.”
Ramona scrambled across the rubble to retrieve the Fang, sliding it back into its sheath before sweeping up her rifle. She spared one last glance at the creature. It was heavily wounded, black fluid pooling beneath its massive frame, yet it had stopped attacking. It was watching her with an expression that was terrifyingly human.
“Why did you call me the weapon?” Ramona demanded, her voice cutting through the rising tremors.
The creature's red core pulsed erratically. “Because that is what they made you.”
A heavy, suffocating weight settled in Ramona's stomach. The Black Division hadn't created her—someone else had, long before her first life ended. And whatever modification had been wired into her soul was the exact reason she had defied death and returned.
Another tremor ripped through the chamber, exponentially stronger than the last. The stone floor began to fracture beneath them.
Gary shouted over the rising roar of collapsing rock, grabbing Lina by the arm to steady her. “Ramona!”
She spun around, facing the tunnels ahead. The main escape route was already blocked by tons of fallen debris. The left passage was completely caved in. Only the right passage remained—a dark, narrow corridor descending steeply into the subterranean ruins.
Deeper meant lethal peril. But it also meant answers.
The Black Division expected them to run back to the surface. They had engineered this entire ambush to herd her right where they wanted.
Ramona looked back at the creature, then down into the abyss.
“No,” she said firmly.
Gary frowned, disbelief flashing across his face. “No what? We can't stay here!”
“We're not going back the way they expect us to.” Ramona pointed her rifle toward the descending passage. “If the Council, the Black Division, and whatever is sleeping under this city are all connected, running back to the surface walks us right into their trap.”
Lina caught on instantly, her jaw tightening. “They're waiting for us up there.”
“Exactly,” Ramona nodded. “And I'm done playing by their rules.”
Another violent shockwave rattled the cavern walls. The creature suddenly turned its massive head toward the descending passage, and for the first time, Ramona saw something impossible in its expression.
Fear.
Not rage. Not bloodlust. Pure, unadulterated terror.
The creature actively backed away from the entrance of the lower tunnel.
Ramona narrowed her eyes. “What is down there?”
The creature stared fixedly into the black depths of the corridor, its voice dropping to a low, trembling resonance.
“Home.”
A deafening impact struck from deep beneath the earth. The entire chamber dropped several feet, sending a cloud of choking dust into the air.
Gary pulled Lina close as the ground swayed beneath them.
Ramona braced her shoulder against the trembling wall and peered down into the descending passage. Far below, a faint, ominous crimson glow was beginning to paint the darkness. Something massive was climbing upward, and it dwarfed the creature standing beside them.
Ramona raised her rifle, her thumb flicking the safety off. The Fang rested ready in her other hand.
“Move,” she ordered.
Without looking back, the three of them plunged into the lower passage just as the ancient chamber behind them collapsed into a mountain of rubble.
None of them noticed the creature watching them disappear into the dark.
It slowly bowed its heavy head. And then, for the first time in centuries, a broken, chilling smile touched its lips.
“They found you,” it whispered into the dust.
Far beneath New Mercury, something ancient answered back.
And this time, it spoke with Ramona's voice.