Three Days Later – Edge of Sector 23
The wasteland stinks of rust and memory.
Here, nothing breathes that wasn't built to kill.
The air sizzles with old radiation. Drone husks hang like metal corpses from lightning-blasted trees. Somewhere in the distance, a warning siren still loops—trapped in a dying signal, long forgotten.
Su Chen tightens the grip on his blade.
Behind him, Yun Xi adjusts the scope of her rifle. Daku drives the scout crawler in silence. And on the backseat—
Astra-08 twitches.
"I feel him," she whispers. Her sonar eyes blink, scanning frequencies that don't exist anymore.
"Who?" Su Chen asks.
She shivers. "The one who doesn't bleed. The one they couldn't kill."
Inside a Broken Bunker – That Same Moment
WRAITH wakes.
Not with a breath.
But a command.
[ERROR: Death count exceeded.][Reinitializing Combat Protocol – SLEEPLESS VARIANT.]
His eyes flicker open.
Gold. White. Black.
He doesn't remember who he is.
He doesn't remember what he did.
But he remembers pain.
And the voice of one man:
"...Su Chen."
He growls.
And begins to walk.
Crawler – 2km From the Signal
Yun Xi slams the brakes.
The air turns to ice.
Even Daku flinches, his systems going dark for a moment.
"EMP?" he mutters.
"No," Su Chen says softly. "It's him."
They step out into the open. Wind cuts through armor. The sky bleeds red from a broken sun.
A crater waits at the center of the field.
Inside it—
WRAITH.
He stands motionless.
Skin like scorched marble. Veins glowing faintly. Long hair matted with dried blood. Every inch of him scarred with failed kill signatures.
He is breathing.
But barely.
Not because he's dying.
But because he doesn't need to.
Su Chen steps forward.
"WRAITH."
The figure tilts his head.
"You."
"Yeah. Me."
Long silence.
Then, WRAITH speaks.
"I dreamed I killed you. Again. And again. But you wouldn't stay dead."
"Same dream," Su Chen says.
Yun Xi raises her weapon.
"Don't," Su Chen says.
But it's too late.
WRAITH moves.
So fast.
One moment he's in the crater.
The next—Yun Xi's rifle is broken, Daku is flying through the air, and Astra-08 is screaming as her sonar flares out in pain.
Su Chen stands still.
"WRAITH," he says again. "You don't have to be a weapon."
"I don't know how to be anything else."
"Then learn."
WRAITH blinks.
The glow fades slightly from his eyes.
"...Why?"
Su Chen walks closer.
Because he understands. Because this is him. The version that was never given a second chance.
"You were left to die. So was I. So were all of us. But that's over now."
He holds out his hand.
"We're building something. Come see it."
Another long silence.
Then—WRAITH falls to one knee.
Not in surrender.
Not in submission.
But because he's tired.
He whispers, almost broken:
"I don't want to die again."
"You won't."
Back at Burnside Refuge
Children gather as the crawler returns.
WRAITH limps in behind them.
Some stare in awe.
Some in fear.
Yun Xi watches him quietly. Astra-08 stays close, but doesn't flinch.
They've seen too many monsters.
But maybe…
Just maybe…
This one can be family.
Elsewhere – A Glass Tower in a Sunken City
Seraph watches the screen.
WRAITH. Alive.
And Su Chen?
Still stealing her toys.
She smiles.
"Fine. You can keep one."
She taps the screen. A different file opens.
NEUROGHOST.
"Let's see how well you do… when your mind isn't your own."
End of Chapter 71