Nothingness.

  Then, Pain.

  A deep, pulling ache, like every nerve was waking up one at a time, sluggish and raw. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. My mind was awake before my body, trapped in a weightless void where I had no shape, no skin, no bones. Just the lingering sense of existence.

  Then, warmth.

  A soft, golden glow flickered into view, illuminating the darkness. It pulsed in slow, steady waves, sinking into me.

  Piece by piece, I felt my body return. A faint tingling spread outward, nerves sparking back to life in slow waves. Muscle knit over bone, skin stretched over fresh nerves, and sensation rippled through my fingers, legs, and arms until they were solid and real again. I felt my clothes weaving themselves over my skin, thread by thread, until finally, my senses came back fully.

  I sat bolt upright, gasping as my senses flooded back. Vesper hovered close, his glow erratically shining on me. The last thing I remembered was being thrown against the wall by that rusted machine. My limbs were sluggish, and the memory of pain was fading fast. I was alive again.

  And Vesper was pissed.

  “Do you have any idea how long that took?” his voice snapped, sharp enough to cut through the fog still clinging to my thoughts. His glow flared, hovering inches from my face. “I revived you away from your body. Do you know how painstakingly long that takes? If someone found us while I revived you, we could have been fucked!”

  I groaned, shifting slightly. The last remnants of pain faded, but the exhaustion was still there. “Didn’t exactly plan on getting punched across the room by a functional rust heap." My voice was hoarse, my throat dry. “What happened?”

  “What happened is I had to piece you back together without your body as a template,” Vesper shot back, clearly irritated.

  That sobered me up fast. I swallowed, “...But you did.”

  Vesper flickered in frustration, “This time.”

  Looking around, I found myself in the hallway outside the room that held the rusted murderbot. I exhaled in relief... until I realized my backpack was still inside the room, "UGHH, Fuck. My backpack and ice pick are still in there."

  Vesper let out an exasperated sigh. "Incredible. Not only did you get eviscerated by an old, decrepit machine, but you left your only source of survival in there with it!"

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. No point in getting upset. It is what it is. Hindsight bias, I wouldn’t have known any better, so there was no way I could have done anything different.” I replied back, “Anyways, how long did it take you to revive me? Did it shut back down in that time?”

  “I don’t know.” Vesper’s annoyance faded slightly. “Without a body to anchor you… Time doesn’t feel the same.”

  I exhaled sharply, rolling my shoulders. I stretched my arms, feeling the stiffness fade as I tested each movement. My fingers curled and uncurled, my legs bent and straightened. I bounced lightly on my heels, rolling my neck until I heard a satisfying crack. My body was mine again, and it felt good to move. No use dwelling on anything else.

  “We need a plan,” I muttered, shaking out my arms. “I can’t leave my gear in there, but if that thing is still active, I’m not exactly keen on round two.”

  Vesper hovered, his glow steady. “You could leave it.”

  I scoffed. “And wander around with nothing? No thanks.”

  “It only attacked after you got too close,” Vesper reasoned. “If it shut back down, it might not activate unless provoked again.”

  Leaving without my supplies wasn’t an option. I would have no water, no weapon, no way to protect myself if something else showed up. Freezing, starving, or getting torn apart by something worse than a rusted machine didn’t sound like good ways to go.

  But getting past the machine was going to be hard.

  I exhaled sharply. “I need my gear. I can’t be wandering around above ground without it. And if we plan to meet people. I'll need more than nothing.”

  Vesper sighed. “Then you need to be fast.”

  I cracked my neck, stepping closer to the doorway. “In and out before it even registers me.”

  “You’re assuming it doesn’t wake up the moment you step inside.”

  I sighed. “I don’t have much of a choice.”

  My fingers twitched. I needed to be faster. If I couldn't outmuscle the old bot, I had to outspeed it.

  Focus.

  I needed to be ready.

  No hesitation. I had to take it down.

  Focus.

  I stepped into the room, my breath steady, my eyes locked on the machine. It stood motionless in the center, silent and still, waiting to wake up.

  I moved closer, muscles tense, every step methodical, precise, measured.

  Ready.

  I couldn’t afford a single mistake. One wrong move, one mistimed reaction, and I wouldn’t get another shot. Any injury would slow me down, and if I couldn’t keep up, I was dead.

  I bounced lightly on the balls of my feet, loosening my stance. I needed to be fast. Faster than it.

  Grab the ice pick. Yank it out. Kill the machine. Simple.

  Easy, right?

  My heart pounded as I closed the distance. The moment I got too close, it would strike. It would move faster than I could react.

  I inhaled.

  Exhaled.

  Ready?

  GO.

  I lunged forward, instantly veering to the side in a preemptive dodge.

  The machine reacted as expected. Its clawed arm was swiping at me, but I was already moving. The attack whiffed through empty air.

  I hit the ground in a controlled slide, my boots scraping against ice and rust. I turned toward the machine’s side. The handle of my weapon was right there, reaching out to me.

  I lunged for it, my fingers wrapping tightly around the grip. I yanked as hard as I could.

  The machine lurched forward with the force, its weight coming toward me. I planted my boot against its chest and kicked off. With a sharp, tearing sound, wires and metal came free as I ripped my weapon from its neck.

  Its head snapped toward me, its flickering eye locking on. A groan rattled from its frame, hydraulics sputtering, gears grinding. The broken speaker crackled out a garbled noise. Damaged. But still dangerous.

  Its lone claw lashed out, metal grinding against metal as sparks flew every time I blocked with my ice pick.

  I needed to be faster.

  I could see its movements, predict where it would strike. I dodged everything I could. Blocked what I couldn’t.

  faster

  I read its intentions, felt what it wanted to do. I used that feeling against it, pressing the attack whenever it was recovering.

  I swung my weapon, carving deep gashes in its rusted plating every time I dodged.

  Dodge, swipe, block, dodge, swing-

  My body and mind were in sync. No mistakes. If I messed up, I was gone.

  The machine grew frantic, its attacks wild, reckless. It was leaving more openings.

  I punished every single one.

  A loud burst of static erupted from its broken speaker as it lunged, faster than before. I barely had time to twist out of the way, and even so, its claw raked across my side, tearing through my coat. Pain flared sharp and hot, but I didn’t stop.

  I used the momentum, spinning with the force of the impact instead of fighting it. My boots skidded against the floor, and as the machine recoiled from its attack, I surged forward.

  Ice pick gripped tight, I swung underhanded and drove it straight into the exposed wiring beneath its shoulder joint. Sparks burst as metal met metal, the machine convulsing violently. I twisted the weapon deeper, feeling resistance, then a sudden give as something critical snapped inside.

  The Sentinel jerked, its movements slowing, its balance faltering. I wrenched the pick free and struck again, this time at its neck. Sparks flew as I drove the weapon down, over and over, each impact fueled by adrenaline and the fear of dying again.

  I didn’t stop.

  The machine shuddered beneath the assault, metal caving under repeated blows. I could hear my breath, ragged and uneven, mixing with the static crackle of its broken speaker. I hit it again. And again. Until its eye flickered wildly, sputtering like a dying flame before finally going dark.

  The machine collapsed, metal groaning as it hit the floor in a heap. I staggered back, clutching my bleeding side, my breath still heavy, my heart still racing.

  It was over.

  I collapsed to the floor, the rush of adrenaline fading as exhaustion hit me all at once. My breath came in heavy, uneven bursts. My hands trembled slightly, my muscles burning from the relentless assault. The pain in my side, dulled by the fight, surged back now that the danger had passed.

  Vesper hovered over me, his glow flickering as he assessed the damage. "That was reckless," he said quietly, though there was something else in his voice. He almost sounded impressed. "I noticed you were faster than before. Faster than I’ve ever seen you."

  I let out a shaky breath, pressing a hand against my side. "Yeah… well… I figured I should try not to die twice in one day."

  Vesper sighed, his glow intensifying slightly as warmth spread through me. The pain ebbed as he worked, sealing the wound with careful precision. "Next time, try winning without getting torn apart. Would make my job easier."

  I let my head rest against the cold floor, a tired grin pulling at my lips as my heartbeat slowed. "No promises."

  I lay back down to rest. The only sounds in the room were my breathing and the faint hum of Vesper as he worked, his glow pulsing over my wound, sealing the gash. The pain dulled, then faded entirely, leaving behind only a lingering soreness.

  Once he was done, I exhaled and tilted my head to the side, scanning the room. I expected to see something. My old body, a corpse, some evidence of my death. But the floor was empty. No blood, no remains. Nothing.

  I frowned.

  "Hey, Vesper?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Where’d my body go?"

  "Oh, it collapsed out of existence by the time I revived you."

  I blinked. "Right… what?"

  Vesper’s glow pulsed as he launched into a rant. "Okay, so. When you die, your physical form destabilizes into existential decay fields that get entangled with the quantum strata and the higher-dimensional lattice of our bond. It takes a while to fully dissipate, and due to the inherently non-Euclidean nature of these fragments, I could technically carry you around with me until I decide to reconstruct you.

  "See, by reading the fragmented mess tangled in our quantum bond across multiple realities, I can slowly piece together what you last looked like and what you had with you when you died. But honestly? That’s a massive pain in the ass. So instead, I’d rather use your rapidly destabilizing form as a template, casting out a metaphysical net to catch the fragments before they scatter too far. Then I can tie them back to the anchor that was already established, stabilizing the structure and passing it through the non-Euclidean realm to effectively restore a version of you from a position where you were to a position where you weren’t.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "So I have to reassemble your waveform and reconstruct your body based on your last stable state. But it’s less ‘putting you back together’ and more coaxing probability into believing you never stopped existing in the first place."

  I stared at him flatly. "What the fuck did you even just say?"

  Vesper sighed. "Your body disintegrates. I then take the fragments and convince the universe you aren’t in the state you are now."

  I frowned. "So you gaslight the universe into thinking I never died?"

  Vesper laughed. "Hahaha, yes, you could say that. I gaslight the universe into believing you're not dead."

  I smiled at him. "I don’t think it would be a good idea to even try and comprehend the real reason."

  Vesper chuckled. "You’re thinking too linearly. It makes perfect sense if you stop expecting time and space to behave."

  "Yeah, sure. Anyways," I said, standing up and slinging my backpack over my shoulder, "we should see what remains in this area. See if anything was actually worth the effort."

  After getting all my stuff situated, I walked around inspecting everything, but I couldn't find anything useful. I could take some wiring or scrap, but there was nothing I could use, nothing worth the effort of scavenging. Kind of sucks to see nothing of value after a fight like that, but oh well.

  "Well," I muttered, glancing at Vesper. "That was a waste."

  His glow flickered slightly. "Did you expect to find something valuable in the wreckage of a rusted corpse?"

  "I can dream." I dusted off my hands, shaking my head. "But it’s fine, I think that’s enough excitement for one day."

  Vesper let out a low hum. “I would argue that was enough excitement for an entire week, but something tells me it won’t be.”

  I scoffed, shouldering my backpack. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Vesper hovered beside me, his glow steady as we navigated the winding path back toward the cave entrance. The rusted walls loomed, frost clinging to their edges like veins of ice. My breath misted in front of me, and each step echoed in the hollow corridors.

  The journey back through the complex took longer than I expected. The twisting hallways, collapsed passages, and ice-covered floors passed me by as I retraced my steps to avoid getting lost. The silence was heavier now, and I kept glancing over my shoulder, half-expecting something else to lurch out of the darkness, but nothing came. Just me, Vesper, and the empty ruin.

  By the time we reached the mouth of the cave, I expected to see the light of day, but instead, Darkness stretched beyond the cave’s mouth, vast and unbroken. I slowed my steps, peering into the night. The sky shone with a cloudless view of the galaxy. The view of the massive planet we orbit was still in view. The wind had died down, leaving behind a heavy stillness. No more howling gales. No more debris-choked air. Just quiet.

  I stepped forward cautiously, my boots crunching softly against a fresh layer of thick snow, untouched and powdery, blanketing the ground outside.

  I stopped, taking in my surroundings. It was clear that I had been down there longer than it felt.

  “Vesper,” I murmured. “How long was I out?”

  Vesper floated up beside me, his glow dimming as he studied the sky. “Hard to say.” He tilted slightly, as if aligning himself with the stars above. “Snowstorms like that can probably last anywhere from a few hours to days. Judging by the stars’ positions… I’d guess you were out for at least half a day. Maybe longer if I'm reading the stars right.”

  I exhaled sharply. The landscape before me was eerily transformed. The previous terrain had been rough, a mix of jagged ice and old snow. Now, it was pristine, untouched. My previous footprints were gone. Any sign of my struggle was erased by the storm’s hand.

  “Well,” I muttered, adjusting my pack, “guess that means we’re heading out fresh.”

  Vesper hummed in agreement. “Do you still want to follow the movement we saw earlier?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Whatever it was, it was fast. That should mean it knows how to survive out here. Although I’m still convinced it was a vehicle of some sort, I could be wrong.”

  I took another step forward, feeling the crunch of fresh snow beneath my boots. The cold wrapped around me, but it didn’t feel as biting as before. Maybe I was just getting used to it. Maybe I just didn’t care.

  Vesper drifted beside me as we moved forward, leaving behind the cave and the rusted corpse of an old compound.

  We walked in silence, the only sound the crunch of snow beneath our boots. The terrain felt unfamiliar now. The storm had carved new shapes into the land, smooth drifts hiding old paths, sculpting new ones.

  I kept glancing out across the dark horizon, scanning for movement. Nothing. Just that same oppressive stillness. The kind that made you feel like you were being watched, even if there was no one to do the watching.

  Then, a few paces ahead, something new appeared in the snow.

  I slowed, narrowing my eyes.

  A pair of parallel lines stretched across the frozen ground. The snow wasn’t windblown here it was still crisp, still sharp. Whatever had made those tracks had passed through recently.

  We trudged toward them, the lines growing clearer with every step. Deep grooves pressed into the snow, like someone had taken a blade to the ice and drawn two straight scars.

  Vesper hovered low, inspecting the markings. “Mechanical. Consistent width. Repeating tread pattern.”

  “Welp, definitely a vehicle,” I muttered, crouching beside the tracks. “Or at least it’s something manmade.” I poked it with my gloves for fun.

  He pulsed in agreement. “And it seems recent.”

  The tracks stretched in both directions. One trailed off into the blank, open wasteland. The other continued forward, toward the place we’d seen the movement earlier.

  I stood slowly, brushing the snow from my gloves.

  "We should follow it. Someone has to be on the other end of this," I said aloud.

  The ridgeline offered a better view. But it also left us exposed. If whatever had made those tracks was dangerous, I didn’t want to be an easy target. We followed the path carefully, keeping low, moving between patches of ice that jutted from the ground like frozen teeth.

  Then I saw it.

  A faint, flickering light in the distance.

  As my eyes adjusted, I saw the glow of a campfire, small but steady, burning alone in the open snow. No tents. No shelter.

  The snow around it was trampled and flattened, marked by the faded outlines of where tents or gear might've once been. Tracks led away from the site toward the vehicle's path and disappeared. Like people had packed up and been picked up. And left the fire burning.

  The fire burned low but clean, its shape too perfect, its edges too steady. It didn’t flicker like it should in the open air. It almost looked sculpted.

  Vesper hovered low beside me. "That’s not normal fire. It’s Solis."

  "Is it dangerous?" I asked.

  "If it's a Solis flame? No," Vesper said, voice low. "It's just odd. Most Solis users should extinguish their fires when they're done. But I guess some just... leave them. If you're skilled enough, I guess the flame can last quite a while."

  We stayed there another moment, watching. The fire flickered softly in the still air, casting steady light across the snow.

  “It must’ve been a temporary campsite,” I said. “There’s enough evidence to say they’ve moved on. The fire’s the only thing left, and if that’s all, there shouldn’t be anything out here waiting for us.”

  We moved in, cautious and quiet. Nothing shifted around us. No sounds but our steps and the steady whisper of the fire.

  I felt the fire’s heat seep into my body as I neared, like it had been waiting for someone. By the time I stood before it, the cold had lost its grip. Nothing stirred. No movement. Just us and the flame.

  The warmth wasn’t harsh. It settled over me like a memory, gentle and familiar. The closer I got, the more the tension faded from my limbs. The weight I hadn’t noticed in my chest began to lift. I hadn’t realized how tired I was until it started to fade.

  I crouched a few feet from it, watching the flame sway. Then I took my glove off and summoned my own flame. A small spark of fire flickered to life on the tip of my finger.

  The difference was immediate. My flame was uneven, pulsing with faint surges like a heartbeat. This one was still. Anchored. It didn’t react to the wind. It didn’t respond to presence. It just... was.

  Vesper drifted beside me, his glow steady. “Yeah, that’s definitely Revenant made. The energy feels Solis aligned because it’s not just raw power. It’s deliberate. Tuned for healing and stability. Whoever placed it knew exactly what they were doing.”

  I leaned closer to the strange flame, then let mine fade out and reached toward the Solis fire with my bare hand.

  The instant my skin touched it, the soothing heat shifted. It flared. The warmth twisted, growing sharp and angry. It bit at my bare hand as I yanked my hand back with a hiss.

  It had burned me, even though I only touched it for a second.

  Then, just as fast as it came, the pain disappeared, replaced by that same warmth I'd felt earlier. Like the fire had changed its mind.

  I flexed my fingers, watching the skin where the burn had been. Perfectly fine now.

  The line between healing and destruction was thin.

  I stood and looked once more at the flame. The warmth still lingered on my skin, though I wasn’t sure if it was from the fire or something else. I felt small in that moment. The world was deeper than I knew, and I’d only just scratched the surface of what I might be capable of.

  “Any way I can do that? Or would my Fundamental have to be Solis?” I asked curiously.

  Vesper floated beside me, his glow steady. “You’d have to be aligned with Solis to pull off that level of healing energy. Until you figure out what your Fundamental is, I doubt you’ll have the control needed to create something like that.”

  We turned from the fire, following the faint traces of tracks leading away.

  Vesper hovered quietly for a moment before speaking again. “Whoever made that... they were skilled. Focused. It wasn’t just fire. They shaped it with intent. I don’t know if they meant for anyone to find it, but it stayed because they wanted it to.”

  “Maybe they were just too lazy to get rid of it?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” Vesper mused.

  We followed the tracks in silence, the strange Solis flame now a faint glow behind us. The sky remained still and endless, stars glittering above while snow swallowed the land below. My breath puffed in soft clouds. Every step forward came with a quiet unease I couldn’t shake.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  On our way, following the tracks, I couldn’t shake the unease. Why would that campfire still be burning? It was far out. Too exposed. That kind of light had to attract attention, and I wasn’t a fan of what that might mean.

  Still, it didn’t change my decision to follow the tracks.

  I heard a second set of footsteps. I stopped.

  So did they.

  “Vesper,” I whispered. “Check around us.”

  He gave a quick nod and rose into the air, drifting higher to scan the dark terrain. His glow stretched far in the quiet night, casting long, slow-moving shadows across the snow. I watched him ascend, uneasy.

  Now that I really thought about it, he was glowing a lot compared to how dark it was out here. Too much. A floating light in the open was basically a beacon. The stars were bright too, yeah, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were more visible than taken into consideration.

  I waited, my breath misting in the cold as he hovered above.

  “Nothing obvious,” Vesper finally said. “But I heard what you did.”

  I nodded, and my gut twisted. Someone was here

  Suddenly, I saw something shift over the crest of a nearby ridge.

  “I see you,” I called out, raising my ice pick and setting my stance. Vesper got behind me.

  The shadow ducked behind the ridgeline. I called out again.

  “I know you’re over there. I’m not a threat if you aren’t.” My voice echoed more than I wanted it to. This was starting to feel really uncomfortable.

  The figure slowly rose again. I could barely make out his shape, but I saw dozens of rags. scraps of clothing and fabric tied together into a crude, mummified jacket. It looked like he’d built it one piece at a time just to stay alive.

  “Did you see the campfire too?” I asked. “Were you following these tracks like me?” I was fishing for anything that would explain this.

  “You have food,” the man said. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.

  “And if I do?” I replied.

  He started walking toward me. “I need you to back up,” I warned.

  He half-stumbled, half-stepped his way down the ridge. His gait was broken and awkward.

  “You… food…” he mumbled under his breath.

  “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” I asked, still backing up. Something was seriously wrong here.

  “YOU. HAVE. FOOD,” he shouted, and then he ran, sort of.

  It was a half-staggered, wild charge. His movements were jerky and frantic, more like a falling marionette than a person. Arms flailing. Eyes sunken and bloodshot. Frostbite had blackened his fingers. His lips were cracked open, and there was nothing sane about him.

  “Back the fuck up, man!” I shouted, panic bleeding into my voice.

  The man kept coming, mumbling to himself, eyes locked on me. He was gone. Starving. Broken. Nothing human was left in his posture, only desperation twisted into something feral.

  I couldn’t help someone who wouldn’t listen. And I sure as hell wasn’t handing over my supplies to someone who might kill me for them.

  I raised the ice pick on instinct and slammed it into his arm as he reached for me. The steel tooth sank deep with a crack. I yanked him forward and drove my fist into his temple.

  He screamed, blood spraying from his mouth, but he didn’t stop. He barely even slowed. Rabid. Eyes wide, feral. He clawed at my coat for any exposed flesh. I tried to pull the pick free, but he crashed into me again.

  I lost my footing.

  We hit the snow hard. My back slammed into the ice, knocking the air from my lungs. I saw stars. Cold soaked into my skin, but all I could feel was him on top of me. A pile of filth, blood, and fury.

  He straddled my chest, one knee pinning my arm. His hands wrapped around my throat.

  “Give… me… took… everything… sorry… I… live…” he mumbled, over and over, under his breath.

  His grip tightened.

  Black crept in at the edges of my vision. My free hand flailed, searching for the pick, for anything. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

  Everything narrowed to one moment. That single instant of helplessness.

  He was going to kill me.

  Then my hand found something under the snow. Hard. Frozen.

  I didn’t think. I swung.

  The chunk of ice cracked against the side of his head, and his grip faltered.

  I shoved upward with everything I had, twisting free as he collapsed sideways. I rolled away, coughing hard into the snow.

  My vision swam. Blood ran down my side from the fall. I didn’t stop.

  He tried to rise, groaning, half-blind, snarling through broken teeth.

  I hurled the ice rock at him, then charged.

  Tackling him into the snow, I yanked the pick from his arm and drove it into his chest. It wasn’t clean, but it was deep.

  He gasped. Tried to swipe at me again. But his hand shook.

  He coughed once. Blood dribbled down his lips.

  His eyes finally focused. And for just a second, I saw it.

  Not rage. Not madness.

  Fear.

  His mouth opened like he was going to say something, then he went still.

  I staggered back, half-falling into the snow. My body was wrecked. My throat throbbed. Every breath was a struggle.

  Vesper floated beside me, his glow dim.

  “You almost died,” he said quietly.

  I wiped blood from my mouth with shaking fingers. “Yeah. But dying wouldn't have been the end. Right?”

  “No,” Vesper said, “but by the time I could have revived you, he would have taken our stuff and left. He wasn’t strong. Not trained. Just... desperate.”

  I looked down at the man and the mess we made as I slumped down into the snow

  “If that almost killed me,” I muttered, “then I have a long road ahead of me. I need to be stronger, because if someone starving and half-dead can get that close…”

  I didn’t finish the thought.

  Vesper didn’t ask me to.

  He hovered close, his glow warming the air around my wounds. The pain dulled as he worked.

  I sat in the snow, breath rasping, eyes locked on the horizon.

  There were others out here.

  And not all of them would be starving.

  After taking a few minutes to calm down, I looked around. The snow was stained red, like someone had splattered paint across it. The man really had nothing, just the rags tied to his body.

  How does someone even end up in a state like that?

  Whatever. I needed to keep following these tracks. Maybe I would take a page from that guy’s playbook and stick to the ridges, stay out of sight. It seemed to work well enough against me.

  After double-checking my gear, I set out again, moving a little more carefully this time. I kept the tracks in view but off my direct path, weaving between dunes and icy ridgelines.

  Hopefully I would see the next person before they saw me.