The new coordinates led Ash into the Badlands.
Past the heat-scarred highways, past where even Nomads dared not tread, stood the ruin of an old Petrochem fusion plant. Half-collapsed. Irradiated. Forgotten.
The air shimmered with static. The sand carried whispers of old wars.
And deep beneath the ruin, waiting in the dark was his next evolution.
The contact Rogue promised was a woman named Vanta ex-Netwatch, now running ghost tech salvage for off-the-grid fixers. She met Ash at the mouth of the ruin, wrapped in a cloak lined with signal dampeners and filtered mesh.
"Heard about the Chrome Reapers," she said, not offering a handshake. "They were a test. You passed. Barely."
Ash didn't flinch. "What's here?"
"Pre-Blackwall systems. Deep-learning core. Abandoned AI research. Stuff that makes Militech nervous and Arasaka interested."
"And I'm here to take it?"
"You're here to fuse with it."
They descended into the underground, each level thicker with radiation shielding and failed experiments. Old server vaults hummed quietly alive, but dreaming. Static crawled along Ash's HUD. Even Kira, patching in remotely, was silent.
They reached the lowest vault: a cold chamber lined with reinforced glass, behind which floated a sphere of pulsing black metal. It wasn't tech in the traditional sense. It was growing, rebuilding itself, using nano-structures too small to map.
"Neuroforged Core," Vanta said. "Built to sync with experimental armor. It doesn't just run your suit it becomes part of your nervous system. Reflexive AI."
Ash stared. The hum felt like it was inside his bones.
"It'll change you," Vanta warned. "Permanently."
Ash stepped forward.
"I'm not here to stay the same."
The fusion process wasn't painless.
Vanta guided the installation remotely controlling nanite injectors, aligning the neuro-conductive filaments. The Core interfaced with the Mark III armor, rewriting its architecture. Algorithms spread like wildfire through Ash's systems. HUD symbols shifted. His thoughts synced with suit functions before he consciously moved.
Kira reconnected mid-process, voice shaky. "Ash, your bio-readouts are off the charts. This thing's rewriting you."
Ash's body convulsed once then steadied.
He opened his eyes.
No lag.
No delay.
Just clarity.
He tested the new systems in a controlled gauntlet Vanta prepared drone swarms, randomized threat vectors, hard-light projections.
Ash danced through them like instinct. Plasma blade reconfigured mid-swing. Armor shifted its weight balance on the fly. The AI core anticipated threats before he did. It wasn't just fighting smarter.
It was fighting with him.
One mind. One machine.
One forge.
After the trials, Vanta approached with a shard.
"Someone's been tracking you. Not corpos. Not gangers. Something older. Deeper."
Ash took the shard. Static licked the edges of its display.
A symbol flashed: a red, burning eye over crossed circuitry.
"Netwatch purged them years ago," Vanta whispered. "Or thought they did."
Kira's voice returned, calm but sharp. "Ash... this just got bigger."
Ash looked at the horizon. Past Night City. Past the corpos. Past the bones of old wars.
He had been forged by fire, yes.
But now, something else had taken notice.
Something ancient.
And it had plans.