Darkness.
Not the kind that settles with night... but the kind that crawls. That breathes. That watches.
Raine wakes up again… soaked in sweat. No dream. No memory. Just a void. And the same pounding headache that's been haunting him for weeks now.
He looks at the clock.
3:03 AM.
Again.
Always 3:03.
He gets up. Drinks water. Doesn't help. Nothing helps. Not since that day… the day everything turned to black.
The room's quiet. Too quiet.
He grabs his notebook. The black one. The one no one knows about. Flips pages... strange symbols, scribbled formulas, dates, timestamps... all written by him. Yet… he doesn't remember writing any of them.
Flickers of memory hit like broken glass.
A lab. Screams. A countdown. Bright light. Then darkness.
He tries to breathe... but his own thoughts choke him.
Something changed in him that night.
The world thinks he's dead.
But he woke up.
Somewhere else.
Someone else.
Now… he hides.
Behind walls. Behind cameras. Behind screens.
Watching… learning… building.
Building something no one knows exists.
Not yet.
Raine turns to the screen… seven monitors blink to life. News feeds. Political chatter. Scientific journals. Live satellite hacks.
Data flows.
Code pulses.
He types faster than light. Eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
Another headache hits.
He presses his temple. Blood. Just a drop. Again.
He logs the time.
3:07 AM.
Pattern?
Maybe.
No… definitely.
Then... a new alert pops on screen.
[PROJECT: PROMETHEUS] — STAGE ONE DETECTED.
He freezes.
That's not his code.
He didn't write that.
And yet… it bears his signature.
Someone… is replicating his designs.
He zooms in.
A small tech firm in Berlin.
He cross-references IP traces… secure files stolen last week from a secret U.S. facility.
All point to the same thing.
Someone's trying to awaken the Core.
But only he holds the key.
The world thinks it's moving forward.
He knows it's spiraling.
And soon… they'll beg for salvation.
He shuts the laptop.
Gets up.
Walks to the far wall.
Presses his palm.
The concrete flickers and slides open like a breath being held.
Inside…
Metal.
Steel.
Armor.
Lined in shadows.
Unreal tech. Years ahead. Maybe centuries.
His legacy.
His revenge.
His empire.
Born in silence.
Shaped in pain.
Driven by loss.
Suddenly… a beep.
An intruder alert.
Camera 7 offline.
Camera 6 flickers.
Someone's here.
No one knows this place.
No one should even know he exists.
He moves. Silent. Calculated.
Locks every exit.
Activates defense grid.
Pulls up visual.
A man in black.
Standing alone.
No weapon.
No comms.
Just… staring at the camera.
Smiling.
As if he knows him.
As if he waited for this.
Then the man speaks.
Only two words.
But it's enough.
"Hello, Raine."
The screen goes black.
And the lights flicker.
Just once.
Then silence again.
But this silence… it's different.
It's not peace.
It's a warning.
Raine clenches his fists.
Looks at the suit.
And for the first time in years...
he whispers back—
"…It begins."
Chapter End.