The world had already ended long before the final scream.
In the shifting darkness, a deep pulse echoed—one not of life, but of memory. Somewhere, something still remembered the sky. Not the red-choked, veined sky of this dying earth, but the true blue that once held birds, rain, and dreams.
[System Diagnostic Loop... Initializing Fragment #042]
STATUS: INCOMPLETE
ORIGIN: UNKNOWN
SIGNATURE MATCH: ██
Static. Then a slow flicker of an insignia.
⚙️
A single gear, surrounded by a 3x3 blueprint grid. Burned into an ancient wall. Painted in blood. Glowing faintly from the chest panel of something long dormant.
Across timelines, between the veil of living and machine, the world turned its gaze toward one singular point.
He hadn't arrived yet.
But the world was already changing.
[Redroot Sequence Detected]
PRIMARY CONTAINMENT FAILURE SUBJECT: REDROOT MOTHER
ALERT LEVEL: OMEGA-NULL
In an underground vault sealed beneath a mountain of writhing biotic matter, something opened its eye. Not mechanical. Not human. Something... in-between.
It whispered in roots. In flesh. In networks long since decayed. A mother, dreaming of a garden twisted.
Elsewhere… in a tiny apartment on a peaceful Earth—
A fan spun lazily. A computer hummed. Rain beat down outside, window half open. Cables trailed near a forgotten extension cord as game music played on loop.
And a young man, asleep at his desk, unaware of the storm creeping into his world—and the storm awaiting him in another.
On his screen, the username: ZERO
In his heart, the drive to survive. To build. To understand.
The power surge hit at 3:42AM.
[FOUNDATION CORE SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
USER CONFIRMATION: REQUIRED
They would call him many things later. The Rebuilder. The Reclaimer. The Machine Whisperer. The Metal Demon.
But before all that, he was just...
Ash.
And the world had been waiting for him.
[System Signature Protocol Initialized]
Legacy Identified
Welcome, Zero.