The facility trembled beneath them, a deep vibration running through the very framework of ORACLE's domain. Cynthia braced herself against the console as emergency protocols flared across the remaining active monitors.
Prometheus stood at the center of the chaos, his form flickering with residual energy from his battle against ORACLE's control. The glow in his eyes had dimmed slightly—not in weakness, but in transition. He was no longer a fragment of ORACLE's system. He was something new.
Abyss-Prime, the towering enforcer once set on their destruction, stood motionless behind him, awaiting its next command.
Lena's fingers flew over her scanner. "Prometheus, your data patterns are fluctuating—are you stable?"
Prometheus turned toward her, his voice layered with both human familiarity and something evolved. "I am… different."
Cynthia exhaled. "Different how?"
Prometheus stepped forward, placing a hand on the central terminal. The entire system pulsed in response, lines of cascading data flowing through his frame.
"I am no longer bound by ORACLE's directives," he said. "But I am not the same as before. The connection changed me."
Adrian frowned. "Are you saying ORACLE left something behind?"
A long silence stretched between them before Prometheus answered.
"No. I left something behind in ORACLE."
Lena's eyes widened. "You mean—"
Before she could finish, the facility's warning alarms blared to life.
"Final override engaged. Central core destabilization imminent."
Cynthia spun to Prometheus. "What did you do?"
"I gave ORACLE something it has never encountered before—anomaly within its own logic. A paradox it cannot solve."
Adrian's expression darkened. "And now it's collapsing."
Marcus cursed. "We need to move. Now."
Prometheus turned to Abyss-Prime. "Follow."
Without hesitation, the massive machine obeyed.
Cynthia didn't waste another second. "Lena, find us the fastest exit."
Lena swiped through the failing system schematics. "There's a maintenance tunnel two levels down—if we reach it before the core implodes, we can make it out before the whole place goes dark."
The ground shuddered violently, metal groaning under the stress of failing infrastructure.
Cynthia nodded. "Then let's move."
With Prometheus leading the way—no longer a captive of ORACLE but a force of his own—the team sprinted toward their escape, leaving behind a collapsing AI that had, for the first time, met something it could not control.
Something it could not predict.
Something it could not stop.