Sector Zero wasn't a building.
It was a fortress.
Buried beneath the surface of the old city, wrapped in metal and memory.
Officially, it didn't exist.
Unofficially, it held every dirty secret the League had ever buried—and maybe something worse.
We didn't have days to plan.
We had hours.
Hollow forces were already on the move. Riven's intel said they'd hit Sector Zero by sunrise.
If we waited, the League would think we did it.
And if the Hollow got in first… they'd wipe the vault, torch the evidence, and disappear into the shadows.
We had to get there first.
And we had to not die doing it.
Reese laid out the map.
"The North access tunnel runs into their utility grid. Old sewage line. Still partially active."
"Charming," Echo muttered.
"It's thin," he continued. "Single file entry. But it's blind to League scanners. They think it collapsed years ago."
"It hasn't?" I asked.
"Collapsed, yes. Fully sealed? No. We found a breach. Small."
"How small?" I asked.
Riven raised a brow. "Hope you're not claustrophobic."
We picked the team carefully.
Me. Echo. Delryn. Riven. Reese. Synn.
Six. That was all we could risk.
Too many people, and we'd get caught before we even hit the gate.
Too few, and we wouldn't stand a chance against whatever was waiting inside.
We left at midnight.
Dressed in black.
No insignias. No lights. Just heartbeat and breath and the hum of purpose.
Echo handed me a comm pin. "Short range only. Anything longer will light us up."
Delryn handed me a stun blade. "If we're seen, go for the throat first."
Riven offered a smirk. "If we're caught, blame Reese."
"I'm not going to get caught," Reese muttered.
"I didn't say we."
The old tunnel stank like rot and rust.
Water trickled down the walls. Mold clung to every inch of pipe. We crawled through sludge and silence, boots slipping on moss.
The deeper we went, the colder it got.
The air thinned.
Our nerves sharpened.
No one spoke.
There was nothing left to say.
At the breach, Reese slipped ahead, scanning the seals.
"Alarm trip is dead," he whispered. "They let it rot too long."
Echo stepped in next.
"I'll shadow the corners. You go forward. Delryn behind."
We moved in formation.
One breath at a time.
Sector Zero loomed ahead.
And it felt like it was breathing.
We reached the outer wall.
No guards.
Just a black door with no handle and a scanner pad.
Riven pulled a card from his sleeve.
"Old keycard I lifted from a League armory. Might still ping."
He slid it into the reader.
Green light.
Click.
We were in.
The hall was clean.
Too clean.
Sterile white walls.
Black glass windows.
Everything humming beneath the surface.
We moved fast. Quiet.
The deeper we got, the stranger the air became.
Pressurized.
Heavier.
Almost electric.
Then we found the vault.
A round chamber.
Locked by four overlapping energy seals.
Delryn stared at them.
"These aren't standard."
Riven nodded. "Because this isn't a storage vault. It's a black site."
"Meaning?"
"Whatever's behind that door, even the League's top brass doesn't talk about it."
Reese opened his kit.
"Gimme two minutes."
"You have one," Echo said, watching the corridor.
Riven stepped beside me.
"You sure you want to see what's behind that door?"
"No," I said. "But I need to."
The locks hissed.
Energy flickered.
The door slid open.
Inside… wasn't what we expected.
No weapons.
No computers.
No server stacks.
Just a room.
And one person.
She sat in the center.
Cross-legged.
Barefoot.
Eyes closed.
A child.
No older than ten.
Her hair floated in the air like she was underwater.
And she glowed.
Soft. Golden. Constant.
The kind of glow that didn't belong to weapons or tech.
The kind that belonged to gods.
Delryn stepped forward.
"She's real."
Echo frowned. "What is she?"
The girl opened her eyes.
Looked at me.
And said my name.
I froze.
No one outside the Divide had ever heard it.
Not my full name.
Not like that.
"Who are you?" I asked.
She tilted her head.
"I'm the reason they built the League."
Silence crushed the room.
Reese took a step back.
Echo didn't blink.
Delryn cursed under her breath.
Riven just stared.
The girl stood.
Her feet didn't touch the floor.
She floated forward, hands at her sides.
"They found me years ago. Said I was dangerous. Said I could see too much. Do too much."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She pointed to the walls.
Energy danced across her fingers.
Images filled the room.
Projections.
Of battles.
Futures.
Timelines.
All shifting. Blending. Endless.
"She's a precog," Riven whispered.
"Not just that," Delryn said. "She's… tethered."
"To what?"
"To everything."
The girl looked at me.
"They used my visions to build the League. To find people. To design control."
"And the Hollow?"
She smiled faintly.
"They were the side effect."
I stepped closer.
"You're the key."
She nodded.
"But I'm not the solution."
"Then what is?"
Her eyes burned gold.
"You."
The lights flickered.
And alarms screamed.
Reese spun.
"They're here. Hollow strike team inbound. Seventy seconds."
Echo drew her blade.
"Do we take her?"
"No," the girl said calmly.
"You leave me."
"What?" I said.
She looked at me.
"You already changed the path. That's enough."
"You'll die."
"I've seen worse."
I stared at her.
Heart heavy.
Hands shaking.
And I nodded.
"Okay."
We ran.
Back through the vault.
Through the tunnel.
The air behind us burned.
Hollow weapons cut through walls.
But we didn't stop.
Not until we broke into daylight again.
Breathing hard.
Alive.
Shaken.
Changed.
Back at base, we watched the feed.
Sector Zero exploded thirty minutes after we left.
Gone.
Vault erased.
The girl?
No trace.
Not even ash.
But before we left, she'd placed something in my hand.
A chip.
A single file.
Encrypted.
Untouched by fire.
Labeled only with one word:
"Divide."