The orb pulsed in Riven's hand.
"Awaken Protocol initiated."
Around him, pods hissed. Lights flashed red. The Others were stirring—half-formed versions of himself.
"Nope."
He plugged the orb into his gauntlet—his own interface. Rewrote the command chain. Something no one expected from a "subject."
The system froze. His code took over.
"Override accepted."
Every pod stopped.
But he wasn't done.
He dropped a micro-fusion core to the floor—an invention he'd cobbled together weeks ago from junk parts, just to see if he could.
Now it had a purpose.
"No more experiments. No more versions of me."
He set the timer: 60 seconds.
Riven turned and walked. Through the tunnel. Past the cracked screens. Past the ghosts of his failed copies.
Out into the abandoned metro station—into air that smelled of freedom.
Behind him, the ground rumbled.
BOOM.
A deep, thundering collapse. Dust spilled from the tunnel like smoke from a grave.
Project Lazarus was gone.
Every pod. Every server. Every lie.
Erased.
He didn't look back.
"I'm not their project.""I'm not a prototype.""I'm a INVENTOR."
He looked at the orb in his hand. Still warm. Still glowing.
"And I've got work to do."