The Place That Should Not Exist

The world looked sick.

That was the first thing Xin noticed.

Not destroyed.

Not ruined.

Sick.

Black Bloom spread through valleys and highways like veins beneath skin. Entire regions had gone dark. Smoke no longer rose from some cities because there was nothing left burning.

Xin sat silently in the transport truck.

Rion drove.

Neither spoke much.

Both looked terrible.

Rion’s arm was wrapped heavily after Andy crushed it.

Xin looked worse.

Raxton sat broken beside him.

Cracked.

Burned.

Silent.

Tara’s voice came through the radio.

“You two alive.”

“Unfortunately,” Xin answered.

“You sound like shit.”

“I feel like shit.”

Static.

Then Alaric spoke.

“I found somewhere.”

Xin looked up.

“What kind of somewhere.”

Silence.

Then:

“A place your parents used.”

Three days later.

They arrived.

It was not on maps.

Not inside records.

Not inside Dive databases.

The road itself disappeared halfway through.

The forest surrounding the location looked wrong.

Trees bent unnaturally.

Animals watched silently.

No birds.

No insects.

Nothing.

The mountain entrance looked like a massive crack through reality itself.

Xin stopped walking.

“What the hell is this place.”

Alaric looked nervous.

“Your parents called it Sector Zero.”

Rion frowned.

“Never heard of it.”

“Good,” Alaric replied.

“You were not supposed to.”

Inside.

The facility was ancient.

Not old technology.

Ancient.

Walls covered in symbols.

Rust.

Broken lights.

Rooms full of machines nobody understood anymore.

Xin noticed something disturbing.

Pictures.

Thousands.

Pictures pinned across walls.

Of him.

Of Kaila.

Of their parents.

Different ages.

Different moments.

Different timelines.

Some photos never happened.

One showed older Kaila.

Alive.

Xin froze.

“What the fuck.”

Alaric looked confused.

“That should not exist.”

Rion slowly looked around.

“This place is wrong.”

The lights suddenly turned on.

Not fully.

Dim red.

A recorded voice played.

Arnold Stonen.

Xin immediately recognized it.

"If you are hearing this..."

Static.

Silence.

Xin’s heart stopped.

"Sector Zero was built for one purpose."

"To create something capable of fighting what should not exist."

More static.

"Xin... if you came here..."

The voice paused.

"Then you failed."

Xin stared.

His fists tightened.

The recording continued.

"Good."

Xin blinked.

"Because failure means you survived long enough to learn."

The lights flickered.

Massive doors slowly opened deeper inside the facility.

Cold air rushed outward.

Something moved inside darkness.

Not alive.

Not dead.

Something mechanical.

Something gigantic.

Alaric whispered:

“Oh no.”

Xin looked.

Massive training structures.

Combat rooms.

Destroyed machines.

Thousands of impact marks.

Entire mountain sized chambers.

Rion slowly looked upward.

“Your parents trained here.”

Alaric nodded slowly.

“No.”

He looked terrified.

“They built monsters here.”

Hours later.

Xin wandered alone.

Unable to sleep.

Sector Zero felt alive.

Every hallway made noise.

Every room felt watched.

He walked past another room.

Stopped.

Inside.

Kaila.

Xin froze.

She stood inside.

Smiling.

“Xin?”

His breathing stopped.

“Kaila.”

She smiled softly.

“You came late again.”

Xin stepped forward.

“Kaila.”

She looked sad.

“You always come late.”

Lights flickered.

She vanished.

The room was empty.

Xin stood silently.

Then punched the wall.

Hard.

Blood dripped.

“Fuck.”

Behind him.

A voice.

Not Kaila.

Not human.

"Training begins tomorrow."

Xin turned.

Nobody.

Only darkness.

Sector Zero watched.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━