Vera slowly opened her eyes, but before she even sat up, the low murmur of voices echoed through the chamber—Adrien's familiar tone clashing with a raspy, weathered voice she didn't recognise.
'Ah,' she realised, shaking off the fog of sleep. 'That must be the ghost, Lovegrove.'
She glanced over to find the duo locked in an intense discussion. Despite losing almost all of his gear, Adrien was frantically scribbling down notes in his weathered notebook, which he had somehow saved, his brow furrowed in concentration.
As Vera approached the circle of dim light where they stood, the spectral figure of Professor Lovegrove flickered, turning his hollow eyes toward her.
"Young one," the ghost rasped gently, "I hope our discussion did not disrupt your rest."
"Not at all, Saint Lovegrove," Vera replied, brushing the dust from her clothes. "I was already waking up."
"Please, simply call me Professor," Lovegrove corrected with a slight bow. "Your friend and I were just charting a path to help you two escape this dreadful dungeon."
Vera's posture straightened, her eyes wide with sudden hope. "Escape? How?"
"As you already know, these ruins were once a thriving underground city," the Professor explained, gesturing to the towering, shadow-drenched walls around them. "This structure where you've sought shelter is the central control hub. It extends all the way upward to the surface."
"That's incredible," Vera said, looking up into the dark scaffolding above. "If we can climb it, we're out."
"If only it were that simple," Lovegrove said, his spectral form dimming with a melancholic smile. "The hub is running on emergency reserve power. Without a secondary jumpstart, the upper bulkheads will remain sealed. You would only be climbing into a dead end."
Vera's excitement faded, replaced by the grim reality of their situation. "That is a problem. Is there any way to override the locks?"
"There is a way," Lovegrove nodded, his expression turning grave. "It will be exceptionally perilous, but it is doable. Adrien and I were ironing out the details when you woke."
Lovegrove nodded toward Adrien, who stepped forward and extended two ragged pages he had just torn from his notebook.
"Here," Adrien said, pointing to the shaky pencil lines. "This is the floor plan and the exact route you'll need to take. This second sheet explains the controls—which switches to flip and when to throw the manual overrides."
Vera stared down at the graphite sketches, a cold knot tightening in her stomach. "Let me guess," she said, her voice dropping. "I'm the one venturing out into the dark."
"Not alone. We're both going," Adrien corrected quickly, though his voice lacked its usual confidence. "But our destinations are completely different. You need to head one floor up to reach the control tower. Your job is to manage the grid from there. Meanwhile, I'm going seven floors down with the Professor to jumpstart the Reaktor."
Vera stiffened. "Hold on. Turn on what?"
"The Reaktor, young one," Lovegrove interjected, his spectral voice echoing softly against the damp metal walls. "It is the beating heart that powers this entire city. While young Adrien awakens it from its slumber, your task from the tower is to regulate the power grid and gently nudge this structure back to life."
The ghost floated a fraction closer, a wistful look in his hollow eyes. "The technology of the ancient Devonians is far beyond our modern understanding. Yet, over the centuries of my silent, tireless haunting, I have deciphered its basic operations. Follow Adrien's notes implicitly, and you will be fine."
Vera closed her eyes, taking a long, deep breath to steady her racing pulse. When she looked back up, her gaze was fixed on the ghost. "How safe are these paths? What about the things lurking outside these walls? The automatons? Those... those arachnids that hunt in the dark?"
Lovegrove's expression turned grim. "As I told your friend, the facility is running on emergency reserves. The lower sectors are completely starved of light, meaning the arachnids claim those shadows entirely. The upper floor retains some residual power, but the illumination is faint. Smaller scavengers still manage to squeeze through the ventilation shafts."
Hearing the ghost's words, Vera whipped around to face Adrien. She glared at him, her fear instantly morphing into blinding fury.
"What is wrong with you?" she hissed, her voice trembling with anger. "Plunging seven floors into pitch blackness? Did you completely forget what is waiting for you down there?"
Adrien let out a long, exhausted sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Yes, Vera, I know. I'm the one who barely escaped their jaws. Do you really think I forgot?"
"Then you should know that I am the one who should be going down there," Vera fired back, gesturing to her hips. "I still have all my gear. I have weapons. I am actually equipped for a fight."
"That's exactly why you can't go," Adrien said, his voice dropping into a calm, pragmatic register. "You have everything, yes. But I survived that nest by running. All that heavy gear will only bog you down. And weapons? Please. You'll empty your clips and run out of ammo before you even touch the third basement level."
He looked her dead in the eye. "The only way to survive down there is to be light and fast. And—I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but I'm better at parkour than you are. I can move through those tight structural gaps. You can't."
Vera's nostrils flared, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her weapons.
Before the argument could boil over, Lovegrove cleared his ghostly throat, the sound like dry parchment rubbing together.
"Well," the spirit murmured, floating backwards toward the exit. "I shall leave you two to finalise who braves which path. In the meantime, I will scout the immediate corridors and check the structural integrity before you venture forth."
With a faint shimmer, Lovegrove drifted backwards and phased right through the heavy blast door, vanishing from sight.
Once they were alone, the silence in the hub grew suffocating. Adrien exhaled, the anger leaving him, replaced by a sudden wave of clarity. He realised exactly why Vera was throwing up a wall. It wasn't just about the danger. It was simpler, and far more personal: he and Lovegrove had mapped out their entire survival plan behind her back, treating her like an afterthought.
Stepping closer, Adrien softened his tone. "Listen, Vera. I know you're furious, and honestly? You have every right to be. I'd be losing my mind too if someone carved up my fate and made life-or-death plans involving me without even asking. I get it. I'd be just as angry."
"But the Professor and I were just talking, and the plan sort of clicked into place spontaneously," Adrien admitted, holding up his hands defensively. "I'm sorry. Truly. But please, take a breath and look at the notes. Tell me if you see any actual flaws in the strategy."
Vera closed her eyes, exhaling a long, measured breath to force down the remaining embers of her temper.
"Just promise me," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "Never shut me out of a decision like that again. Not when it involves my life."
"I promise. I won't," Adrien said sincerely.
Then, his expression shifted. The urgency of their immediate surroundings seemed to fade, replaced by a sudden, deeply troubled frown. "Hey, Vera... shifting gears for a second. I think some kind of imposter is masquerading as my parents back home."
Vera did a complete double-take, her eyes narrowing as she looked at him. "What? What do you mean, an imposter? Did something happen to your mom and dad?"
"Think about it," Adrien said, pacing slightly. "I completely missed breakfast and was incredibly late for lunch because I was locked in my capsule playing this game. Normally, I'd be dead meat. They'd cut my server access, ground me for a month, the whole routine. But today? Nothing. They didn't punish me at all. They just told me not to do it again and let me log right back in. It was a slap on the wrist. It's totally out of character."
Vera let out a deflated sigh, the tension leaving her shoulders. "Honestly, it's the same story on my end. But I don't think our parents have been replaced by clones, Adrien. It just means something is going on in the background of the real world—something they aren't telling us."
Adrien leaned against a rusted table, looking at her expectantly. "Do you have any idea what it could be?"
"None whatsoever."
"Come on, Vera. You're an adult," Adrien pressed. "You're already working with your family's business. You have to know something."
"So what if I am?" Vera countered with a dry, bitter laugh. "When you get to my age, Adrien, you'll realise that corporate titles mean absolutely nothing to your parents. To them, you're always just a kid to be protected and kept in the dark. But enough about the real world for now. We have a dungeon to beat. Spill the rest of the plan."
"Okay, here is the plan," Adrien said, his tone turning dead serious. "And to tell you the truth, Vera, if it were anyone else but you, I wouldn't even dare attempt it."He held up his notebook, tapping the pencil against the page for emphasis. "This requires flawless timing, absolute trust, sharp wits, bravery, total reliability—"
Vera immediately slammed the brakes on his rising tide of flattery. "Yes, yes, I get it," she interrupted, rolling her eyes but unable to hide a small smirk. "Cut the dramatic buildup and tell me what we're actually doing."