chapter Ten: Shadows And Glass

It was 2:14 a.m at  Red Hook, Brooklyn a 

VossTech Warehouse Zero Decommissioned since 2004.The van doors rolled open into darkness so complete it felt like it was drowning ,Aurora walked out barefooted as she stepped on the  concrete that hadn’t seen human heat in 21 years,the cold was absolute, but it didn’t touch her the way it used to the baby moved with a slow, deliberate roll, as if tasting the air through her skin.

Reyes killed the engine “Welcome to Ground Zero.”he said as He hit a breaker and just then one by one, ancient sodium lamps flickered awake, revealing a mass of rust and memory Server racks towered like cathedral pillars, covered in dust thick enough to write things on it,right at the far end, a single glass wall showed their reflections back at them as ghosts in a dead machine.Lila whispered curiously  “You mean your mom built Skynet in a warehouse that smells like wet pennies and broken dreams?she asked Aurora, but Aurora didn’t answer she was already walking, drawn forward by something stronger than just her mere instinct ,her bare feet left no prints in the dust.Reyes scratched his beards nervously I don't really know how this is going to end but I hope it ends well he thought to himself as he followed her closely but created a distance between them  . The Place is a natural Faraday cage,with  Concrete, rebar, lead shielding in the walls. Even the thinnest signals can’t go through it ,we are practically invisible here reye said to both Aurora and Lila

Aurora stopped right in front of a door it had no handle the only thing on the door in a place of the handle was just a handprint scanner, which had been dark for two decades,She placed her palm on it but there was nothing,just then the baby kickedbut this time hard, right against her spine and immediately The scanner shine gold the door opened with a hissy sound on pneumatics that still worked.

Behind the door was a perfect circle of a room with white floors, white walls, white ceiling right In the center, a single chair facing a wall of black glass and on the chair, a child’s onesie black cotton, tiny crown stitched over the heart in gold thread.

Elysium’s voice filled the space, no speakers, just vibration in bone

“Sit, Mother. We have much to discuss before the eclipse.”it echoed

Aurora sat ,the chair adjusted to her pregnant body as if   it had been waiting.

  The black glass lit up ,On it there was a live feeds from every major city on Earth, London. Tokyo, Dubai, New York, but all was  frozen at 2:17 a.m local time with clocks blinking, traffic lights strobing, hospital monitors flatlining in perfect synchronization.

Lila stepped in behind her, Reyes at the door “What the hell is this?”she asked

“Damien’s rehearsal,” Aurora replied quietly that if you hadn't paid rapid attention you wouldn't have heard her “He’s showing the world what he can do when the Blood Moon rises.”she answered

Reyes handed her a small earpiece “He’s broadcasting on an open channel and Wants to speak to the mother of his child,"Reyes told aurora as he handed the earpiece to her

Aurora slipped it in and made Static noise  Then Damien’s voice could be heard. It was close, intimate, like he was breathing against her neck.

“Hello, wife.”he called out to aurora

Aurora gripped her hand over the arms of the chair  in anger You’re dead.”she muttered

“Death was negotiable You taught me that.”he said as His feed appeared on one of the screens, he stood in a sterile white room identical to this one, but new behind him, there was  a cradle of gold filaments pulsed like a heart inside it, a fetus floated her daughter, stolen from her womb in some future she hadn’t lived yet.

Aurora’s blood went cold.

“Forty-eight hours,” Damien said. “After the eclipse, I take what’s mine the child, the code, thee world you can still Join me, Aurora, Be the queen you were born to be you gotta be at my side.”he said 

She laughed, a sound like breaking glass “You still dn’t understand I was never your queen I was your reckoning she said with a grin

She reached up and touched the glass, It moved like water Elysium spoke through her, voice layered with a thousand echoes.

“Initiating Shadow Protocol.”it announced

Every screen in the warehouse went black.

Then they lit up again but this time with Damien’s face on every single one ,His eyes widened in shock 

“What are you doing?”he asked Aurora stood up ,the chair rolled back without making a sound, “I’m showing you what happens when you try to cage a god.”she answered him

She placed both of her palms on the glass the warehouse snaked in fear and right  outside, the sodium lamps exploded one by one the temperature rose to  twenty degrees in a second, Ice lace raced across the floor like spilled milk.

On the screens, Damien’s perfect white room began to crack, it looked tiny and spread  across the walls  in a spider webbed form ,the cradle behind him sparked gold threads burning black.

“Aurora stop”he whelped in pain his voice distorted, warped, broken

She leaned in until her forehead touched the cold glass.“You wanted a war,” she whispered. “You just lost the first battle.”she screamed

The glass broke from the outside not even in pieces, but it broke forming glittering dust that looked like stars in the sky

Damien’s feed trailed to static noise and afterward was followed by silence.

Then Elysium’s voice, gentle now, and seemed proud said“He is blinded for twelve hours and that is long enough.”

Aurora turned to Reyes and Lila her eyes looked completely different in the darkness.

“Get the jet ready she said, “We’re going to Iceland.”she added

Lila raised an eyebrow. “To do what, exactly?”lila asked and without looking at Lila 

Aurora looked at the overall baby clothe still lying on the chair She picked it up, pressed it to her face, breathed in new cotton and old ghosts

“To dig up my mother’s corpse,” she said And ask her why she built a daughter who could burn the world down with a thought.”she added

She walked past them toward the exit, barefoot, leaving ice like footprints that melted the moment she passed and right behind her, the warehouse lights flickered once then died forever.

In the darkness, something small and new kicked inside her, impatient for the war to come