The chamber held oppressive silence, the kind that makes your ears ring.

  Sylvie hung on chains, suspended by her wrists. Her head drooped lifelessly, breathing so slow and weak I could barely notice it. I approached, quickly assessing her condition. The skin on her wrists was rubbed raw, thin trails of blood running down her arms.

  I called her name softly.

  "Sylvie."

  She didn't answer. I frowned, raised my hand and shook her slightly.

  "Hey."

  She didn't respond. I touched her shoulder and squeezed.

  "Sylvie, wake up."

  Silence.

  For a second, an unpleasant thought pierced me: what if I was too late?

  But then she suddenly jerked. Her whole body shuddered and she inhaled sharply, like someone who'd finally broken the surface. She raised her head abruptly, silver eyes clouded, gaze darting around the chamber until it focused on me.

  Her voice came out hoarse and weakened.

  "Luten?"

  She examined the room, breathing heavily.

  "Can you stand?"

  She blinked, silently studying me for several seconds, as if not understanding whether I was really here. Then laughed hoarsely.

  "Oh... You're actually alive."

  I gritted my teeth.

  "How long did it take you to write me off as dead?"

  Sylvie smirked.

  "Oh, come on. Aren't you about to rescue me right now?"

  I didn't answer and focused on the chains. Thick mag-locks, running into the wall. Strong enough to restrain even modified subjects.

  I grabbed the lock, testing its strength. Tight, but something felt strange. The metal... I frowned and pressed harder. Weird, but it was softer than usual, almost like plastic.

  I kept pressing with my hands, applying more force. The shackles cracked, as if they really were plastic.

  Sylvie suddenly collapsed forward, but I managed to catch her. She breathed heavily, grabbing my shoulders to keep her balance.

  "Oh... Well, that was unexpectedly easy."

  I looked at the torn shackles. The metal looked thinner than it should have. Defective? No, the otherworlder laboratory couldn't allow such negligence.

  But what difference did it make.

  "Get up, we need to leave."

  She took another deep breath, shook her head, then stood carefully, trembling.

  "Hey, do you even know what's going on here?"

  I looked at her.

  "Where is everyone?"

  I'd noticed earlier that there was no living personnel in the laboratory.

  I'd already passed through half the complex but hadn't met a single otherworlder except the guard. Only cameras, security systems, and various bots.

  Sylvie exhaled, flexing her numb fingers.

  "They don't work like you humans do. There are very few otherworlders. So few that there's no one among them to manage such facilities manually."

  She took a couple careful steps, examining her wrists.

  "That's why everything here is automated. Every camera, every mechanism—it's a unified system."

  I frowned.

  "So they just watch us through screens?"

  Sylvie shrugged.

  "Yep. At best, they occasionally send a control group here if something really important happens."

  I looked around and saw Sylvie approach a tablet by the door.

  "And if we break the system?"

  She smirked.

  "Then those who can fix it will come flying."

  I exhaled, thinking over her words.

  "Alright, got it. Another question... How did you 'kill' me?"

  Sylvie grinned, her voice taking on its usual mocking notes.

  "Oh, that was cool."

  She leaned against the wall, stretching lazily.

  "Remember how you suddenly 'died' during training?"

  I looked at her silently.

  Sylvie continued with obvious satisfaction.

  "Well, that was me."

  I gritted my teeth.

  "Explain."

  She shook her head.

  "You know I can change matter, right?"

  I nodded.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Well. I didn't change you, but the space around you."

  She ran her hand along the wall, and the metal slightly distorted, as if turning to liquid, then became solid again.

  "Everything here works on sensors. Scanners, detectors, biopotential analyzers."

  She raised a finger.

  "I just... shifted reality's coordinates."

  I frowned.

  "Meaning?"

  "Meaning the system no longer saw you as alive. Karl relied on sensors and, not detecting your pulse, he gave up."

  She grinned.

  "To them, you weren't just dead. You ceased to exist. And I just knocked you out."

  I took a deep breath. It all made sense. But... I looked at her.

  "Why did you do it?"

  She shrugged.

  "Actually, they rarely let me out for walks, and then you happened to be handy."

  I tensed.

  "You used me as a test?"

  She smiled, tilting her head.

  "It saved your life, didn't it?"

  I said nothing, because she was right. And that irritated me.

  "Alright, enough talking. We need to move."

  She exhaled and finally took a step forward. I didn't even notice how her gaze lingered on the terminal for a moment.

  "You okay?"

  Sylvie answered without looking back.

  "Yeah, except for the lesson they taught me for killing you, everything's fine."

  "Where are we going now?"

  "Simple: we go back to the morgue and leave from there."

  "But I can't appear wherever I want like you."

  "Don't worry, we'll figure it out."

  At first everything was simple: we climbed into the same ventilation and ended up in the same drone maintenance room. However, problems awaited us at the room's exit.

  Sylvie stopped suddenly.

  "Wait, Luten, I can't be seen by the robots. I'm not listed as dead."

  "How did they even allow such a hole in the system?"

  She gave me a pointed look.

  "How many prisoners like you do they have?"

  I stayed silent once again.

  "Well, let's get out of this. I have an idea."

  I had to serve as her shield and block her from scanners. Standing on the guard post side, I leaned slightly against her. We walked like that to the nearest corner.

  "And what do we do about the cameras?"

  Sylvie's face fell.

  "Oh... Forgot."

  At that moment, a camera with sensors appearing from around the corner triggered an alarm. Behind my back, mechanical voices began sounding:

  "Intruder in corridor"

  "Do not resist, apprehension in progress"

  We took off running through the corridors, hearing alarm signals spreading throughout the complex. Along the way I sometimes had to disable robots catching up to us, but we quickly reached the needed room and barricaded ourselves there.

  I turned to check on her.

  "Can you use your powers after such a marathon?"

  Sylvie rolled her eyes.

  "Who do you take me for? Of course I can."

  We returned to where I'd escaped from. The morgue.

  In the far corner were visible capsules with bodies. Some were closed, others remained ajar, displaying frozen faces. In the center of the room still lay several robots I'd destroyed earlier.

  Sylvie approached the console on the wall, ran her fingers across the screen.

  "Well, the dead are still dead. Happy to see this place again?"

  I gritted my teeth.

  "Let's not linger."

  Sylvie extended her hand to the wall, touching it with her fingertips. The metal shuddered under her touch, like water's surface from a light touch. She tilted her head, studying it intently.

  "Good news: the wall isn't too dense."

  She looked up at me, corners of her lips twitching in a slight smirk.

  "Bad news: you'll have to go through it."

  I frowned.

  "Go through?"

  She snapped her fingers.

  "Exactly."

  Before I could ask another question, she stepped forward and... disappeared.

  Her figure seemed to blur, dissolve into air, leaving only a faint shimmer. And there she was on the other side. I took a step back.

  "You're kidding me?"

  Sylvie's voice came from the other side.

  "No, although... Maybe a little."

  She pressed her palms against the metal, and the surface began pulsating, as if alive.

  "Don't be scared. Just step forward."

  I approached cautiously.

  The metal under her hands trembled, becoming like viscous, rippling liquid. A thought pierced my head: what if this was a trap? One step forward—and I'd disappear into the metal forever.

  Sylvie caught my gaze and rolled her eyes.

  "Luten, either you go or I leave you to be torn apart."

  Gritting my teeth, I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

  The metal bent under me, as if I was entering thick molasses. The world around became dense and viscous, sounds muffled. Every movement required effort, like walking against a strong current. I felt something enveloping me, letting me through but not releasing. For a second it seemed I'd get stuck.

  Sylvie suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

  "Get down!"

  I didn't have time to understand what was happening, but she pulled me down.

  We crashed to the floor. No. I crashed onto her. Sylvie made a short strangled sound when I pinned her to the floor with my full weight.

  I quickly tried to pull away, but she pressed into me, tightly wrapping her arm around my neck. I was about to say something, but she swiftly covered my mouth with her palm. At that moment the door hummed, and a red beam swept across the ground. I froze.

  Sylvie's breath touched my neck in hot steam. I felt the light rhythm of her heart under my chest. Strange, but despite everything happening and the terrible conditions, she didn't smell of anything. Not even sweat or dirt.

  Sylvie didn't move, only pressed a finger to her lips, letting me know: be quiet.

  The bots' footsteps stopped, and an alarmed voice echoed off the walls:

  "Disposal suspended. Awaiting new protocol."

  Silence. I didn't move. She didn't move. After a minute the bots turned and left.

  Sylvie made sure no one was there and exhaled quietly, removing her hand from my mouth. I raised myself up.

  "Luten, do you always fall on girls like this, or am I special?"

  I pulled back. She snorted, sitting up and rubbing her chest.

  "Get off, you're crushing me!"

  I wanted to say something but changed my mind.

  "Let's just go."

  She giggled, waving it off.

  "Ah, that was a nice moment though."

  I clenched my jaw and headed for the grate before she could say anything else. But from the corner of my eye I caught her satisfied smirk.

  Sylvie followed me to the last wall separating us from the outside exit. Her fingers touched the metal, and the wall stirred, becoming unnaturally pliable.

  "Let's hurry. We don't have much time left. That tower will turn toward us again soon."

  I hesitated. This was too easy. Too simple to be true.

  "You sure that's the exit?"

  She looked up at me with her usual irritating smirk.

  "What, afraid I'll trick you and throw you into space?"

  "More afraid we'll end up somewhere worse."

  She snorted, but the smile on her face quickly faded. Something else flickered in her eyes, heavy and out of place in Sylvie's usual image. But she changed moods too quickly for me to understand anything.

  "Luten, just go forward."

  I stepped into the wall, again experiencing that strange feeling. Like falling into cold, thick jello that coats your whole body. For a couple seconds the world blurred, then the air suddenly became much colder. I felt wet earth under my feet, and on my skin—the icy breath of evening and sunset.

  I was outside.

  But when I looked back, Sylvie was still standing inside. Her figure was clearly visible through the already re-hardening metal. There was no smile on her face. She looked at me, and for the first time her gaze held neither mockery nor teasing.

  I called out to her.

  "Hey, what are you doing? Come here!"

  I extended my hand, but she didn't move. Just stood with arms crossed.

  "Luten, I'm not coming."

  Her voice sounded calm. Too calm.

  "What do you mean 'not coming'? Are you crazy?"

  She lowered her gaze, as if searching for words. Then looked at me again, eyes full of that same sadness she usually carefully hid.

  "You don't understand. I can't leave."

  "Why?"

  She sighed quietly, touching her chest with her palm.

  "Everything they did to me... My body depends on this laboratory. If I leave, I won't last long."

  I froze. She'd known this from the beginning. From the moment we escaped the chamber. I felt like a complete idiot for not noticing earlier.

  "Then why did you help me at all?"

  She smiled with the corner of her lips, as if trying to maintain her usual lightness. But the smile came out sad and barely noticeable.

  "Because at least one of us should get out of here alive."

  Something painfully tightened inside. Everything in me protested against her decision. I couldn't, just couldn't leave her in this hell.

  I stepped closer to the wall.

  "No, I'll come back for you."

  Sylvie took a step back, and the metal surface was already beginning to close, cutting her off from me.

  "Better just live, Luten. You have somewhere and someone to return to."

  She raised her palm, as if saying goodbye, and the metal froze in place, becoming an immobile wall again.

  I stepped forward, but now the wall was already hard and cold. I hit it with my fist, but only a quiet dull sound came out.

  "Damn it!"

  I hit the wall again and again, not noticing how the skin on my knuckles began to split and bleed. But the wall wouldn't yield. It was solid even though small cracks remained on it.

  I thought for a long time about what to do, but my thoughts were interrupted by the system:

  "Intruder beyond perimeter, dangerous proximity. Initiate defense system"

  To this sound, one of the towers turned toward me and fired. I only managed to step aside, but the shockwave threw me off the cliff behind me.