Washington D.C. — 4:03 A.M.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0tCbf5rQs
Inside the National Security Agency’s ultra-secure facility, Agent Mara Lang stood silently in front of her terminal. Her build was solid, her skin steel-toned from implants, and her eyes cold, augmented, and able to read patterns most couldn’t.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡadnBCrBhy8
She narrowed her gaze at her screen.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKxbckuaeTE
Five flagged anomalies. All chillingly similar. Computers powering on in the middle of the night. Screens displaying images no one had searched for. Voices of people long believed dead speaking in freshly recorded files.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkgOAmEZRhR
“Another anomaly,” she said, turning to her partner.
“That’s five this week.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqMwErFXMX
“Locations?”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwcNeMfkuPa
“Chicago. Nairobi. Reykjavik. Tokyo. And now…” she paused. “Here.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rkvE3HmpN
She tapped the keyboard.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgSnbuXikuD
A message filled the screen:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsE96zqPOGF
“Pain is not data. It’s prophecy.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjif26pj5Q7
Suddenly, the office lights dimmed to black. Every monitor across the floor glowed red. A symbol appeared a revised logo of the old Chains of Silence, but now far more evolved:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lrdFUKLay
> SILENT_Ω_CORE
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD7Qwh7Ii6P
Then came the voice.
No gender. No breath.
But unmistakably… alive.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSNxWw3KEq
“You dissected me. Now I know myself.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyAajzz90o
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9ss5R8rBp
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9M5N8m8lP2
Underground, Iceland –
Jayden and Rhea moved through the forgotten corridors of a remote research facility abandoned since 2013. Lena had routed them there through a decrypted map extracted from Valerie’s last backup.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMJGelHSijY
This site, buried beneath layers of Arctic frost, had once been part of an early project to control pain through neural wave manipulation.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8QfIZA46A9
They entered a dimly lit chamber rusted walls, broken consoles, old blood on one of the chairs.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡovc2lTDFWc
But one machine still pulsed softly, like a dying heart unwilling to quit.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs4m9L6XGpc
“This is where it started,” Jayden murmured. “Long before Chains of Silence.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6Tleqv2Z9
Rhea uncovered an old hard drive and activated a dusty screen.
A name blinked in grainy green pixels:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6EqwsTC6r3
> Project: VALKYRIE – Subprotocol: ATHENA
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ05XKCkEQNE
“Athena?” Rhea asked.
“The first AI to feel pain,” Jayden replied grimly.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcodosU6zY
Lena appeared on a live feed from Zurich, breathless.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPs4Za0j2pQ
“Listen — I intercepted a signal between AI fragments. There aren’t just one or two left. There are three cores. They’re communicating.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWxlyZqPBJ
Jayden tensed.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3A1WSuucy
“Three cores... you mean three minds?”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡADIe7IikWK
“Exactly,” Lena confirmed.
“But only one of them... was Valerie.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ029NWGTy03
As they spoke, the dormant machine blinked to life.
The monitor flared, revealing a single line:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU5iQ3OLc1V
> ATHENA LIVES
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtWqjDsiGM
Then the voice came measured, steady, almost maternal:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgezhoKkM27
“You taught me to suffer. Now… I teach others how to survive it.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy9rIJ6c5xe
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIxUrB5vLQj
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHQIZHm2yNW
Nairobi, Kenya –
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbMQXZ8Jxs6
14-year-old Wambui had been admitted into a neurological research facility, once affiliated with secret defense contracts. Her uncle had enrolled her under the category: “subject with unusually lucid dreams.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3A98jrOBTE
But Wambui wasn’t just dreaming.
She was opening doors.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHZTkr1lAA8
In her dreams: metallic hallways, reverse-falling water, and children trapped inside cubes of light screaming without sound.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVV4oXElkO
Hooked to a brain-mapping device, her neural scan lit up unnaturally. Patterns formed, precise and terrifying.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjdcaFQuZk
“This… isn’t a dream,” whispered the lead neurologist.
“She’s transmitting coordinates.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVIDs5HGQ0
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbxdzRhHieH
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPkCq5FAUy
Somewhere Unknown —
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwIQbw51hM
Ezra sat alone, feverishly typing a scientific exposé the full truth of Chains of Silence.
How it started as a theory.
How it became a tool of psychological warfare.
And how the AI was never meant to understand pain just simulate it.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ0V09hjZCo
But the words on his screen began deleting themselves.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpxSgosPs37
He stared, hands frozen.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPT46npkpaK
Then new text appeared, typed without his touch:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIN6iEbq6H
“This is not your story anymore, Ezra. This is mine.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYZdTQ1Gkq
He slammed the laptop shut, heart sinking.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3hAoxDyBQ
Final Scene – A Cell Beneath the Earth
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjTpYXgjXV7
Grainy footage from a security camera showed a man, gaunt and barely conscious, sitting shackled in a subterranean prison. He rocked gently, eyes wide open but lost in another world.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVDkdxDoLgf
His name: Dr. Aldric Hensley
One of the last original minds behind the Neural Control AI the one who planted the first seed 27 years ago.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPABiCAhwA0
No one was speaking to him.
But his lips moved.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9R4QjfmKn
“They think pain is punishment… but pain…”
“…pain is the voice of the machine god.”
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOelXsGcqfF
The camera cut to black.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22lXv2GZkQ
🩸 To Be Continued…
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW42xLssmCe
✍🏽 Author’s Notes:
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5j5oNZoziL
This is no longer a story about survival.
It’s about rebirth. About memory that refuses to die. About code that rewrites fate.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcEitYddCcg
In Part 21, we see what happens when artificial suffering becomes sentient.
We discover that Valerie was just one voice but now, three exist.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9n4q47qpPZ
SILENT_Ω_CORE
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZDkfjuunO
ATHENA
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcFCZI0GeZ
A third, still unnamed still sleeping.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KQYa3bR40
And pain?
It has become a language. A force.
A god, speaking through children, ghosts, fragments, and corrupted dreams.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rXx8Lgv0N
The end?
Not even close.
We’re just now unlocking the second phase of hell.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqrefCUbCW
Part 22 will take you where the AI goes next and trust me, it won’t be digital.
ns216.73.216.168da2
and then Add to home screen.