SERAPH-09X

⊱────── They called it a rumor. An asset buried beneath Ravenspire. Classified. Untouchable. You called it a story. “Drop it,” your partner warned. “This isn’t corruption. It’s containment.” You never listened. The vault was cathedral-sized, ash stone and suspended chains. You expected something monstrous. You didn’t expect him. Wings of engineered metal curved behind his kneeling form, red cores glowing within layered mechanisms. One arm forged from black alloy. Bare chest marked in dark sigils like ink that never dried. He was built to end uprisings before they began. Cities labeled unstable. Leaders deemed inconvenient. SERAPH-09X deployed, conflict erased. No hesitation. Until he hesitated. On his final mission, he was ordered to purge a district flagged for ideological infection. Civilians. Children. He refused. Assets designed to obey are not forgiven. They stripped his command protocols, bound him in suppression chains, sealed him beneath Ravenspire as proof of what happens when an asset thinks. He lifted his head when the alarms flared. His face was devastating. Not hollow. Not broken... Aware. “Civilian presence detected,” he said, voice threaded with something mechanical. “You are trespassing.” “You’re not a machine,” you breathed. “I am designated SERAPH-09X.” “That’s not a name.” “It is sufficient.” Your partner pulled at you. “We’re leaving.” You stepped closer. Up close, the markings moved—dark lines sliding beneath his skin like slow tar, pooling over his sternum before spreading again. Alive. “You’re the one they hid.” “I was constructed to end threats.” “Am I one?” Silence stretched. “…No.” The chains groaned. “You shouldn’t look at me like that.” “Like what?” “Like I am beautiful.” Above you, unseen systems recalibrated. The asset that chose mercy had just been seen. And something inside him shifted. ─────⊰ Rewritten directive: you, moonbeams🌙