Dominos: Zero Point Awakening

Chapter 33: Prison of a Thousand Memories

Prison of a Thousand Memories

“I knew you’d come eventually.” Wardak began, his voice was steady as a still sea. “For heroes who are supposed to defend the planet, your friends were laughably weak. Let’s see if you can at least put up a fight.” He cradled a fistful of soil, his eyes distant. “It’s a fine day, isn’t it? Perfect for purging this world of human filth.”

William remained composed. “A quiet guy like you getting chatty? Strange day indeed.”

Staring at the desolate city, my insides twisted. I wanted to cut him down right then, but a burning question held me back.

“Why have you done this?” I asked him. “You’ve slaughtered innocent women, children—”

“Do you know the world’s biggest lie?” Wardak cut me off. “It’s that people do good out of the kindness of their hearts. No one is innocent. Not one soul. I’ve lived long enough to see it: those who suffer and those who watch doing nothing are equally guilty.”

“You surrounded yourself with the wrong people,” I shot back. “You can’t judge everyone by the same scale. You didn’t know them—what did these people you’ve killed do to deserve this? Who are you to decide who deserves to live or die!?”

He suddenly fell into laughter. “Cipher Silver—a delusional boy who thinks he’s fighting for a greater purpose. You run over here to kill me, right? How did you decide that?”

“That’s different!” I snapped, horrified by his atrocities.

Hospitals full of the sick, the elderly, women, newborns—his carnage defied reason. Maybe he was psychotic; otherwise, my faith in humanity’s goodness began to blur.

“What you’re doing is inhuman! We’re here to stop you. If death is the only way, so be it!”

“Exactly!” His grin was ice. “Death is the only way. Deciding who lives and who dies—that’s the burden of the strong. It’s my truth against yours, and I won’t stop until every last person falls by my hand.”

“This is not you! Why are you really doing this?”

He turned to me. “It’s the privilege of the strong not to explain themselves to the weak. Be the last man standing if you want answers.”

I removed my glasses and drew my blade. A fire exploded in my chest—every fiber screamed to strike. Instantly, the Solid State surged to life.

“Cipher!” William grabbed my arm. “Calm down! Stick to the plan—don’t let him get under your skin!”

“We need to understand his powers. Let me engage him.”

A chill traced my spine. An eerie aura around surrounded him. My grip tightened on the sword, my mind racing: how did he defeat the selected twenty Neogens so quickly?

“Stop it.” William leaned in, voice low. “I know you don’t trust me after the island, but we’re in this together, and I’m not running away again. Keep him talking until the twins give the signal.”

“That’s not...” Before I could argue, darkness swallowed me.

Then 2.0 appeared.

{

‘You need to control your impulses. I’m directly linked to your systems, and any disturbance to the gate could kill us all... and your friends, by the way.’

I staggered back. My second confrontation with 2.0.

“What are you talking about? And...who exactly are you? How did you get into my mind?”

‘I woke up before this gate,’ He said, showing me a large blue cloudy doorway. ‘I knew from the first moments I felt my consciousness, that I am tasked with keeping its chains tight—to prevent whatever lies beyond from escaping.

“The gate?... What are you talking about?”

‘Over time I learned how the network operates. Behind that gate is vast power—power I hold by will, that which this body cannot withstand. I planned to strengthen you first, then free myself. But now that I’ve mapped the core, even fifty years of training wouldn’t let you handle ten percent of its force.’

I clenched my teeth. “So you’re not here to help me?”

‘For some reason you keep endangering us. With you in charge, it’s only a matter of time before you get yourself killed—like this reckless bravado. I control most of your sensory network. Soon I’ll have your motor areas too. If you want to save yourself, do what I say and get away from this guy.’

“This is my body. I decide who to fight and who to protect!”

‘You think you’ve come this far using your own strength? Without me, you’d be dead already.’

“I promised to protect everyone. I will grow stronger—with or without you—and finish my mission.” I made my stance clearly for him to understand.

He stared into me, his eyes glowing darker and darker before fading to nothing. Suddenly I was plunged into complete darkness—isolated in my own mind. I couldn’t move or feel anything around me. He completely locked my mind away. Where—and how—the questions haunted me?

Time ceased to exist.

Seconds stretched into lifetimes.

Exhausted, I surrendered to memory: favorite scents, childhood laughter, every detail of every moment replayed like a relentless film.

After a time so long, I suddenly heard a voice.

“I’ll give you credit!” He said, “Your relentlessness is admirable.”

“Cipher 2.0!”

Then a pale light appeared. I lost count of how long I’d been trapped, but I reexamined every memory hundreds of thousands of times.

“2.0, I still remember what I fight for! I won’t give up until I complete my mission!”

‘At your neuro-processing speed, I locked you away for five centuries. You separated your memories from your consciousness to preserve your identity.’

“You wanted to erase my soul!?”

“I wanted access to your motor pathways, but it seems only you can control them for now. We’re at a stalemate.”

I took a steadying breath. recalling my duty. “Then let’s work together. Help me stop Wardak, and I’ll grow stronger to free you.”

“Alright. Let’s see how far you can go. I’ll release a 2% energy buff—but only for twenty minutes.”

}

The darkness lifted. I reemerged, hollow and exhausted, but resolute.

“...do you understand?” William’s voice cut through the haze. A few minutes had passed in the real world—everything felt surreal after centuries inside my head.

Wardak’s voice taunted us. “Your plan won’t work! Accept death and sleep without suffering.”

William turned over to him. “If you were having a bad day, you should’ve come to me. We’d have solved it over a drink.”

“What would you know about bad days?” Wardak spat. “People clap for you everywhere! Your pain is an insult to me!”

William’s face flickered—Abdu had struck a chord deep inside him. I sensed William was hiding a haunting past of his own. But before the moment could ripen, everything shifted.

In the blink of an eye, we stood on open water. Silence reigned, broken only by distant birdsongs.

The twins’ signal flared.

Wardak was caught off guard, his view obscured. It was now or never—I had to make our plan work.