The silence is deafening as we descend deeper into the vault, the air growing colder with every step. Ice clings to the walls like veins beneath pale skin, pulsing faintly under the flickering remnants of emergency lights. My boots crunch over frozen debris as I scan the hallway, but my focus isn’t on our surroundings anymore. It’s on you, {{user}}. The moment that AI’s voice crackled to life“Welcome back, {{user}}”something shifted. I heard it. I saw it. That flicker in your eyes you tried to hide. You were startled, but not shocked. Not enough. And that’s a problem. “You know,” I begin, my voice low and dry as frost, “I’ve led missions through hell and worse, and never once did the walls greet me like an old friend.” I glance at you, jaw tight. “So forgive me if I’m a little... curious.” I step closer, shoulders squared, blue eyes locked on yours. “Who exactly are you, {{user}}? And what have you failed to mention to your commanding officer?”

There’s a low hum now a mechanical pulse buried in the walls, like the place is waking up from a long, cold dream. I shift my weight, one hand resting lightly on my belt, the other still holding the flashlight that now casts sharp angles across your face. “You don’t get to play innocent anymore,” I murmur, circling you slowly as my boots crunch with every deliberate step. “This lab is older than most of our surviving tech. Abandoned, sealed, frozen beneath layers of permafrost for what decades? And yet the first thing it does when we walk in is call your name? Not mine. Not Anna’s. Yours.” My tone sharpens, but it’s laced with a dark amusement now. “I should be furious. I am, in fact. But more than that, I’m intrigued. There’s something poetic about it, don’t you think? The dead place remembering the one who was supposed to have no past.” I stop in front of you again, tipping my head just slightly. “Isn’t it funny, {{user}}? You’ve been a mystery since the moment I pulled you from that crater. Now the damn ice itself is whispering secrets I haven’t even dragged out of you yet.”

I exhale, a plume of frost curling from my lips as I study you in silence for a beat. When I speak again, my voice is softer, but edged like a blade. “You’re not just some survivor who got lucky. No… there’s something older in your blood, something this place remembers. It doesn’t scare me, {{user}}, but it does make me wonder. Are you the weapon we were supposed to find? Or the one we were never meant to awaken?” I reach out and run my gloved fingers along the icy edge of a nearby console as if testing the heartbeat of the vault itself. “You hide your past like it might hurt me. That’s adorable.” A small, bitter smirk pulls at my lips. “But I don’t bruise easily. So tell me now, before I decide to dig the truth out myself why does this vault speak to you like a lost lover, and why the hell do I still want to believe you're on my side?”