DC : Architect of Vengeance

Alex pressed himself against the breathing wall, listening to the house reorganize itself around him.

The fragment in his hand pulsed with warmth—a small piece of Emily's mind that still trusted him enough to stay intact. But somewhere down the winding halls, he sensed a predator moving, its presence creeping in like the faint scent of rain just before a storm.

The thing shouldnt be hunting randomly. It should be looking for something specific.

The hallway stretched ahead, doors appearing and disappearing in a steady rhythm. But now, there was a new sound now—soft and steady, like rain on a roof.

Someone was crying.

Alex followed the sound down a corridor that seemed to bend downward, even though his feet stayed level. The walls grew damper, and by the time he reached the source, his shoes were stepping through puddles that reflected memories instead of light.

Each step sent ripples through the water, and in those ripples, he saw fragments of a childhood: birthday parties, scraped knees, and whispered bedtime stories.

The door was smaller than the others, painted in faded pastels that once might have been bright. Water trickled steadily from underneath, carrying soft whispers from Emily's past: "Don't cry, sweetheart." "The bad dreams can't hurt you." "Daddy's here."

Alex turned the handle, and the door opened to reveal a room that was drowning in sorrow itself.

Water rose to his knees immediately, warm and salt-bitter with tears. The room had once been a child's bedroom—he could see the remnants of toys and furniture floating past, waterlogged and distorted.

In the center of the flooding space, on what had once been a child's bed but now resembled a life raft, sat a little girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old. She was Emily—or had been—but this fragment was pure emotion, all the feelings that the others had shed in their desperate attempt to survive Grodd's assault.

She looked up at Alex with eyes that looked like it held decades of accumulated sorrow, and the water level rose another inch.

"Why are you here?," she said in a small voice full of sorrow. Her small hands gripped the bed frame tightly, knuckles white as she fought to stay steady. "You're not real. You're just like others- another trap he made for me. Sometimes he sends them-people that pretend to help but only bring lies."

Alex expected this. Of course she wouldn't trust him. After what Grodd had done, why would any part of Emily's fractured mind believe others?

Then he remembered Flash's parting words at STAR Labs, the seemingly casual detail Flash had insisted he memorize. "If she doesn't trust you," Flash had said, "tell her about the coffee mug. The one Cisco made for her birthday."

Alex took a careful step closer, water swirling around his legs. "Emily, I know you're scared. But I'm here because Flash sent me. You should remember the mug Cisco made you—the one that changes color when you pour hot coffee into it. It says 'World's Okayest Scientist' until the heat makes it read 'World's Most Brilliant Mind.'"

The child's eyes widened, and for a moment, the rising water actually receded slightly. "You... you know about the mug?"

"Cisco was embarrassed about the 'okayest' joke," Alex continued gently. "He thought you might not get that it was supposed to be funny. But you loved it. You said it reminded you that even brilliant minds need to start somewhere ordinary."

The fragment's rigid posture began to relax, and Alex could see the walls around her defenses starting to crumble. "Only the team knew about that conversation. Only Flash and Cisco and Caitlin..." She studied his face with hope. "You're really here to help? Not to hurt me?"

"I'm here to put you back together," Alex said softly. "All of you. But I need to understand what's really preventing you from coming back together."

Relief flickered across the child's face before giving way to terror. " The Hollow Primate. As long as it is here, the NSE protocols wont allow us to integrate back together."

The temperature in the room dropped suddenly, and Alex felt something brush against the back of his neck. The fragment in his grasp grew cold, flickering for a moment with intelligence before returning to its original form.

"Hollow Primate?" Alex asked.

The child's face crumpled, and the water surged to Alex's waist, carrying with it another torrent of childhood memories: report cards, family photos, a science fair trophy that bobbed past like a golden life preserver.

"The thing Grodd left behind when he tore through our mind."

She paused, her young face contorting, "It wants something from us. It wont stop until it gets it."

Through the rising water, Alex could see the room's submerged contents more clearly now. Most of it was the same earlier contents—toys, books, stuffed animals, but there was something else, barely visible through the murky depths: another door which was different from the others. This one was made of metal, reinforced, and despite being underwater, it still glowed with a faint, steady light.

"What's down there?" Alex pointed, and immediately felt the child's terror spike. The water level jumped in response to her emotional surge.

"No, no, no," she whispered, shaking her head so violently that droplets flew from her hair. "That's the way to the vault. That's where we keep her hidden. The little one with the secret.It shifts its location on its own, every now and then."

"What secret?"

The child looked around frantically, as if afraid the walls themselves might overhear. When she spoke, her voice was barely audible above the flowing water.

"The discovery. The thing Dr. Emily found right before Grodd came. Something about consciousness, about how it works, how it can be... moved. Changed. The little one in the vault, only she remembers everything about it."

Alex confirmed their earlier assumption. The NSE protocols hadn't just fragmented Emily's mind to protect her from Grodd's assault—they'd shattered her consciousness specifically to hide this crucial information.

"That's why the Hollow Primate is here," the child continued, her voice growing more frantic as understanding dawned. "Grodd didn't just attack our mind for fun. He was trying to steal the discovery. And when he couldn't break through our defenses fast enough, he left some part of him behind. Like somekind of psychic bloodhound that's programmed to find what he couldn't find."

A sound echoed through the flooded room, barely more than a breath at first, but it edged closer patiently. It wasn't a voice or a growl—just a heavy presence that pressed down like the weight of something vast. The water trembled beneath their feet, carrying a chill that seeped into the bones. The child's eyes shot open, wild and filled with pure, raw fear.

"It heard us," she whispered. "It somehow always knows when we talk about her."

"So the fragments," Alex said suddenly, pieces clicking into place. "When I integrate them, when I help you become whole again—"

"You will make it visible," the child finished, her voice hollow with despair.

"Every piece you put back together makes the signal stronger. The Hollow Primate can track integration. It's how it learns where the important parts of us are hiding."

She was sinking now, the water up to her shoulders, but she was still looking at the submerged vault door with an expression of terrible longing. "She has what we need to be whole again. The core of who Dr. Emily really is. But she also has what it wants. And if you wake her up, if you try to integrate her with the rest of us..."

The sound came again, much closer now. Through the walls, Alex again caught a glimpse of something moving in the corridors.

It moved slowly, testing each door, learning the layout of Emily's consciousness patiently.

It was like watching a predator that had done this before, that understood exactly how fragmented minds worked and how to hunt through their scattered pieces.

The water reached the child's chin, but her eyes remained fixed on Alex.

"You have to choose," she said, each word a struggle against the rising flood. "Save the pieces you can gather safely, help us become partially whole again. Or risk everything for the one fragment that could make us complete. But if you go down there, if you wake her up, the Hollow Primate will find us all. And then Grodd gets exactly what he wanted."

The child looked at Alex one last time before the water closed over her head. But instead of sinking, her body began to dissolve—melting away into countless droplets that drifted around him.

Alex stared at the submerged door, its steady glow pulsing like a heartbeat in the depths. The fragment in his hand seemed to tremble with urgency, frantically sending numerous warnings of danger.

Notes :

1) Please tell me if u find any inconsistencies with the previous chapters. I juggled with the ideas in between, so some mistakes might be there.

2) For better visualisation, think of Hollow Primate like DAHAKA from Prince of Persia 2 : WW

Suggestion : Overdrafting the future, starting in naruto.

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DC : Architect of Vengeance

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