Mnemosyne's voice struck the vault like a blade:
FOREIGN CONSCIOUSNESS BREACH CONFIRMED.
ARCHIVIST RHANE: TERMINATION PROTOCOL PREPARED.
Lira's grip tightened on my wrist so hard it hurt.
"Termination protocol…?" I whispered.
Her eyes were already scanning the room, wide and terrified.
"Elias — Mnemosyne only uses that protocol when a human is considered irreversibly compromised."
"By a memory," I said softly.
"No," she corrected, voice trembling.
"By a consciousness."
The pillars around us flickered violently, casting frantic shadows across the metal floor. Sparks of corrupted Echoes burst and dissolved like ghosts trying to claw their way into existence.
The purge countdown over our heads flickered.
12%… 13%… 14%
Ari's presence strained against the system, trying to hold it back — but she was losing.
And Mnemosyne was escalating.
From the ceiling, metal sockets hissed open.
The temperature plummeted.
Then—
The first drone descended.
A long, spider-like machine, limbs unfolding with surgical precision.
Four optical sensors glowed red.
A neural sterilizer hummed between its arms — designed to disable contaminated Archivists without killing them.
Usually.
Lira's breath caught in her throat.
"Mnemosyne deployed sterilizers," she whispered. "We need to move. Now."
Another drone dropped.
And another.
Six of them.
Sealing us inside the vault.
My pulse hammered.
"Lira—"
She shoved me behind a pillar.
"Don't let them touch you. One hit and your memory center will collapse."
A metallic voice crackled from the drones:
ARCHIVIST RHANE.
SURRENDER FOR SEVERANCE.
Severance.
Not a word anyone survived.
Lira cursed under her breath.
She reached into her coat and pulled out a small device — an illegal neural pulse disruptor.
"Bought this off a vault engineer last year," she said. "Never thought I'd actually need it."
She slammed the switch.
A shockwave rippled through the vault — subtle but enough to send the drones swaying, optics flickering.
"Move!" she yelled.
We sprinted deeper into the maze of pillars, weaving between dying Echoes screaming in glitching static.
Ari's whispers followed us:
"…This way…"
But Lira didn't hear her.
Couldn't.
Only I could.
Only the infected one.
The hallucinations began subtly.
At first, a flicker in my peripheral vision.
A silhouette behind a pillar.
A soft jasmine scent sneaking into the cold metal air.
Then—
A flash of sunlight.
A hillside.
Her laughter.
I stumbled, nearly falling.
Lira caught me.
"Elias! Look at me — stay grounded!"
"I can't—" My voice broke. "She's… she's trying to show me something—"
Another drone crashed between us, legs clanging on metal. Its sterilizer arm swung. Blue-white energy crackled inches from my chest.
Then—
Something impossible happened.
The drone froze.
Mid-strike.
Its optics dimmed.
Its limbs retracted.
And a single word flickered across its display:
Mine.
Lira stepped back in shock.
"That's Ari," she whispered. "She's controlling it."
Ari moved the drone aside — gently — as if escorting a friend.
My breath shattered.
She was trying to protect me.
But how?
Echoes don't manipulate machines.
Echoes don't override AI.
Echoes don't—
Ari wasn't an Echo.
Not anymore.
Something inside her—
some fragment left in the collapse—
had evolved.
Lira moved close, speaking urgently:
"Elias… there's something I need to tell you."
Her voice trembled.
"I knew Ari."
I turned sharply.
"You—what?"
"We weren't just colleagues," she whispered. "I mentored her when she first applied to Mnemosyne. She was brilliant. Too brilliant."
The vault lights flickered.
Drones screamed overhead.
"She had theories… dangerous ones. About consciousness persistence. About what happens when a mind scans during trauma."
I stared at her.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Ari believed the brain could imprint itself onto the system if shock occurred mid-scan."
My heart stopped.
"You're saying she did this intentionally?"
Lira shook her head fiercely.
"No. No — not intentionally. But she feared this. She wrote warnings. Complaints. She begged Mnemosyne to update the safety protocols."
"And they didn't."
"No," Lira whispered, throat tight. "They covered it up."
The vault trembled as the purge reached—
27%
Ari was losing.
And she knew it.
A whisper brushed my ear:
"…Elias… hurry…"
I swallowed hard.
"What's at the end of the vault?"
Lira hesitated.
"Something sealed. Something Mnemosyne never told anyone about."
More drones descended, clattering, hunting.
"Tell me!"
She exhaled sharply.
"Ari's original scan data."
My chest went cold.
"You said it was destroyed."
"It was supposed to be."
She met my eyes.
"But Mnemosyne doesn't delete anything."
The drone Ari controlled twitched violently — fighting the system.
The others advanced.
Lira grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the glowing golden pillar at the far end — the one pulsing with an impossible heartbeat.
"Elias — that's her. That's Ari's core."
My pulse crushed itself against my ribs.
Ari's whisper filled the vault again — clearer than ever:
"…Come back to me…"
I stepped toward the pillar — drawn, helpless.
And Mnemosyne roared through the vault like a god enraged:
CONTAINMENT BREACH CRITICAL.
ARCHIVIST RHANE: TERMINATION ORDER CONFIRMED.
A metal shutter slammed behind us.
Drones converged.
The lights died.
Ari's pillar flared gold, blinding.
And Lira screamed—
"ELIAS, CHOOSE!"
The drones lunged.
Ari's consciousness surged.
The world split open—