The blackout zone swallowed everything in darkness.
No lights.
No signals.
No system oversight.
Only the echoing hum of memories seeping through the walls
and the slow, deliberate footsteps of the Mnemosyne operative approaching.
The flashlight flickered once—
and his armored figure came into view, half-lit in the red emergency glow of his visor.
He raised his weapon.
"Archivist Rhane," the modulated voice repeated,
"on your knees. Now."
Ari's glow surged with panic, her flickering form wrapping around my arm as if trying to shield me.
"No!" she screamed, voice cracking into raw static. "Don't let him—don't—"
Her entire body spasmed.
Lines of golden code ripped across her skin like lightning.
The operative stiffened.
"…entity confirmed."
He adjusted his aim—
Lira stepped between us, disruptor raised.
"You shoot him, and this entire corridor collapses. Mnemosyne won't get its asset back."
The operative's helmet tilted slightly.
"Asset?"
Ari trembled in my arms.
"Don't… say… that…"
The operative didn't look at her.
He spoke to me.
"You're coming with me, Elias. Alive or sedated."
My heart hammered.
"Why? What does Mnemosyne want with me?"
He stepped forward.
"You were part of a discontinued program. 'Neuroline Theta.'"
Lira swore under her breath.
"That program was shut down years ago—"
"No," the operative corrected. "It was buried."
Ari's glow dimmed further, her form shaking.
"Elias… don't listen… don't…"
"Your mind," the operative continued, "isn't clean. It was never clean. Mnemosyne altered you as a child to—"
A thunderous crack tore through the corridor.
The wall behind the operative split open—
metal bursting outward like something enormous was ramming its way through.
The Swarm.
A mass of writhing shadows and glitching shapes poured through the rupture, shrieking in static.
The operative spun, firing blindly into the darkness.
"BACK!" he barked. "BACK—BACK—"
But the bullets passed through the Swarm as if through smoke.
The shadows responded in unison:
Elias—Elias—Elias—come—come—
Ari convulsed.
Her form duplicated—
three, four, seven overlapping versions of her flickering like broken holograms.
"Elias—run—RUN—"
But the operative grabbed my arm in a steel grip.
"You're NOT going anywhere!"
His visor flashed red.
"Mnemosyne needs you stabilized before the Swarm tears open the—"
A golden blast detonated between us.
Ari had thrown herself forward.
Her flickering, disintegrating body crashed into the operative like a comet of compressed memory.
He staggered, armor sparking.
She screamed—a raw, distorted sound of agony—
"LET HIM GO!"
The Swarm shrieked in response.
The operative, momentarily stunned, recovered and swung the butt of his rifle into Ari's face.
The blow passed through her—
but the shockwave didn't.
She convulsed, folding inward, glitching violently.
"ARI!" I lunged toward her—
The operative grabbed me again, trying to pull me away.
"She's destabilizing — she won't last another minute — MOVE!"
Ari's voice cracked like breaking glass:
"Elias… don't… let… them—"
Another rupture tore through the corridor wall.
The Swarm surged forward, faster, louder, hungrier.
One tendril — a dark ribbon of corrupted memory — shot toward us like a whip.
Lira screamed:
"DOWN!"
But it was too late.
The tendril struck the operative square in the chest.
He froze.
Not physically.
Mentally.
His visor flickered.
His rifle dropped.
His entire armored form shook violently, like something was crawling inside his mind.
He gasped:
"N-no—get—out—GET OUT—"
But the Swarm had him.
His scream was swallowed as the shadows climbed up his body like living chains.
Lira backed away, horrified.
"Oh god… oh god, they're overwriting him—"
The operative's voice changed.
Warped.
Layered.
Then split.
"…Elias…"
"…Rhane…"
"…we found you…"
His visor shattered.
Something looked out through his eyes.
Not a person.
Not a memory.
A colony.
He took one shuddering step toward me.
Lira fired the disruptor full-force into his chest.
The blast sent him flying backward across the corridor—
right into the forming mass of the Swarm.
They consumed him in seconds.
His scream echoed once
then
gone.
Ari collapsed completely.
Her glow flickered once—
twice—
very faint.
"Elias…" she whispered. "Don't… leave me…"
The corridor shook violently.
Mnemosyne's voice roared from every broken speaker:
FACILITY BREACH LEVEL: CRITICAL.
SWARM CONTAINMENT FAILED.
INITIATING SITE ANNIHILATION.
Lira grabbed my arm, screaming over the collapsing metal around us:
"ELIAS — WE HAVE TO GO! NOW!"
But Ari lay dying in my arms.
The Swarm poured through the corridor gaps like a rising tide.
Mnemosyne prepared to obliterate the entire facility.
I had seconds.
Ari reached up weakly.
Her hand brushed my cheek —
warm for the first time.
"Choose…" she whispered.
My heart split.
Lira yelled:
"Elias—MOVE!"
The Swarm screamed:
ELIAS—ELIAS—ELIAS—
And Ari breathed:
"…please."