For a long time, Ash didn't move.
The chamber's emergency lights cast a dim orange glow over the place where the copy had faded, but the warmth didn't reach Ash's expression.
It didn't reach his eyes.
Palo knelt beside him quietly—close enough to show he was there, but not close enough to overwhelm.
"Ash… talk to me," Palo whispered softly.
Ash exhaled shakily.
Not crying.
Not breaking.
Just… stunned, hollow in a way Palo had never seen before.
"He wasn't meant to disappear," Ash murmured. "They built him as my replacement. My mirror. My… other half."
Palo's chest tightened. "That doesn't mean you deserved to lose him."
Ash looked down at his hands.
"Every time he appeared, I thought he wanted something from me. But all he ever did was try to protect me. Even when it hurt him."
Palo nodded slowly. "It was his choice. Not an order. Not a program. His choice."
Ash blinked hard, as if hearing it made something inside him shift.
Before he could respond, a faint hum flickered through the chamber—soft, weak, almost like a sigh trapped inside the walls.
Palo stiffened. "Did you hear that?"
Ash's head snapped up.
"Yes."
They both turned toward the cracked remains of the core—now just a hollow circle in the floor.
The hum came again.
Faint.
Rhythmic.
Like a heartbeat, but distant.
Palo stepped closer, cautious.
"Ash… is something still active down there?"
Ash joined him, kneeling at the edge of the broken core's hollow.
His fingertips hovered over the glass shards.
And then—
A spark of grey static flickered inside the pit.
Palo gasped. "Ash—! That looks like—"
"I know," Ash whispered.
The same static the boy-copy had been made from.
But this wasn't a full form.
Just an echo.
A fragment.
A tiny swirl of glitching energy pulsed weakly, like an injured firefly flickering in darkness.
Ash's eyes softened in a painful mix of hope and grief.
"He left something behind."
Palo crouched, voice gentle.
"A piece of him?"
Ash shook his head slightly.
"Not him. A… memory. A signal. Something he wanted me to find."
The static flickered harder, responding to Ash's presence.
Palo looked at Ash.
"What do we do?"
Ash reached out a hand—
But the moment his skin came near the static, the energy pulsed violently, sending a small shock up his arm.
Ash jerked back.
"Ah—!"
Palo grabbed his shoulder.
"Ash! Are you okay?"
Ash nodded, staring at his palm.
His skin wasn't burned.
But a faint symbol had appeared on it—
the same circle crossed by parallel lines.
Palo whispered, "That's the mark from the facility…"
Ash's voice came out quiet, thoughtful.
"No. This time, it wasn't put on me."
He turned his palm. The symbol glowed faintly.
"He gave this to me. Just like the warning messages. Just like the visions."
Palo leaned closer to the static in the pit.
"What is it now?"
The static swirled, growing erratic—
like it was trying to form a shape, a signal, a message.
Ash stepped forward.
"It's a location."
Palo blinked. "A what?"
Ash closed his eyes.
The symbol on his palm pulsed, syncing with the flickering energy.
"A place he wants me to go next."
Palo's pulse quickened.
"A new lab? Another facility?"
Ash shook his head.
"No. Something older."
The static weakened—fading fast.
Ash knelt beside it, voice low and urgent.
"I'm listening. Tell me where you want me to go."
The static flared one last time—
Then formed a single, clear image in Ash's mind:
A forest.
A long-abandoned cabin.
A rusted sign half-buried in leaves.
Palo watched Ash's expression tighten.
"Ash… what did you see?"
Ash opened his eyes.
"That place," he said softly.
"I've been there before."
Palo frowned.
"When? With who?"
Ash's voice wavered, almost fragile.
"My mother took me there… the day before she disappeared."
Palo's breath caught.
The static fluttered weakly—then dissolved completely, its energy drifting upward like dust.
Gone.
Ash looked at his palm once more.
The symbol still glowed faintly.
"It wasn't just a warning," Ash whispered.
"It was a direction."
Palo nodded slowly.
"Then we go there next."
Ash stood.
His posture was steadier now.
Not because the grief was gone, but because the copy's final message had replaced despair with purpose.
He looked toward the ladder leading back to the basement above them.
"We're leaving this place," Ash said quietly.
"But whatever waits in that forest… I think it's the real beginning of everything."
Palo stepped beside him.
"Then we face it together."
And for the first time since the core shattered, Ash allowed himself to breathe.
"Together," he echoed.
They climbed the ladder, leaving the broken chamber behind.
But the echo of the copy's last signal—
the faint static still lingering in Ash's palm—
followed them into the darkness above.