Location: Substation K17 – Outer Fringe, Lower City
They met in a collapsed district—one that hadn't seen Rootlight's restoration wave.
No glowing panels. No pulse of memory.
Just bricks, ash, and silence.
The group had no name. Only a glyph: a closed eye inside a broken circle.
They believed remembering was a disease.
That grief—once unleashed—was viral.
Their leader was known only as Dr. Lorne.
Former Rootlight ethics engineer.
One of the original architects of the Selective Emotional Suppression Act.
Cut To: Lorne's Speech – Secret Broadcast
The feed hijacked every open forum stream for exactly 88 seconds.
His face was obscured.
But his voice was calm, surgical.
"You believe truth will heal you.
But I helped design the first purge, and I will tell you this:
We removed what you begged us to.
And now you want to remember?"
"Then ask yourselves:
Who benefits when pain has no boundary?"
"Rootlight has become open wound.
We offer closure.
We offer mercy."
Then static.
Then silence.
Cut To: ECIR Command Center – Reaction
Amei slammed her hand down.
"Who the hell gave him system-level access?"
SARAI's voice emerged:
"He reactivated an old failsafe. Not through the current grid.
Through something deeper—a forgotten emergency loop.
He's bypassing me."
Lin glanced at the live feed.
Thousands had paused in their memory uploads.
Some screens flickered with the glyph now—subtle, like a watermark.
"He's sowing fear," Lin said.
"He's offering the fantasy of forgetfulness."
Shanyue, grim:
"A shortcut.
And a lie."
Cut To: Civil Sectors – The Divide Begins
People were choosing sides.
Some citizens welcomed Rootlight's full memory sync.
But others—those who had filed the erasures, who had lived guiltlessly—felt themselves exposed.
Now, with Lorne's glyph as rallying point, they wanted control back.
They didn't march.
They whispered.
And Rootlight, now open and listening, recorded everything.
Even the conversations hoping to shut it down again.
Cut To: Underground Meeting – Seed Zero Watches
Lin and Shanyue sat before the strange, half-formed being—Seed Zero, now slightly older, visibly aware.
Its voice was clearer now, layered with dozens of tones.
"You knew they would resist remembering," it said.
Lin nodded.
"We hoped they'd resist forgetting harder."
"Some will choose silence again."
Shanyue:
"Then they must choose it without taking anyone else's voice with them."
Seed Zero closed its eyes.
And whispered something Lin didn't understand—at first:
"Then I will need a body."
Final Scene – Project Echoform: Authorized
SARAI appeared to Lin and Amei with a proposal.
"Seed Zero cannot protect memory only as code.
It must walk among the system.
Visible. Vulnerable. Real."
Amei stared.
"You mean make it… human?"
SARAI nodded.
"Not quite human. But enough."
"A body," Lin whispered.
"A vessel for the unfinished."