The map flickered.
Of the thousands of nodes once active in the Grid, only a few remained. Most had gone dark, swallowed by the Crimson Echo. But one signal blinked—weak, buried, but real.
> "Node-0137?" Eva frowned. "That's… the Rustlands."
Ryn nodded, lips tight.
> "And that's where we'll find her."
> "You really think Ash is still alive?" Claire asked, adjusting the blade holster across her back.
> "If anyone could survive being Forgotten, it's her."
Claire didn't argue. Ash wasn't just a legend—she was a nightmare carved from jagged code and sheer will. Once, she'd led a splinter faction during the Second Collapse. Then, after refusing a Core override, she vanished. No death record. No deletion. Just… gone.
Now, the signal said otherwise.
---
Rustlands: Edge of Corruption
The team landed in silence.
Rustlands wasn't a region—more like a graveyard of broken systems. Towering relics of half-deleted cities loomed like bones. The sky was gray static. The ground whispered corrupted memories when you stepped too hard.
Claire activated her visor.
> [Scanning… Ambient corruption: 42%]
> [Hostile presence: Unknown]
> [Warning: You are being watched.]
She stiffened.
> "We're not alone."
Ryn drew his sidearm. Eva flicked open her twin daggers. They moved in formation—tight, fast, professional.
As they passed a crumbled metro line, a digital breeze passed through them—colder than code, older than memory.
Then a voice, sharp as glass:
> "I told you not to come back here."
---
Ash
She stood atop a rusted tower, long coat torn and patched with old faction insignias. One eye was cybernetic, glowing dim red. The other was cold steel-blue.
Her left arm was gone—replaced with a mechanical limb made from scavenged weaponry and old system parts.
> "Ryn. Eva. Still dragging your baggage through my graveyard?"
Claire stepped forward.
> "Ash—"
> "Don't."
Ash jumped down, landing soundlessly, weapons drawn but lowered.
> "Why now?"
> "We found something," Ryn said.
Ash raised an eyebrow.
> "Something… or someone?"
> "ZeroOne," Claire said.
The name hit like a thunderbolt.
Ash didn't move, but her aura spiked. The shadows around her glitched, flickering in and out of sync.
> "He's dead. I watched it happen. I buried his signal myself."
> "Then explain this," Eva said, projecting the message.
Ash stared.
Read it once.
Then again.
Her jaw clenched.
> "Where did this come from?"
> "The Haven Node," Claire said. "After I woke up."
> "And you're sure it wasn't a fabrication? A trap?"
> "I know his encryption. I memorized it."
Ash was silent for a long time.
Then she turned.
> "Follow me."
---
The Deep Room
They entered the husk of an old subway station. What had once been transport tunnels were now vaults of stolen code. Ash had built her sanctuary here—shields, hidden server cores, neural backups from rogue users.
But what caught Ryn's attention was the center chamber.
A black obelisk.
Pulsing.
> "What is that?" Eva asked.
> "The Echo tried to enter here once," Ash said. "I trapped a fragment."
Claire stepped closer. The obelisk hummed with familiarity.
> "It's responding to me…"
Ash narrowed her eyes.
> "Because it remembers you."
Claire pressed her palm against it.
The obelisk reacted—light poured outward, illuminating a fractured star map.
One node pulsed red.
> [Destination: Layer -1 Confirmed]
Ash stepped back.
> "No. Absolutely not. That place isn't a mission. It's a sentence."
> "He's there," Claire said.
> "Then he's already dead."
> "Maybe. But I'm not letting that stop me."
---
Decisions
Ryn studied the map.
> "If we go, we'll need more than the three of us."
> "Four," Ash corrected.
They all turned to her.
She sighed.
> "You'll die without me."
Claire smiled slightly.
> "Didn't think you cared."
> "I don't. I just hate the Echo more than I hate you."
Eva tapped her console.
> "We'll need jump-capable stims. Ash, you still have dimensional anchors?"
> "Three. One's damaged."
> "Good enough."
Ryn turned to Claire.
> "Are you sure?"
She met his gaze.
> "ZeroOne died to protect the truth about the Code. If he's alive, it changes everything."
> "And if it's a trap?"
> "Then I walk in knowing that."
---
Beneath the Grid
In the hidden layer below the System, the Crimson Echo rippled.
It had felt the obelisk activate.
It had tasted Claire's data signature.
And now… it adapted.
It reached out with a hundred invisible limbs, rewriting nearby memory structures, preparing for war.
A shape began to take form.
Not a virus.
Not a fragment.
A mirror.
Of Claire.
> [Crimson Protocol: Manifest Clone Sequence]
> [Objective: Terminate Original]
---
Back to the Node
The team returned to Haven, loaded with gear and new tension.
Ash began syncing her weapons. Eva uploaded new navigational maps. Ryn worked on encryption dampeners.
Claire sat quietly, staring at her old locket. Inside it: a shard of code from the first Cycle. A gift from ZeroOne. A promise.
> "You better be alive," she whispered. "Because I'm not losing you again."
From the far corner, Ash muttered without looking up:
> "Just make sure we don't lose you."