Static danced across every screen in Mnemosyne's remaining networks. In bunkers, labs, black sites—everything went dark. Engineers screamed. AI assistants stuttered. The world's most invasive memory project was dying, node by node, corrupted from its own roots.
Eira stood in the center of the Blackroom, watching the firestorm she unleashed crawl through the system. Prometheus had teeth—and it was hungry.
She backed away from the core just as sparks burst from the terminal. Security bots activated, reacting to the system's collapse, but she was faster—dodging, ducking, weaving through their predictable aggression like she'd trained for this her whole life.
Or maybe... like she remembered how.
At the naval base, Rowan and Ash were trapped in a tunnel after blowing their exit early. Explosions echoed from above as steel and concrete collapsed. Ash covered Rowan with their jacket as debris showered down.
"You okay?" Ash asked.
Rowan coughed, then nodded. "You get the core fragment?"
Ash patted their pocket. "Stole it right out of Mnemosyne's heart."
They grinned. Rowan managed a bloody smile.
"Then we just need to make it out."
Footsteps echoed down the tunnel—enemy agents in full armor. Their boots crushed ash and glass. The air tightened.
Ash reached into their belt. "We got one shot."
Rowan placed a hand on their wrist. "Not yet."
She flicked open her comm. "Eira. Tell me you made it."
Back at Blackroom, Eira was pinned against a wall, blood in her mouth, vision blurring. But her voice came through, clear as fire:
"Virus deployed. System's folding."
"Then we're lighting the last fuse now."
Rowan stood, faced the enemy soldiers, and threw down a light bomb. The flash blinded everyone long enough for her and Ash to run through a collapsed service corridor, barely making it out before the naval base detonated behind them.
At the safehouse, Dev watched the final Mnemosyne server go dark.
It was over.
Or… almost.
On one of the auxiliary channels, a signal blinked to life. Not Mnemosyne. Something older. A failsafe.
Dev's breath caught. "Oh no."
Across the city, Eira climbed out of Blackroom into the light of dawn, exhausted but alive.
Her comm crackled. Dev's voice trembled:
"There's one more site. Hidden. It didn't go down with the rest."
Eira exhaled. "Where?"
Dev whispered: "It's under the city. Beneath us. Always has been."