Skye had been awake for hours, but sleep felt like it was slipping through her fingers.
Her phone buzzed. A message. No number. No name. Just the words:
"She is coming."
Skye's hands trembled as she typed back: Who?
But the response came almost immediately:
"You know who."
Her pulse quickened. She gripped her phone tighter. Was it Maevra? Or someone else? No one could possibly know the name, the memory that she had buried deep inside.
She stood up, pacing her dorm room. Outside, the storm raged, but inside her mind, something was unraveling. Echo Protocol. The memories she couldn't place. The things she saw in the mirrors. The voice. Everything was connected. But how?
She glanced at the broken mirror in the corner of her room. The one that had been static for weeks. Now, it glowed faintly—just like the first time the mirror showed her Maevra's twisted reflection.
"I'm still here," it whispered.
Skye backed away slowly, her heart hammering. "No. I can't… I won't let you take me again."
---
Nova, Hidden In Plain Sight
Nova's heart pounded as she crouched in the dark, her fingers trembling over the decryption terminal.
MAEVRA_0.HEX had led her here—to the heart of the old Watchtower district. A place of legends. A place where everything started.
A cracked glass door whispered as it opened. Inside, the abandoned facility was coated in layers of dust. But somewhere—deep within the silence—something hummed. Something familiar.
A soft glow flickered at the far end of the room. An old terminal, buried beneath metal and debris, came to life when she touched it.
Connection established: Watchtower Alpha
> > > Incoming transmission: UNRECOGNIZED CODE
Anomalies detected:
"SKYE"
"REACTIVATION REQUIRED"
"CODE FRAGMENT…"
Nova stepped closer. The humming increased in frequency, vibrating the walls. This wasn't a random system. This was something planned.
"Come on," she muttered to herself, ignoring the chill creeping down her spine. "Let's see what's really going on."
But before she could initiate the transfer, the lights flickered. The terminal beeped one last time before it crashed to black.
Then, the power died completely.
---
The Watcher
In a room filled with half-shattered screens, the faceless man watched the chaos unfold. He'd been silent for days, allowing Skye and Nova to stumble through their fractured paths.
But no more.
The time was now.
He stepped forward, his voice cold and metallic. "Activate Sequence: Final Echo."
His fingers pressed the holographic keyboard, sending the command to every active terminal in the city. Across Skye's phone. Through Nova's device. Through every line of code still tethered to the Protocol.
---
Skye's Dorm – The Moment of Truth
The lights in Skye's dorm flickered again. Her phone buzzed with an incoming notification—her pulse racing, she glanced at the screen:
"It's time."
A chill ran down her spine. She hadn't sent that message.
Her reflection in the broken mirror shifted.
It smiled back.
"You've waited long enough."
Skye's breath caught in her throat. She reached out instinctively, fingers brushing the glass.
"You're still inside me…" Her voice broke, but it was almost like she was speaking to someone else. To Maevra. To the Protocol. "Get out of my head."
But the reflection grinned wider.
---
Nova's Hideout
Nova yanked her gear out of the collapsed terminal, cursing under her breath. She wasn't about to back down now. She needed to know what was going on. What Maevra was—and why Skye was tied to it.
But she was too late.
The transmission came through, a blur of static.
"Skye. She's the key. We have to act now, before it's too late."
Nova froze. The voice was familiar. Cold. Mechanical.
Then, clear as day, it hit her.
It was the voice from the encrypted file.
The same voice that had whispered to her in the alley. The one that had started this whole mess.
The transmission cut out.
A dark figure emerged from the shadows, blocking the exit. A smile formed on its lips.
"Not this time, Nova."