"We are not soldiers. We are not survivors. We are fragments of history refusing to be forgotten." — Kael Vale
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Outer Spiral — 03:03 Helix Time
Their footsteps echoed softly among aged metals that barely vibrated. The old drainage path—deleted from the system 83 years ago—was the only entrance not burned by the V Foundation's paranoia.
Pari activated the shielding field using a makeshift device: a metal ring fused with a pre-Helix processor shard. No one asked how. They knew one thing: if Pari stopped, they were already too late.
Kael walked in the center. Eyes sharp. Beside him, Lisse gripped a synaptic round—an experimental weapon capable of erasing a decade of digital memory with a single shot.
Kael signaled for silence. Dead Scheme Team dispersed—silent, disciplined. They weren't just moving. They were awakening the memory of this place.
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Helix Surveillance Core — 03:12
"Movement in drainage not registered," the operator said. "Human formation."
Arven Yure narrowed his eyes. He recognized the pattern—too precise, too trained.
"Ghosts from war manuals that should have been forgotten."
He disabled the security protocol.
"Deactivate D-Null. Let them think this place is empty. Let ghosts believe they're alive again."
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Middle Spiral — 03:20
The first attack came from above.
Biological larva bullets—wriggling and alive—targeted exposed nerves. But Lisse silenced the space with a micro-isolation field.
"One path down. Left and right locked. Only forward remains."
Kael nodded. Lisse opened the plasma shield to the Inner Belt. Her aura flared like the tongue of a hungry god.
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Central Command Room — 03:33
Arven stood before the Helix map turning red.
"They know spiral gaps. They know old architecture. But they don't know… what was sealed at its heart."
He pressed a button.
"Awaken... Sentinel Zeta."
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Membrane Core Layer — 03:40
Zeta didn't walk. It flowed.
A semi-organic entity, fusion of human nerves and black alloy, appeared like a sentient mist. Within the fog: a low hum... like longing turned sick.
Lisse fired. Her bullet passed through the air. Zeta didn't fully touch this world.
Pari stepped forward.
"What are you doing?" Lisse asked quickly.
Pari didn't answer. His hand activated a hidden panel—revealing Helix's architecture and silhouettes of broken bodies. Memory fragments.
Lisse stared at the screen, stunned.
"You... caged the bad memories."
Zeta slipped in. Pari pressed the final button. The door shut. Sound vanished. And something in the world felt lighter, yet more fragile.
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Helix Core Chamber — 03:57
Kael stood before Helix's central console. Behind him, the full Dead Scheme Team—Nyx, Rav, Lisse, Daryn, Jaro, and Pari—stood alert, bodies tense, eyes scanning the chamber.
Nyx examined the ceiling cables. "This isn't standard energy flow," she murmured. "It's... rhythmic pulsation. Like a dreaming brain."
Rav fed data into the side panel rapidly. He and Nyx worked like a single, linked system. What Nyx read, Rav processed. What Rav suspected, Nyx validated.
"Matches. Energy pattern is synchronized. But unstable," Rav said.
"Not unstable," Nyx countered. "It's sentient."
Lisse glanced at her wrist analyzer. "Human subconscious signals are reflecting back. This system—it reads us like we read books."
Meanwhile, Daryn licked his lips, eyeing the room like he was assessing a secret menu in an upscale restaurant.
"If this is a book, let's not close it just yet," he said, then whispered to Jaro, "Or maybe it's dessert before hell."
Jaro sighed heavily. "Can you not think about food for two minutes?"
Daryn only winked.
Suddenly, Jaro whispered, "I... have been here."
"What do you mean...?" Rav asked.
"I don't know. A dream. Or reincarnation. Or a bug."
Pari pressed his ear to a metal panel. He murmured in ancient technocratic dialect. "Systēma, apodochē... mnēmē miden... mnēmē miden..."
His eyes opened. Nyx, as always, picked up on the meaning. "This isn't a control room... it's a confessional altar."
Kael closed his eyes. His fingers touched the liquid console.
"If anyone wants to turn back, this is the moment."
No one moved.
"Alright," he said. "Let's open... the heart of the world."
The metal surface didn't just crack. The Helix map split—unfolding like an ancient retina gazing back.
And from behind it, another world peeked through.
"Genesis accepts... now it tests."
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Genesis Core Chamber — 04:01
The air thickened. Walls pulsed. The floor gently quaked.
A crystal pillar rose at the center. Within: streams of blood-colored data, screams, and wordless voices.
"This... isn't regular data storage," Lisse whispered. "It's... collective consciousness."
> Helix had always been hard structure. Military facility. Biotech lab. But beneath it all, hidden within its deepest pulse, was something never recorded: the Genesis Core.
Genesis isn't a room. It isn't a system. It's the mirror of rejected free will. And only those aware of their own construction... can open it.
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Contact — 04:05
Foreign symbols appeared on the pillar—but Kael recognized them.
He stepped closer. His hand moved as if pulled by something older than desire.
"Kael, wait—!" But too late.
As his fingers touched the surface, all light vanished.
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Simulacra Space — Within System
Kael stood alone.
The glass below reflected himself—a younger, obedient version. Mirage-9.
"You are a failed experiment. Built for loyalty, not freedom. You were never meant to ask. You were never meant to live."
Silhouettes of Arven, Genesis Prime, and other buried faces appeared. All the past resurfaced.
"But I live," Kael whispered. "And I'll bury you with the memories you discarded."
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Core Room — Return, 04:09
The pillar cracked. Light returned.
Kael collapsed to his knees. His breath heavy. But his eyes... clear. He knew who he was.
"I am not Mirage-9," he said. "I am your mistake—and I will be your end."
New symbols flashed on the wall:
[GENESIS REBOOT OPTION AVAILABLE]
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Upper Orbit — Same Time
Final civilian satellite transmission:
"Spiral Helix... has opened... but no inbound signal... something... moving... like a body... but not whole—"
[Transmission cut.]
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In Helix's deepest chamber, something long buried pulsed again.
And those who called it God... began to tremble.
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> Next Chapter: REBOOT — The Final Forgetting
Behind every system lies a will that was once forced into silence.
Genesis is not about power, but about who is allowed to remember.
When the deepest gate opens, it is not data that pours out—but consciousness.
And in the face of truth stripped of all filters, one question echoes:
Is free will... a curse or a gift we never asked for?