---
The moon looked like a slit eye tonight—half-lidded, watching.
I sat by the old fountain in the center of the ruins, the sealed drive clutched tightly in my hands. Around me, the silence screamed.
Kai paced nearby, visibly torn. Leo stood watch in the shadows, every muscle tense. Celeste sat cross-legged beside me, quiet but alert.
"You sure about this?" she finally asked.
"No," I whispered. "But I have to know what they did to me."
I plugged the drive into the old datapad Kai had given me.
The screen flickered. Static.
Then a familiar voice played.
Lira.
> "If you're watching this... it means you've gone too far. Good. That's what I wanted."
Her voice was calm. Precise. Chilling.
> "You always asked why things never added up, why people around you seemed broken, twisted. It's because you were the core. You were the anchor."
Kai knelt beside me, his brows furrowed.
> "Project Arin was my rebellion. A system designed to break fate, to rewrite the rules of death, of identity, of memory."
Leo's face turned stone-cold.
> "I used your DNA, Nyra. And his." The screen flashed Leo's childhood photo. "You two weren't born. You were built. You were stories turned flesh."
I felt my breath stop.
Built?
> "They called me mad. So I made you to prove them wrong. One heart that could never be corrupted, and one soul that would always return to it."
The screen glitched. Then resumed.
> "But then… the experiment worked too well. You started remembering. Feeling. Loving. Betraying. Just like them."
Lira's face finally appeared on screen.
Her eyes—cold. Burning. Familiar.
> "I will rewrite the ending, Nyra. Even if it means burning the world down to its bones."
---
The recording ended.
And so did whatever part of me still believed I was human.
Celeste said softly, "So we're not in her story anymore."
I looked at her, eyes cold.
"No," I said. "We're in mine."
---