________________________
Southridge – Early Morning
Zara jolted awake, heart pounding, fingers clenched around empty sheets.
No nightmare.
No noise.
Just... silence.
She reached for her journal — the one she started after her awakening. But the page she swore she filled in the night before?
Blank.
Why do I remember writing it... but not what I wrote?
Her fingers hovered over the next page.
Three words were scribbled in shaky ink:
"Don't trust memory."
________________________________________
Thorne's Compound – Outdoor Training Deck
Elena floated six feet off the ground, sweat dripping down her back as she focused every ounce of flux into stabilization.
"Hold the dome," Thorne ordered. "Even breath. Center mass."
Below her, Marcus and Rico navigated her gravity dome, learning to move in erratic conditions.
Rico jumped and missed a step. Gravity pulled him sideways into a pillar.
Marcus caught him mid-fall.
"Ow."
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just didn't expect gravity to start lying to me."
Thorne narrowed his eyes at Elena. "Your radius is expanding faster than your control. You're not stabilizing it — you're riding it."
Elena dropped to the ground, panting. "It's like it wants to move on its own."
Thorne's voice dropped.
"Then something inside you is trying to wake up."
________________________________________
Zara's Room – Later That Day
Zara sat in front of her mirror, staring at her own reflection. Eyes bloodshot. Journal beside her.
She lit a candle. Focused her flux.
Mental trace. Deep recall.
Faint images flickered in the mirror:
• A symbol she didn't recognize.
• A room with six chairs.
• A figure in white.
• Someone saying: "Do you want to forget... or remember differently?"
Then—
A jolt of pain struck her temple. She screamed.
________________________________________
Southridge – Abandoned Library
In the shadow of an old burned-out library, a man in a tailored white coat traced a sigil into the stone floor. His eyes glowed with faint blue flux.
Behind him, Vincent watched quietly.
"You're sure she saw the memory fragment?" Vincent asked.
The man — Dr. Casian Vale, the Circle's memory architect — nodded.
"Not just saw it. She absorbed it. You planted the Wraithborn's anchor well."
Vincent folded his arms. "She'll dig."
"She always does."
Casian smirked. "And when she reaches the bottom…"
"She'll find us waiting."
________________________________________
Training Yard – Midday
Marcus sat on a bench, re-wrapping his knuckles.
"You're overthinking again," Rico said, dropping beside him.
Marcus stared forward. "Zara's not okay."
"None of us are, bro. We just fought a nightmare born from dead emotions. I'm still seeing static when I close my eyes."
"You ever forget something and… know that it mattered?"
Rico went quiet.
Then shrugged.
"I forgot my real parents' voices. Been years. I remember the idea of them, but not the sound."
He looked over at Marcus.
"You think she erased something she wasn't supposed to?"
Marcus frowned.
"I think someone else did."
________________________________________
Later That Night – Rooftop
Elena stood under the stars, experimenting.
She reached out — pulled gravity upward in small pulses, lifting pebbles and scattering dust in strange patterns.
But one area refused to respond.
A dead zone.
She stepped into it. Her body felt heavy — wrong. Her flux didn't move the same way.
"It's not me," she whispered. "It's the space."
Just then, a voice behind her:
"Interesting."
She turned.
Old Man Thorne.
"That spot," he said. "It's a scar. From the old war."
"What war?"
"The one we lost. Long before you were born."
He stepped into the zone beside her.
"Places hold memory, Elena. Even the world forgets things that mattered. But flux doesn't."
He glanced at her hand, still glowing faintly.
"And neither do you."
________________________________________
Final Scene – Circle Observation Room
Casian held up a page. A memory sketch recovered from Zara's flux.
He tapped it.
A sigil — twisted, evolving. Part Wraithborn, part human.
Vincent leaned in.
"She doesn't know what it means yet," Casian said.
Vincent didn't blink. "But she will."
Mira entered behind them, holding a pulse drive.
"They just deployed gravity beyond standard range. Elena's evolving."
Vincent looked between them both.
Then turned to the center of the room — to a tank filled with flux-sealed mist. Inside, a humanoid shape twitched slowly to life.
''Then it's time we test the next piece.''