Elias begins to lose time. Wakes in places he doesn't remember walking to. Black File members report seeing him when he wasn't there. One of them even claims Elias gave them orders he doesn't recall. But the worst breach comes in the form of footage — footage of Elias walking the halls… while also asleep in his bunk.
Something has begun replaying him.
----
He woke up in the training deck.
No boots.
No coat.
Sweat clinging to his shirt like oil.
The lights were off.
No one else around.
He stood slowly.
Tried to trace his steps.
Last memory: his bunk. Lights dimmed. Journal open. Pen in hand.
Then—nothing.
No dream.
No feeling of movement.
Just darkness.
Then the cold hum of this room.
He checked the System.
It had no record of movement.
No notifications. No alerts. Just a silent gap.
> Session Gap Logged: 5 hrs 22 min
> System Trace: Interrupted
> Memory Status: PARTIAL
Partial.
Not erased.
Just... dulled.
Like someone had dragged a sponge across a painting.
He returned to quarters. Found the pen on the floor. The journal still open.
But on a different page.
A new entry.
"The body always wakes up second."
—EM
He hadn't written that.
Two hours later, Malk intercepted him in the corridor.
"You need to stop messing around," he snapped.
"With what?"
"With giving me orders in my sleep."
Elias narrowed his eyes. "I haven't—"
"You came to my quarters last night. Knocked twice. Gave me a data-rod and said, 'Don't let Lirae scan it.' You called me brother."
"I never left my room."
"You were wearing the coat."
Volst called a lockdown that evening.
"I'm seeing double records," she said. "Two logs. Same timestamps. Two locations. One name."
She handed Elias a slate.
It showed him entering the mess hall at 0200.
And another slate showed him asleep in quarantine at the same time.
He watched the footage twice.
He couldn't tell which version was real.
Then Lirae came in — holding something metal.
"Found this wedged in the cogitator uplink in Section F."
She dropped it on the table.
A melted fragment of Elias's journal cover.
Except his journal was still intact.
This was another one.
They opened it.
It wasn't blank.
It wasn't recent.
It was a month old.
Filled with entries.
Written in his hand.
Entries that began:
"They'll think I'm losing it.
But I was always here first."
System alert:
> Timeline Contamination Confirmed
> Entity Classification: Shadow-Form Echo
> Designation: [USER-ALIGNED SIGNATURE: E.M.]
> Memory Integrity: 82%
> External Interference: Probable
> Current Status: Contained
Elias didn't understand.
How could he be in two places?
How could something use his voice, his words, his journal…?
Unless it wasn't an enemy at all.
Unless it was...
A version.
The journal flipped open that night on its own.
A single line written in a thinner, more patient hand:
"You're welcome to the body.
I've already taken the story."
[END OF PART 4: The Past Fights Back]