⚡ NEON REQUIEM — Chapter 6: "Ashes of the Undercity"
The undercity has a way of swallowing sound.
Footsteps vanish. Voices flatten. Even the hum of the neon veins running across the ceiling fades into a distant, uneasy whisper.
Lyra and I move through the tunnels in silence. The Spectres are gone—for now—but their echoes cling to the air like frost. Every shadow feels heavier. Every light feels like it's watching.
I used to think silence was peace.
Now I know it's just the space where the past wakes up.
My fingers keep brushing the hilt of my blade, not out of fear… but because it won't stop glowing. A faint pulse, steady and warm, like a heartbeat that isn't mine.
The first node changed something in me.
I can feel it—an opening, a breach, a memory trying to climb out of the dark.
Lyra walks ahead, scanning the branching tunnels with her wrist device. Her movements are sharp, controlled, but I can tell she's unsettled by what she saw in the chamber.
She hasn't spoken much since my mother's hologram flickered to life.
I don't blame her.
If I were her, I wouldn't trust me either. Not after learning I was built inside a project designed to rewrite the city.
"Lyra," I finally say, voice low. "What do you know about Project Requiem?"
She stops. Doesn't turn around.
For a second, I think she won't answer. But then—
"More than you want to hear."
I step beside her. "Try me."
She exhales softly, like she's been waiting for me to ask.
"Requiem wasn't a weapon project. Not at first. It was a correction protocol."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning the city was dying. Crime, corruption, systems failing everywhere. The Council wanted a reset. A purge."
A chill runs through me. "So they built me to tear everything down."
"No," Lyra says quickly. "That's the lie people believe. Requiem wasn't about destruction. It was about… restoring balance."
"By creating a human weapon."
"No." She looks at me—really looks.
"By creating a human signal."
My heart stutters. "The voice said that… the one in the node."
"Your mother?" Lyra asks carefully.
I nod.
Though "mother" feels… fragile. Unreal.
Like calling a memory by a name it hasn't earned yet.
Lyra gestures for me to follow. "Come on. We need higher ground."
We climb through a narrow maintenance shaft, emerging into a vast underground rail platform—abandoned, rusted, glowing faintly under flickering lights. Broken androids lie in piles near the tracks. Their glass eyes follow us as we walk.
"This place feels wrong," I mutter.
"It should. The undercity has layers the Council never cleaned up. Old AIs, forgotten tech, experiments…"
"Like me?"
Lyra freezes.
Her expression softens in a way I've never seen before.
"Kael… you're not an experiment. You're a survivor of one."
Before I can respond, my blade flares—bright enough to burn against my skin.
A surge.
A memory.
A glitch.
The world around me bleeds white—
---
MEMORY ECHO — "THE GIRL IN THE GLASS ROOM"
I stand in a clean, silver room.
No grime. No rust. No decay.
Just cold perfection.
A girl sits on the floor, drawing shapes in the reflection of a holographic screen.
Dark hair. Bare feet. Bright, lonely eyes.
She looks up at me.
Smiles like she's seen me a million times.
> "Kael! You're back. I saved your spot."
Something inside me cracks.
Her voice… her warmth…
I kneel beside her. "Who are you?"
Her smile falters.
"You forgot again."
She picks up my hand—small fingers curling around mine like she's done it a thousand times.
> "It's okay. I'll help you remember."
A siren begins to wail.
The room flashes red.
Men in white coats rush in. Hands grab me. Pull me away.
The girl screams—
My name.
> "KAEL! Don't let them reset you!"
Light.
Pain.
Nothing.
---
BACK TO PRESENT
Lyra is gripping my shoulders.
"Kael! Kael! Hey—look at me!"
I gasp, collapsing to my knees.
The rail platform blurs, spinning around me.
"There was a girl," I choke out. "In a lab. She knew me. She—"
I swallow.
"She was important."
Lyra's face goes pale.
"Do you remember her name?"
I shake my head. "No. Just her voice."
But the ache in my chest feels like a wound I've carried my whole life.
Lyra helps me stand.
"We should move. The echoes are getting stronger. The more your memories return, the more the Spectres will track you."
"Why?"
"Because the Council doesn't want you remembering the truth."
A cold rage simmers under my skin.
If the Council had taken that girl from me—reset me over and over—what else had they erased?
We follow the old tracks deeper into the dark.
My thoughts won't stop racing, twisting around the image of her face, her small hand gripping mine…
The undercity wind shifts, carrying a new sound.
A soft whirring.
Metal scraping.
My body tenses.
"We're not alone," I whisper.
Lyra draws her pistols.
"Spectres?"
"No," I say slowly.
This sound isn't cold or mechanical.
It's lighter. Faster.
Almost… playful.
From the shadows, multiple eyes flicker to life—small, round, bright like little neon flames.
Lyra curses. "Oh hell. Echo-hounds."
Before I can ask, the first one leaps forward—
metallic, quadruped, its teeth made of shifting data strands.
I move before I think—blade drawn, slicing through the creature mid-air. It explodes into blue sparks.
Three more appear.
Six.
Ten.
Lyra fires, each shot cracking through the tunnel.
I swing, block, dodge—my blade leaving streaks of neon light with every motion.
But for every hound we shatter, another crawls out from the dark.
"We can't stay here!" Lyra shouts.
"I know!"
The biggest hound—twice the size of the others—lunges at me.
Its eyes glow with a familiar pattern.
R-09.
The symbol from the gate.
The mark I touched.
The thing that awakened my memory.
My heart stops.
It's connected.
To me.
To the node.
To Requiem.
The hound leaps—
I thrust my blade straight into its core—
A burst of blinding light erupts—
And then—
Silence.
Every hound collapses.
Dead.
Drained.
Motionless.
Lyra lowers her pistols, panting.
"What just happened?"
I stare at my blade.
The pulse is stronger now.
Like the node fed it.
Like the past is fueling the present.
"I think," I whisper,
"I'm waking up."
Lyra looks at me—not with fear, not with doubt…
but with something close to belief.
"Then we find the second node," she says.
"Before your past finds you first."
I nod.
The girl's voice still echoes in my mind.
"Kael… don't let them reset you."
For the first time,
I understand what she meant.
And I know this is only the beginning