The safehouse beneath the old grid conduit pulsed with heat from a cracked fusion core, the hum masking the quiet tension between Aeris and Dr. Solara Vecht. For days, they'd worked side by side—decrypting corrupted memories, dodging bounty pings, tracing the truth behind the fabricated murder file.
Solara had saved her life in Vireloch. Twice.Aeris had started to believe she wasn't alone in this anymore.
Now, the final decryption protocol was running.
The shard they recovered in Sector Null was unlocking—slow, flickering, bleeding truth. Aeris leaned over the console, heart pounding.
"Murder File: Verified. Memory origin: Internal Nexus Protocol. Fabrication Status: Partial."
She froze.
"Partial?" she said aloud. "That means… some of it's real."
Solara didn't respond.
Aeris turned.
Solara stood a few steps back, visor down, hand hovering over the neural disruptor clipped to her belt.
Aeris's blood ran cold. "What are you doing?"
Solara's voice was quiet. Controlled. "I told you—I needed something from Kael."
"You said you wanted the truth," Aeris snapped.
"I do." Solara stepped closer. "But I never said who I needed the truth for."
Aeris reached for her deck. Solara pulled the disruptor.
"Don't," she warned. "You think this is about you? Aeris, Nexus made you a liability the moment they gave you access to the Archive Core. You were never meant to remember any of this."
Aeris's voice was barely a whisper. "You're working for them."
Solara's jaw clenched.
"No. I'm working for someone worse."
She fired.
Aeris screamed as the disruptor pulse hit her implant. Her mind fractured—memories spinning, flashing, erasing. She hit the floor hard, eyes flickering.
Solara crouched beside her, her face unreadable. "I didn't want it to end like this. You're brilliant. But you were born with a flaw."
Aeris gasped, "What flaw?"
Solara stood, pocketing the decrypted shard. "Conscience."
She turned, disappearing into the tunnel.
Aeris couldn't move. Her deck was fried. Her access to the Grid—gone. The truth… now in the hands of someone who'd just sold it to the highest bidder.
And the worst part?
The betrayal wasn't just tactical.It was personal.
[TO BE CONTINUED]