The room was too quiet.White walls, white light, white silence — like a memory drained of color.
Adrian stood motionless, watching the small girl in the corner.Her eyes glowed faintly gold, the same hue that pulsed through the Core whenever it spoke to him.
"Elena…?" he whispered.
The child tilted her head. "You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you."
She looked away, tracing circles on the floor with trembling fingers. "I've been here a long time. Waiting."
Adrian knelt. "Waiting for what?"
She hesitated — then whispered, "For him."
"Who?"
"The boy who promised to come back."
Adrian's breath caught.He didn't understand — but his heart reacted before his mind could. A warmth, buried deep in his chest, began to stir.
He saw flashes — a sunlit park, laughter, two children running between tall grass.A girl with a yellow ribbon.A boy with a wooden puzzle in his hands.
"If you ever get lost," the boy had said, "follow the pieces. They'll lead you back to me."
Adrian staggered, clutching his head as the images poured in — fast, raw, real.The child before him wasn't just a projection.
She was Elena's core memory — her origin, sealed deep inside the neural maze.
"Why did you lock yourself here?" he asked, voice trembling.
The little girl frowned. "Because he forgot. Because he broke his promise."
Adrian's throat tightened. "That boy… was me."
The room flickered — reality trembling as memory aligned.The walls shifted, revealing a small laboratory beyond the child — filled with holographic screens, doctors, and a younger Raymond Vance and Dr. Celia Ward standing over two neural capsules.
Inside one — a boy.Inside the other — a girl.
Adrian's eyes widened. "No…"
The child Elena turned toward the scene, her voice a whisper."They used us. Paired us. They said we were compatible."
The holograms rippled — a young Dr. Ward speaking coldly:
"The NeuroLink Pairing trial begins. Subject AV-01 and EW-02 — synchronization level: 98%."
Her voice echoed like a curse.
Adrian stepped back, shaking. "We were part of the same experiment…"
The child nodded slowly. "And when it failed, they separated us. They erased me from you — and you from me."
A tear slid down her cheek. "But the Core remembers."
The walls began to collapse. Light flooded in, blinding and violent.The child reached for him. "She's waking up, Adrian. You have to find her before they do."
"Who—"
Before he could finish, the world shattered into white fragments —and he opened his eyes inside the real world.
He gasped — drenched in sweat, lying on the cold metal floor of his lab.
The monitors around him were going wild — flashing Elena's vitals.Her neural signature… was spiking.
She was awake.
And she was screaming.