The Core's lights pulsed like a heartbeat.Elena sat in the center of the room, connected to the neural interface, her breathing shallow.Her hair clung to her forehead — damp with sweat — as Adrian adjusted the calibration lines across the monitor.
"You don't have to do this," he said softly.He could see fear in her eyes, but also something stronger — resolve.
"Yes, I do," she replied. "If your father left the access key in my mind, then that's where we'll find it."
Lydia stood by the door, arms crossed, worry shadowing her face."Adrian, if you go in there with her… and something happens—"
"I know," he interrupted. "If her memory rejects the merge, we could both suffer cognitive burn."He looked at Elena. "But it's the only way."
She gave a faint smile. "You're starting to sound like your father."
That made him pause.Because she was right — Raymond Vance had said those same words before walking into the experiment that ended his life.
Adrian took a deep breath and sat opposite her, fitting the neural relay around his head.
"Once the sync begins," Lydia warned, "you'll only have fifteen minutes before the system locks down. Any longer, and it'll start pulling your consciousness in permanently."
Adrian nodded. "Then I'll make it count."
Lydia hesitated, then added quietly, "Both of you come back."
[Neural Space – The Memory Field]
Adrian opened his eyes to white.Not light — just… white.An endless, glowing void where fragments of sound floated like static in water.
"Elena?" he called.
A voice echoed distantly. "Here."
He turned and saw her — a younger version, maybe seventeen — standing barefoot in a corridor that didn't belong to any building he'd seen before.The air shimmered, walls warping like glass under heat.
He took a step closer. "This is your memory."
She frowned. "No. This is their version of my memory."
The hallway flickered — and for a split second, they saw something behind it:Rows of children in glass pods, machines humming, doctors in white coats marking data.
Elena's younger self reached out to one of the pods. Inside, a boy slept peacefully — hooked to wires, his pulse faintly visible through the glass.
"Who is that?" Adrian asked quietly.
Elena's voice trembled. "I… I don't remember."
But her hands were shaking.
Suddenly, the void around them distorted — alarms blared, the ground cracked open into darkness.
A synthetic voice echoed from above:
"Unauthorized access detected. Purging neural contamination."
"Run!" Adrian shouted, pulling her down the corridor as the walls began to collapse.
They burst through a door — and everything shifted.Now they were standing in a vast observation room filled with holographic screens.
On one of them — Adrian saw himself.His past life.
He froze. "That's… me."
The screen showed Adrian — the old Adrian — arguing with a group of executives inside a lab.
"You can't keep testing on human subjects!" the past-Adrian shouted. "These are children!"
A familiar voice answered him — calm, commanding.
Charles Ward.
"This is bigger than morality, Vance," he said. "This is evolution."
Past-Adrian slammed his fist on the table. "You're killing them!"
Elena covered her mouth. "No… I remember this. I was there."
The memory flickered again — chaos, alarms, gunfire.Adrian watched as his past self tried to free one of the pods — a girl inside screaming his name.
"Elena!" the younger Adrian yelled.
Her eyes widened. "That's me."
He turned to her. "You were Subject Zero. The first one he tried to save."
She looked at him with trembling eyes. "And they erased it… so I wouldn't remember him."
The world around them began to crumble again — the simulation destabilizing as two timelines collided.
"Elena, we have to get out!" Adrian grabbed her hand.
But before they could move, the image of Charles Ward appeared before them — a digital ghost within the memory.
"Adrian," the apparition said coldly. "You weren't supposed to come back."
Adrian's heart pounded. "You killed him. You killed my father!"
Charles smiled faintly. "No. I rebuilt him. And you."
He reached out a digital hand toward them — the entire space trembling like glass about to shatter.
"Now," Charles said, "you'll both remember what you were created for."
The light exploded — and everything went dark.
[Reality – Safehouse]
Lydia jolted as both of them convulsed in their chairs.The monitors flashed red warnings — "Neural Collapse Imminent."
"Elena! Adrian!" she shouted, slamming the override.
For a heartbeat, nothing.Then — a gasp.
Elena's eyes flew open, tears streaking her cheeks. Adrian exhaled sharply, clutching his chest.
She looked at him — truly looked — and whispered:"They made us part of it… together."
He nodded slowly. "Now we know why they can't let us live."
Outside, thunder cracked through the night.And somewhere deep within the network, the Core pulsed — whispering both their names.