The darkness swallowed them whole.
Eira couldn't see her own hands. Couldn't hear her footsteps. It was like stepping into a void where sound and light had no meaning.
Then the world snapped back.
She stood in a hallway.
White walls. Fluorescent lights humming overhead. Sterile. Clinical.
It looked like a hospital corridor. But wrong. The angles didn't quite line up. The lights flickered in patterns that hurt to watch.
"Where are we?" she whispered.
Lucian appeared beside her. He looked around. His jaw tight.
"Inside," he said.
"Inside what?"
"The core. The heart of the Matrix."
Eira turned in a slow circle. The hallway stretched in both directions. Endless. Identical doors lined the walls. Each one numbered.
"This doesn't make sense," she said. "We're still in Subsector 7. We didn't go anywhere."
"Physically, no. But your neural implant is active. You're interfacing now. Half here. Half there."
She touched her temple. Felt the faint warmth of the implant beneath her skin.
"So this is a simulation."
"No. It's a memory."
"Whose?"
Lucian didn't answer. He was staring at one of the doors.
Room 37.
Eira followed his gaze. "What's in there?"
"Something I buried a long time ago."
Before she could ask more, a sound echoed down the hall.
Footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate.
They came from behind.
Eira spun. Reached for her gun.
It wasn't there.
"What the hell—"
"Weapons don't work here," Lucian said quietly. "This place doesn't follow those rules."
The footsteps grew louder.
A figure appeared at the far end of the hallway.
Tall. Humanoid. But its movements were wrong. Jerky. Like it was skipping frames.
Eira's pulse spiked. "What is that?"
"An echo."
"Of what?"
"Someone who came before."
The figure stopped. Tilted its head.
Then it spoke.
The voice was distorted. Layered. Like ten people speaking at once.
"Why did you come back, Lucian?"
Lucian's face remained stone. "I didn't have a choice."
"You always have a choice. You chose to leave. You chose to forget. You chose to let us die."
Eira glanced at him. "Who is that?"
"No one," he said flatly. "Not anymore."
The figure took a step forward. Then another.
Its face came into view.
Eira's stomach dropped.
It looked like Lucian.
Same face. Same build. But the eyes were hollow. Empty sockets that leaked static.
"Jesus Christ," she breathed.
The echo smiled. A broken, twitching thing.
"She doesn't know, does she?"
"Shut up," Lucian said.
"She doesn't know what you did. What you built. What you promised."
"I said shut up."
The echo laughed. The sound was like nails on glass.
"Tell her, Lucian. Tell her what Project Lazarus really was."
Eira looked at him. "What's it talking about?"
Lucian's hands clenched into fists. "It's trying to break me. Don't listen to it."
"We didn't build the Matrix to save humanity," the echo said. "We built it to feed something. And you knew. You all knew."
"That's a lie," Lucian said.
"Is it?"
The echo stepped closer. Its face began to shift. Melting. Reforming.
Now it looked like someone else.
A younger man. Brown hair. Kind eyes.
Eira's breath stopped.
"Kade," she whispered.
The echo wearing her brother's face smiled.
"Hey, sis."
She couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
It looked exactly like him. Sounded exactly like him.
"Kade?" Her voice cracked.
"I've been waiting for you."
"Where are you? Are you okay?"
The smile faltered. "I'm right here. Can't you see me?"
"This isn't real," Lucian said sharply. "Eira, don't—"
She ignored him. Took a step toward the echo.
"Kade, I've been looking for you. For three years. I never stopped."
"I know. I heard you. Every night. Every time you called my name."
Tears burned her eyes. "Then why didn't you answer?"
The echo's smile twisted. "Because I'm not allowed to."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I'm trapped, Eira. We all are. Everyone who came down here. Everyone who touched the core. We're inside now. And we can't get out."
"Then I'll get you out," she said. "I'll find a way."
"You can't."
"Watch me."
The echo tilted its head. The kindness in its eyes flickered. Something else bled through.
"You don't understand. There is no 'out.' There's only deeper."
Eira froze.
The echo's voice changed. Layered again. Not Kade anymore.
"And you just walked right in."
The lights went out.
Eira spun in the darkness. "Lucian!"
No answer.
"Lucian!"
A hand grabbed her shoulder.
She screamed. Jerked away.
The lights flickered back on.
Lucian stood in front of her. His face pale.
"We need to move. Now."
"What the hell was that?"
"I told you. An echo. It wears faces. Voices. Memories. It uses them against you."
"It looked like Kade."
"I know."
"It sounded like him."
"I know."
She grabbed his arm. "Is he really in here? Is my brother really trapped?"
Lucian met her eyes. For the first time, she saw something real in them.
Pain.
"Yes," he said. "But he's not your brother anymore."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the person you're looking for is gone. What's left is just data. Code. A ghost wearing his face."
Eira's chest tightened. "You're lying."
"I'm not."
"Then why are we here? Why did you bring me?"
"Because you wouldn't have stopped looking. And if you kept digging, you'd have ended up here alone." He let out a slow breath. "At least this way, you have a chance."
Before she could respond, the hallway began to change.
The walls rippled. The doors opened one by one.
And from each room, something stepped out.
More echoes.
Dozens of them.
All wearing different faces. All staring at Eira and Lucian.
"Run," Lucian said.
"Where?"
"Anywhere but here."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.
They sprinted down the hallway. The echoes followed. Their footsteps synchronized. A horrible, rhythmic pounding.
Eira's lungs burned. "Where are we going?"
"The archive room. If Kade left anything behind, it'll be there."
"How do you know?"
"Because that's where I left mine."
They turned a corner. Burst through a set of double doors.
And stopped.
The room was massive.
Rows and rows of servers stretched into the distance. Each one pulsing with faint blue light.
But that wasn't what made Eira freeze.
It was the people.
Hundreds of them.
Standing perfectly still. Eyes open. Staring at nothing.
They were all connected to the servers by thin cables running from their temples.
"Oh my God," Eira whispered.
Lucian's voice was hollow. "The missing people. They're all here."
"Are they alive?"
"Their bodies are. But their minds..." He trailed off.
Eira moved between the rows. Scanning faces.
And then she saw him.
Standing in the far corner.
Brown hair. Kind eyes.
Kade.
"No," she breathed.
She ran to him. Grabbed his shoulders.
"Kade! Kade, wake up!"
He didn't move.
She shook him. "Kade, please! It's me! It's Eira!"
Nothing.
Tears streamed down her face. "Please. Please wake up."
Lucian appeared beside her. He looked at Kade. Then at the cable running from his temple to the server.
"He's been here the whole time," Lucian said quietly. "Since the beginning."
"Can we disconnect him?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because his consciousness isn't in his body anymore. It's in the system. If you disconnect him, he dies."
Eira's legs gave out. She sank to her knees.
"Then what do we do?"
Lucian stared at the servers. His jaw set.
"We go deeper."
"What?"
"If his consciousness is in the system, then we find it. We pull him out from the inside."
"How?"
He looked at her. "We upload ourselves."
Eira stared at him. "That's suicide."
"Maybe. But it's the only way."
She looked at her brother's empty face. Then back at Lucian.
"If we do this, we might not come back."
"I know."
"And you're willing to risk that?"
He didn't answer right away. Just stared at the rows of frozen people.
"I built this place," he said finally. "I helped create the cage. If I can tear it down from the inside, then maybe it's worth it."
Eira stood. Wiped her eyes.
"Okay," she said. "Let's do it."
Lucian walked to the nearest terminal. Started typing.
"Once we're in, we won't have much time. The system will recognize us as threats. It'll try to erase us."
"How do we stop it?"
"We don't. We just move faster."
He pulled two cables from the server. Handed one to her.
"Last chance to turn back," he said.
Eira took the cable. Stared at it.
Then pressed it to her temple.