The cracked spires of the Stone Forest loomed like broken teeth against the evening sky, jagged and humming with static pulses. Yuki stepped carefully, his boots crunching over synthetic moss that sparked faintly beneath his weight. Selene followed, silent but tense. Even she, the calm and calculating Data Witch, seemed unnerved by this place.
"Nexus Relay C," Selene murmured, brushing fingers against a tree that buzzed faintly with energy. "This was once a memory hub. A safe zone. Before it fractured."
Yuki could feel it too—flickers, static, and whispers trailing just out of reach. His Sync Rate ticked upward.
Sync Rate: 31%Instability: 22%
They crossed a broken archway where fragmented stone floated midair. On the other side, they saw it: Relay C.
Half-sunken into the ground, twisted with cables and crawling with faintly glowing vines, the lab entrance pulsed softly. Its design differed from the rest—more organic, like it had adapted to survive the collapse.
Access Code Required.Voice Match: Incomplete.
Yuki tried his usual access pattern. It rejected him. Again. And again.
Then, a soft voice, familiar but older, echoed from a nearby speaker. "Zeta... Is that really you?"
Yuki froze.
"Who said that?" he called out.
From the overgrowth, a figure stepped forward. A woman—older, lean, dressed in worn tech robes with rusted gauntlets. Her eyes glowed like faded starlight.
"My name is Aerin. I was your handler... once. Before the purge. Before, they labeled you unstable."
Selene raised an eyebrow. "She's a relic," she whispered. "A living thread in a world of corrupted code."
Aerin nodded. "I've waited in this ruin for decades. Hoping one of you would return. And now here you are... You still don't remember me, do you?"
Yuki shook his head slowly.
Aerin smiled sadly. "You called me 'Mother' once. Not because I was—but because you didn't know what else to call the woman who woke you."
The silence that followed was heavy. For the first time in weeks, Yuki didn't know what to say.
A latent memory trigger has been detected.Do you wish to access memory shards? [Y/N]
He hesitated. Then nodded.
[FLASHBACK SEQUENCE INITIATED]
[Memory Shard #1 - Awakening]
The world twisted—and suddenly, he was small. Trapped in a glass pod, blinking awake. And outside, a younger Aerin, her eyes filled with something close to guilt.
"You were never meant to wake up alone," she whispered.
[Memory Shard #1 - Ended]
Back in the present, Yuki staggered.
"I remember... fragments."
Aerin stepped forward. "Come. Relay C is more than a ruin. It's a beacon. And someone is trying to hijack it."
From behind the lab walls, a faint humming began to build—low, dangerous, rhythmic.
Selene drew closer. "Someone... or something."
And just like that, the ground trembled.
From beneath Relay C, something stirred.
Status Updated: Hostile Signal Interference Detected.Source: Internal Node.
Yuki looked toward the door. Aerin was already moving.
"Time to see what's become of our home, Zeta."