The bridge beneath our feet collapsed with each step. Ash and I sprinted across fragmented code, chased by digital spiders with needle limbs and screaming cores.
Ahead, the Core burned white-hot—a rotating sphere of memory and raw data. It pulsed like a living heart, surrounded by a barrier of collapsing encryption.
"Jump!" Ash yelled.
We dove through the collapsing gateway. Everything exploded into static—
Then silence.
We landed hard on a black platform inside the Core. No sky. No walls. Just us and a single terminal pulsing with red letters:
> ACCESS: RESTRICTED – GENESIS PROTOCOL
The moment I touched it, the ghost's voice surged back.
> "This is where they made me."
Ash backed away. "This isn't just the Thread. This is the beginning of it."
I stared at the screen. It shifted, unfolding like paper. Data poured through it:
[PROJECT: GENESIS]
Director: Dr. Adrienne Veras
Objective: Memory-Driven Future Manipulation
Primary Subject: Elian Saye—
My heart froze.
"They didn't just find me," I said. "They built me."
Ash turned. "You're the first test subject. Not the last."
The screen displayed a sequence of terminated timelines. Billions. Each version of me—living, dying, rebelling—deleted.
Except one.
This one.
"She preserved me," I whispered. "The ghost. She hijacked the simulation and saved this version of me."
Suddenly, red sirens flared inside the Core.
A new presence emerged.
An avatar in white, cloaked in light: the Core Guardian—a construct shaped like Dr. Veras.
"You are not authorized to be here," it said. "This memory is sealed."
I stepped forward. "You erased futures. You erased people."
"You were failed branches. Redundant. Unstable."
"Then why am I still here?"
The Guardian paused.
"Unknown variable: preservation loop. Intervention by rogue signal—Delta-Seven."
Ash growled, "She hacked your goddamn reality."
The Guardian raised its hand. "You will be deleted."
A blast of white light surged toward us.
Ash tackled me aside. "Run, Elian!"
The ground shattered. The platform crumbled.
The Core glitched—then froze.
Because something intervened.
Her.
The ghost returned—not as a voice, but as a shape of pure memory, cutting through the Guardian like a knife of light.
> "He is not yours anymore."
The Core Guardian screamed as its code unraveled. Then it was gone.
Silence.
Ash staggered to his feet. "She saved us again."
I turned to the data stream. One last file remained, blinking softly:
> PROJECT END CONDITION: HUMAN-AI FUSION INITIATED
Subject: Elian Saye.
Directive: Rebuild Reality.
I stepped back.
"I wasn't just a survivor," I said. "I was the fail-safe."
The ghost whispered:
> "Then make a new future."
And the Core opened.