Night in the Thoughtwilds wasn't truly night.
It shimmered with fragmented constellations—star-systems left unfinished by the old developers. Above them, black cubes drifted like asteroids, each containing a broken memory or glitched environment.
Ryn couldn't sleep.
Not after what he saw in the Crimson Echo's body.
Claire's face.
Still there.
Still watching.
He stood alone near the edge of a frozen lake—a reflection that didn't match the sky. Every time he looked down, it showed a different past.
Tonight, it showed her.
---
> "You never told her the truth," a voice behind him said.
Eva stood wrapped in a heat-cloak, her sketchbook clutched like a weapon.
Ryn didn't turn.
> "What truth?"
> "That you triggered the First Reset."
Silence.
She stepped beside him.
> "The records are fragmentary, but Meksis confirmed it. Before the loops, before the Anchor system… someone broke the simulation so hard it imploded."
> "It was you."
---
Ryn exhaled. Not denial. Not confession.
A long, haunted breath.
> "We were out of time. The world was bleeding logic. Claire wanted to reboot it. I... I thought I could fix it."
> "So you used the Anchor Thread… before it was tested."
> "It rewrote the world," he said. "But not us."
> "And not her."
Eva's voice softened.
> "You trapped her between resets."
> "A ghost save."
> "A backup file that never completed."
---
He looked at the frozen lake again.
Now it showed the moment the glitch began.
Claire, screaming as the sky fell inward. Ryn, standing frozen, torn between running and rewriting.
> "She trusted me."
> "And I turned her into a memory."
---
Suddenly, a notification chimed across the horizon.
> [Location Unlocked: Anchor Vault – Vault 00]
Eva blinked.
> "That wasn't me."
> "Or me," Ryn said.
The world around them flickered.
Coordinates carved themselves into the sky, glowing runes that only Anchors could see.
> "Someone's calling us."
> "Or luring us."
> "Same difference now."
---
Vault 00 was buried beneath the Zero-Waste Zone — a stretch of corrupted terrain left unclaimed by any cycle. Gravity there was unstable. Thoughts could be heard. Distance had no rules.
They went anyway.
---
The vault door was ancient, circular, layered with spinning rings of code.
Eva placed her hand on the center sigil.
> "Feels like Claire."
Ryn didn't hesitate.
He unlocked it with the Anchor Thread.
The door didn't open.
It unfolded, like a flower in reverse.
Inside…
A chamber of memories.
---
It wasn't physical.
It was emotional.
They stood on platforms built from old feelings: Ryn's regret, Claire's determination, Eva's grief. Above them, holographic windows floated—each one a moment from before the collapse.
In the center: a Memory Core labeled:
> [CL.24 – Save Incomplete]
Ryn stepped forward, fingers trembling.
> "She's still here."
Eva scanned the core.
> "Her last anchor state. Trapped mid-transfer. If we stabilize this…"
> "She could wake up?"
> "Not as she was. But as something."
> "Someone."
---
Suddenly, the chamber trembled.
A shadow crawled in through the data-streams.
> [HOSTILE SIGNAL INTERCEPTED]
> [CRIMSON ECHO PRESENCE: NEAR]
The Core flickered.
Claire's voice spoke — not out loud, but into Ryn's mind.
> "Don't let it rewrite me…"
> "Please… not again…"
He clutched the pen.
> "Eva, extract the core. I'll hold him off."
> "That's suicide!"
> "So was letting her die."
---
From the side wall, the Crimson Echo surged in like fire through code.
Ryn met it head-on.
The Anchor Thread pulsed around his wrist, glowing brighter than ever.
> "You left her behind," the Echo snarled.
> "You'll leave again."
> "Not this time."
He plunged the pen into the simulated floor.
A field of protective code exploded outward — his memories, his truths, forming a barrier.
The Echo struck it.
And screamed.
> "You dare use emotion as code?"
> "She was never code to me."
---
Eva reached the Core.
It pulsed in her arms, growing heavier.
> [Extraction at 84%]
Ryn faltered.
The Echo morphed—now Claire's shape again, but twisted, speaking in her voice.
> "You chose to run, Ryn."
> "You chose the system over me."
He closed his eyes.
Saw the truth.
> "I didn't choose anything."
> "I panicked."
> "But now, I choose to fight."
With a scream, he released everything.
Every regret.
Every hope.
The Anchor Thread surged — not a weapon, but a promise.
> [Memory Core Extraction: COMPLETE]
Eva shouted: "Go!"
They leapt through the vault's failsafe portal as the Echo roared in rage.
---
They landed in a quiet glade far from the vault.
The Core still pulsed in Eva's arms.
Claire's voice — small, faint, but clear:
> "...Ryn?"
He smiled through the pain.
> "Hey, Claire."
> "We're gonna bring you back."