He didn't wake up.
He simply activated.
Where Jay might've yawned and muttered something sarcastic, Null-Jay rose like a command line processing input. His eyes opened—not with curiosity, but calculation.
This was not the New Path.
This was beneath it.
Between things.
Inside things.
A realm of raw logic stitched together with forgotten memories and corrupted fragments. Where meaning twisted and time refused to flow straight.
He stood in a grayscale forest where trees bled binary, and the sky was a looping memory of a bluebird Jay once saw on a windowsill in childhood… played infinitely.
"Subject located," a low, echoing voice said.
"Mission: Eliminate Divergence."
Null-Jay looked ahead.
A ripple cut through the dreamspace like static tearing fabric. On the other side—
Rei.
He was walking along the border of the New Path, alone, brushing a hand through phantom grass that didn't belong to any real world.
Null-Jay tilted his head. His voice was flat.
