Location: Beneath the Memory Tree, Academy Simulation
The Memory Tree shimmered faintly in the twilight, its translucent leaves pulsing with soft cyan light. They rustled not from wind, but from data—echoes of remembered moments gently brushing against one another.
Jay sat on the fractured bench beneath its branches, arms resting on his knees, gaze distant.
Alicia approached quietly, not in armor or her newly formed uniform, but in a soft robe conjured by the simulation—a callback to simpler times, to quiet days before codes and cataclysms.
She didn't sit right away. Instead, she stood behind him, watching the fading glow of a projected memory ripple across the bark. It was their first sparring session—clumsy, awkward, filled with restrained power and unspoken walls.
"You used to hide from everyone," she said softly.
Jay didn't look at her. "I still do, sometimes. Even from myself."
A pause. The memory flickered out.
