My veins were on fire.
Three days after Geneva, the clones' memories hit like a tsunami, flashing behind my eyes every time I blinked.
Version 14 screaming as Lillian wiped her mind.
Version 29 clawing at her pod, begging for death.
Version 36 whispering my name like a prayer before her body collapsed into ash.
I woke up choking on their last breaths, my sheets drenched in sweat that smelled faintly of Lillian's lavender perfume.
System Ghost Echo:Host integrity failing. Neural overload at 78%. Recommended action: Purge foreign memories.
Kai burst into the room, gun drawn before he registered that I was alone. "Another nightmare?"
I wiped my nose. The blood came away black. "They're not nightmares. They're transmissions."
His jaw tightened as he tossed me a tablet. "Julian's decrypt team found something. You need to see this."
The screen showed a 20-year-old video.
Lillian, younger but with the same serpent's smile, stood over a child's body.
My body.
The real Ariella Grey, the original died at the age of six years from a "car accident."
Lillian stroked the corpse's hair. "Such a waste. But don't worry, darling. Mommy will make you better."
Then the video cut to a lab where dozens of my child-clones withered in tubes.
Only one survived.
Me.
Kai's voice was rough. "You were never a copy of Lillian. You're a resurrection of her real daughter."
The walls closed in. All those years grieving a mother who'd killed me just to rebuild me
I vomited black fluid onto the floor.
It moved.
Julian arrived at dawn with Bianca's research drives and a fresh bullet wound in his shoulder.
"She's still alive," he said, tossing the drives onto the table. "Not Lillian, the System. It wasn't just code. It was alive.A quantum consciousness she pulled from the future."
Kai scoffed. "Bullshit."
"Then explain that." Julian pointed to my arm.
Black tendrils writhed under my skin, forming words:
SEARCHING FOR HOST LILLIAN
I grabbed Julian's collar. "You knew. All this time, you knew what I was."
His eyes held something I'd never seen before, remorse. "I knew she made you to house the System. Not that it was eating you."
System Ghost Echo:Correction: Merging. Host Ariella Grey is 63% compatible with Entity Asura. Full integration in 72 hours.
Kai's gun was at Julian's temple in a heartbeat. "Fix. Her Now"
Julian didn't flinch. "There's only one option. The System's core is in Geneva's sublevels. We destroy it, the entity dies."
"And Ari?" Kai's voice cracked.
Julian looked at me. "You'll lose every augmented memory. The clones. The missions. Him." He nodded at Kai. "You'll just be... a girl again."
The room spun.
Lose Kai?
The Fracture
We broke into Geneva's ruins at midnight.
The core pulsed below us like a dying star, a sphere of liquid metal whispering in my voice.
Kai rigged the explosives while Julian hacked the final firewall.
I stood between them and the core, the System screaming in my skull:
Entity Asura:You are my perfect vessel. Why choose oblivion?*l
"Because," I whispered, "I'd rather be nothing than her *anything.*"
I plunged my hands into the core.
Agony.
Ecstasy.
Kai shouting my name.
Julian's shocked gasp.
And then—
The universe rewound.
I woke up in lying in a hospital bed.
No scars.
No implants.
No memories of blood or betrayal.
Just a kind-eyed nurse saying, "You've been in a coma, Miss Grey. Your stepbrother is here to take you home."
The door opened.
Kai stood there much more younger, softer, unbroken,vwith flowers in his hands.
"Hey, Ari," he said, smiling. "Ready to start over?"
I reached for him...
And felt the ghost of a System prompt:
Cycle Complete. New Game?