It started with a spark.
In a crumbling alley behind the tech-dump district, Nova Rell yanked her welding goggles off, blinking through the neon steam. Her fingers, stained with soot and solder, hovered over the humming core of a dead city terminal.
The screen—dead for years—suddenly buzzed back to life.
BOOTING…
ENCRYPTED FILE DETECTED: MAEVRA_0.HEX
> > > Clearances: Level 9
Risk Status: LETHAL
Origin: Watchtower Protocol | CLASSIFIED
Nova muttered, "The hell is a 'Maevra'?"
She tapped the edge of her wrist chip. Her custom decrypter—illegal, experimental, definitely unstable—flashed warning after warning.
She ignored them.
The file cracked open. Just a sliver.
A burst of static hit her earpiece.
Then a whisper:
"Echo… Incomplete."
Nova froze. The sound didn't come from the file.
It came from inside her head.
She stumbled back, nearly knocking over a tower of junked drives. The monitor glitched, stuttering between code and something else—an eye. A pulsing, digital eye, just like the one from the dead legends of The Watchtower.
Then it blinked.
"Not again," Nova muttered, yanking the drive from the terminal. The moment it disconnected, the entire system fried—smoke curling from the ports, lights bursting above her.
The city around her didn't react.
But the sky—just for a second—twitched.
---
6:13 AM – Elowen University Campus
Skye Ashwin, now known simply as El, woke gasping.
Sweat soaked her sheets. Her heart raced like she'd run a marathon through static.
She couldn't remember the dream.
But the symbols were back.
They filled the pages of her sketchbook—spirals, glyphs, binary maps. Each one tighter. Sharper. Familiar in a way that made her stomach turn.
A knock on her door.
Her roommate Lin poked her head in, holding coffee.
"Morning, Spiral Queen. You were muttering again. Same dream?"
El hesitated. "No. Yes. I… don't know. They're getting louder."
"'They?'" Lin raised an eyebrow. "That's new."
El shut her sketchbook. "Just… ignore me."
She couldn't tell Lin about the moments in mirrors where her reflection didn't match. Or the hum in her bones when someone mentioned echoes. Or how the word "Maevra" tasted bitter in her mouth—though she had no idea where she'd heard it.
But worst of all?
Sometimes, she looked in the mirror—and someone else blinked.
---
Elsewhere – Location Unknown
Deep beneath the former Watchtower ruins, a figure watched Nova's decrypted file playback on loop.
No face. No voice. Just a cloak made of light-absorbing mesh.
Behind him: mirrors. All cracked. All showing Skye's face—but twisted, glitched, repeated.
A mechanical whisper crawled through the chamber.
"Subject Nova has activated the Fragment."
"Protocol Echo is destabilizing."
The faceless figure nodded once.
"Deploy Sequence: Rebirth."
He pressed a button.
And far across the city, in El's dorm mirror—her reflection finally spoke back.
"Hello again… Maevra."