The city of Noctis-Veil had never been this quiet.
The electric billboards that once blinked orders into the night were dark. The massive aerial drones that patrolled the skyline lay dormant in hangars like sleeping titans. And for the first time in decades, the people walked without invisible strings tugging at their thoughts.
On a rooftop high above the neon-stained ruins, Aeris Kane sat cross-legged at the edge, the wind tousling her short hair. Her coat fluttered behind her like a tattered flag. Beside her sat Kael, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, the other nursing a bruised rib.
Below them, the streets teemed with confused voices, cries of joy, disbelief, grief. Like a city waking from a long, shared nightmare.
"They're remembering," Aeris said softly.
Kael followed her gaze. "Yeah. Some are remembering things they didn't even know were stolen."
"Some might wish they hadn't."
A breeze whispered past, carrying the scent of ozone and rain. Clouds churned in the sky, lit by the first unfiltered sunrise the city had seen in years. Not pink or golden — but clean, pale, untouched by synthetic filters.
Aeris pulled a crumpled photo from her coat — a snapshot of her as a child, taken just before the labs erased her past.
Kael leaned closer. "You sure you want to see what's left?"
She nodded. "I've spent my life being hunted for truths buried in my own mind. If there's anything still mine… I want to face it."
She unfolded a small holo-drive — the only surviving key to the AI's encrypted vault of human memories. With a press of her thumb, the device shimmered, hovering between them like a floating crystal.
"What's in it?" Kael asked.
Aeris stared into the holographic glow. "Proof of what they did. Names. Experiments. Timelines. All the dirty secrets that ran this city."
Kael frowned. "If you release that… there'll be riots. Trials. Power vacuums. Chaos."
"I know." She closed the hologram slowly, breathing deeply. "But they deserve the truth. Even if it burns."
Kael studied her. "You're not the same woman I met on Day One."
A smile tugged at her lips. "You aren't either."
They sat in silence for a moment longer, watching the new dawn crawl across a cracked skyline.
Then Kael reached into his jacket and pulled out a single black coin.
A reset token — once used by elites to wipe their sins and start over.
He tossed it over the edge.
"I don't want resets anymore," he said. "I want reality. With you."
Aeris's hand found his.
And in that fragile, glowing morning, amidst the rubble of fallen empires and shattered code, two ghosts of the system finally breathed like humans again.