"It's not just a machine. It's a memory of a machine that never should've existed."—Riri Williams
Location – Beneath Vienna: The Forgotten Lab
It was hidden beneath miles of rock and Cold War history. Forgotten even by HYDRA, ignored by S.H.I.E.L.D., but not by time.
They called it "The Ghost Machine."
The entrance was a vault. Not for keeping people out—but for keeping something in.
Inside the Vault
Kael stared at the glowing structure. It wasn't made of metal, but frozen echoes—solidified events locked in sequence.
"This is... my life. All of them."
The machine pulsed with scenes of him dying, living, fracturing, fusing—every iteration of Kael across the multiverse, stored like data in a loop.
"She used it to test me," Kael whispered.
Riri looked at the code flickering across a monitor. It wasn't programming—it was language made of events.
"This whole thing is a forge. It didn't record you. It made you."
Liora placed a hand on the side of the machine.
She flinched.
"It remembers me too."
Elsewhere – Anachrys' Watchpoint
Anachrys stood before a viewing shard, watching the team explore the machine.
"Let them see. Let them remember. The only way forward is through collapse."
Behind her, countless Echo-Kaels stood in stasis tubes—fragments she had culled, refined, reshaped.
One stirred.
One opened its eyes.
"The Architect has a heart," it said. "But it doesn't beat for Earth."
Anachrys turned, pleased.
"Good. Then it's time to let the Ghosts walk again."
Back in the Lab
Suddenly, the Ghost Machine activated.
The air warped. Gravity inverted.
The room flickered between timelines—walls swapped for versions of themselves, people glitching mid-movement.
"It's replaying!" Seris-Va shouted. "It's trying to overwrite this timeline with a preferred one!"
Wong raised a shield rune. "Then we stop it. Now."
Kael stepped into the heart of the machine. The Mirrorheart pulsed in sync.
"It wants a host. It's looking for the most stable Kael to finalize."
"And that's you?" Riri asked.
"No," Kael said, staring forward."That's what it thinks."
The Twist
From the machine emerged Echo-Kael Prime—Anachrys' perfected version.
Clad in crystalline armor, face serene, voice like a chorus.
"You are the error," he told Kael.
Kael raised his fists. "Then I guess it's time to crash your system."
They collided—two Kaels—one forged by pain, the other engineered from perfection.
The Ghost Machine shuddered as their fight broke time.
Final Panel
A shard from the machine falls to the ground, glowing red.
Liora picks it up.
In it, a voice whispers:
"You were always meant to fracture."
She crushes it in her hand.
Eyes glowing silver.
❖ To Be Continued in Chapter 8 – Bloodcode❖