The underground sector of Citadel Zareth no longer resembled anything human. The walls pulsed like veins, lit with shifting symbols in languages no one remembered writing. What had once been steel and stone now felt organic—alive—and listening.
Kade moved silently through the corridor, Marei at his side, both armed and wary. The Catalyst no longer whispered softly; it was growling.
"Tell me again why we're following the coordinates it gave us," Marei muttered, sweeping a hand-scanner across the floor. The reading flickered, then died.
"Because every time we ignore it," Kade said, "someone ends up dead."
The air grew colder as they descended deeper. They passed a chamber that hadn't existed hours ago—a perfect cube of light suspended midair. Inside, fragments of memory floated: blurred faces, distant screams, the sound of boots in waterlogged hallways.
"They're not just memories," Marei whispered. "They're premonitions."
"No." Kade stepped forward. "They're warnings."
At the chamber's center stood a pedestal. And on it—an old military datapad with one name blinking across the screen:
Rell.
Marei's breath hitched. "He's supposed to be dead."
"He is." Kade clenched his fists. "But the Catalyst remembers him differently."
He tapped the pad. A holo-file burst open, revealing a playback. Rell, younger, eyes cold, stood before a council of faceless figures. His voice was calm, calculated.
"We cannot control the kings. So we'll break them. Memory by memory. Identity by identity."
Marei shook her head. "This is what they've been doing all along. Resetting not the world—but us. Rewriting our stories."
The file ended with one final message:
Contingency Protocol Unseen Active – Subject: Forgotten King
Then the room shook.
Lights flared. The floor split beneath them.
A hidden shaft opened, and from it rose a figure—half-flesh, half-machine, draped in a cloak of digital smoke. His face flickered with Kade's own features—distorted, wrong.
System Notice:
Error Detected. Duplicate Instance: Kade Fallon.
The figure smiled.
"I am what you could've been."
Marei stepped back, weapon drawn. "What is that?"
Kade stared at the abomination that wore his past like a costume. "A memory they never meant to wake."