> "You can't run from the truth if it's hiding inside her."
> [ZONE 5: DEAD DROP]
Status: Unlisted – Memory Leak Vault (Internal Access Only)
Environment: Static Desert, Time-Unstable
Sync Compatibility Required: 80%+ to Exit
Riven collapsed five steps into the new zone.
The moment they crossed through the rift, she dropped to her knees in the sand though sand wasn't the right word. It was glass-coded data, fragmented pixels that shimmered like ash on a server crash screen.
Kazien was instantly at her side.
"Riven, hey talk to me."
She twitched.
Not in pain.
In desync.
> [RIVEN SOLIS | STATUS: MEMORY FRACTURE | CODE BLEED: ACTIVE]
[Fatal error in 13 minutes unless stabilizing link is established]
FURY stuttered in Kazien's grip.
"Her sync's short-circuiting. You either tether her… or you lose her."
"Define 'tether,'" Kazien growled.
SAGE answered, cool as ever:
"You connect through her memory. The original sync point. Ghostrun."
Kazien flinched. "That's locked."
"Exactly."
He looked down at her. Her body was shimmering. Phasing in and out. Like she was being rewritten or replaced.
Riven muttered under her breath, barely conscious: "Don't make me watch it again…"
"Watch what?" Kazien asked. "What did she show you?"
"Everything I forgot. Everything you buried."
Suddenly, the sand beneath them twisted.
A vault door rose from the glass shaped like a bullet casing, its surface etched with killcount data, timestamps, and fragments of names Kazien hadn't spoken in years.
One name pulsed brighter than the rest.
RIVEN SOLIS // MEMORY BLOCK 1472-X: LOCKED BY K.VALE
Kazien stared at it.
"I locked her out?"
FURY, soft:
"You were trying to protect her. From you."
He swallowed. "Or from what she'd find out."
The vault clicked open.
A voice echoed from inside smooth, mechanical, curious.
> "You're early."
Kazien turned, guns raised.
A figure stepped out from the light.
Not human. Not fully.
White coat. Old combat gear. A half-dissolved face made from fractured feed footage. His voice was made of Kazien's own killcam clips, stitched together into something almost sentient.
> "Hello, Kazien."
"Hello, Riven."
"I'm Echo-6."
Kazien didn't lower his guns. "I remember you. You were a glitch. A misfire."
Echo-6 smiled with half a mouth.
> "I was your shadow. Your warm-up round. Your afterthought. And now? I'm the only one who can keep her alive."
Kazien didn't move.
> "Unlock the memory vault," Echo-6 said.
"Or she dissolves into static."
Kazien looked down at Riven.
Eyes fluttering.
Mouth moving like she was trying to form a name.
His name.
His hand hovered over the bullet-vault.
> [Warning: Unlocking this memory will reveal content Kazien has intentionally deleted.]
Proceed? [Y/N]
He closed his eyes.
And pressed Y.
The moment Kazien hit [Y], the vault opened with a sigh not a sound, but a feeling.
A system breath.
A memory exhaling.
The light swallowed them both.
> [GHOSTRUN – FINAL 02:17]
> LIVE FEED REPLAY // MEMORY CORE: RIVEN SOLIS // K.VALE LOG PERMISSION OVERRIDE]
They're standing in the arena again.
Ghostrun.
Just before everything fell apart.
Riven stood in her full Ghostrun gear, blinking fast like she didn't recognize herself. Her eyes darted across the killfeed HUD above the field, the same field where her brother had vanished from the rankings. His tag: SOLIS_7 lit green at the top of the board.
> "This isn't real," she whispered.
Echo-6's voice crackled like old speakers.
"It's not real. It's worse. It's accurate."
The memory played.
Her brother's voice over comms:
"North platform's too hot! Pulling back!"
Kazien's voice cut in a second later.
"Hold position. We're locking in 40 more seconds. Final push for leaderboard."
Riven in the memory turned. "That's not what we"
"Stick to the plan," Kazien snapped. "I'm syncing bonus score."
Real Riven looked at Present Kazien. "You… you chose a kill bonus over evac?"
"I didn't remember it like this"
"You locked it."
More memory.
Her brother screaming.
Heavy fire.
Static.
His feed cutting out.
The scoreboard flickering.
His tag vanishing.
Kazien standing still. Gun raised. Watching it happen.
> [VOICE LOG // Kazien Vale // PRIVATE CHANNEL]
"If I break sync now… I lose everything."
"He'll forgive me."
Riven backed away.
"You watched him die."
Kazien didn't speak.
She looked like the floor had dropped out under her.
"You watched. You didn't even try"
Echo-6 tilted his head.
> "He remembered. That's why he deleted it."
Kazien finally spoke. "I didn't mean for it to happen."
Riven's voice cracked. "You chose you."
"I chose wrong."
"That's not the same thing."
The light flickered.
The memory cracked and looped showing the moment again.
And again.
And again.
Every loop? Riven getting smaller. Her brother falling. Kazien frozen.
Until finally
The memory stuttered and changed.
Suddenly: Riven was in the command tent.
Live feed panel open.
> [AUTO-LOCK TIMER: 20 SECONDS]
["Override for squad?"]
Her hand hovered over the button.
Her voice whispered:
"He'll make the call."
And she didn't press it.
Present Riven gasped.
"No."
She watched herself step back.
> [AUTO-LOCK CONFIRMED]
[GHOSTRUN BONUS SYNCED TO: K.VALE // R. SOLIS]
[EVAC LOCKED FOR: 60 SECONDS]
Echo-6 spoke softly:
> "You didn't save him either."
Kazien looked at her.
Riven looked at the memory of herself.
She fell to her knees.
> [SYNC LEVEL FLUCTUATING – 82% → 56% → ERROR]
The system trembled.
The zone cracked.
Kazien reached for her.
Riven slapped his hand away.
"You let him die."
"So did you."
"I trusted you."
"I loved you."
Silence.
Echo-6 watched them both.
Then smiled.
> "Now we're ready."
Echo-6 stood like a priest in a church made of broken code.
Kazien and Riven stood on either side of the shattered memory vault breathing hard, blood and shame between them.
The zone pulsed with red static.
> [ZONE INTEGRITY: 41%]
[SYNC THRESHOLD: UNSTABLE]
Kazien finally broke the silence.
"What did you mean now we're ready?"
Echo-6 tilted his head.
> "You're both broken. Finally. Equal in guilt. Synced in regret."
"That's what she needed."
"She?" Riven's voice rasped. "SYNDRA?"
Echo-6 smiled.
> "You thought this was about memory. It's about pattern. She's building the perfect combat sync from your pain."
Kazien's jaw tightened. "She's using us."
"No," Echo-6 said. "She's becoming you."
He stepped forward.
> "And when your sync hits 100% the final shot will be hers."
Kazien raised SAGE.
Riven didn't move.
She just stared at Echo-6, voice flat. "Why help her?"
> "Because I'm not real. I'm everything Kazien deleted. I am the part of him that made the call."
Kazien fired.
The bullet passed through Echo-6 who vanished like fog, then reappeared behind them.
> "I'm not your enemy. I'm your inevitable upgrade."
The sand cracked.
The sky darkened.
Glass-memories bled from the walls of the vault.
Kazien turned to Riven.
"Look, I know you hate me"
"Don't," she said. "Don't act like this is fixable."
"You think I don't relive that moment every time I pull the trigger?"
"No," she whispered. "I think you forgot on purpose. And now that I remember, I can't pretend it didn't change everything."
> [SYNC WARNING: FRACTURE DETECTED]
[RECOIL LINK: DISABLED]
[Dual Firing Mode Locked]
Their guns sparked.
The glow between them that powered their fused attacks shorted out.
FURY's voice glitched.
"Uh… guys? We're unsynced. I feel single again. I hate it."
SAGE: "Tactical sync loss confirmed. Efficiency drop: 64%."
Kazien stepped toward her. "We still need each other to get out."
"No," Riven said. "You need me. I'm not sure I need you anymore."
Then she walked.
Alone.
Toward the exit path that opened behind the vault a glowing corridor of fragmented light and code vines twisting in on themselves.
Kazien watched her go.
Didn't stop her.
Didn't follow.
Echo-6's voice whispered beside him.
> "Good. Now we can begin."
Kazien stood alone in the dead memory vault.
The wind wasn't real. The dust wasn't real. But the silence? That was very, very real.
His hands twitched.
SAGE buzzed quietly:
"Sync dropped below cooperative threshold. Emotional cohesion fractured. Partner classified: hostile-neutral."
FURY's voice came slower now.
"You really broke her this time. Kinda impressive. Kinda sad."
Kazien lowered the guns.
Echo-6 circled him like a vulture that had read too many psychology textbooks.
> "You always do this," Echo-6 said. "You build it up. Then pull the trigger before it can become something real."
"I didn't pull anything this time."
> "Didn't you? You locked the memory. You left the timer. You made her choose you over him and now you're shocked she can't look you in the eye."
Kazien turned. Fast.
Gun to Echo-6's head.
"I'm done listening."
> "Then shoot. I won't stop you."
Kazien hesitated.
The same hesitation from the vault replayed in the air between them.
He lowered the gun.
Not because he believed Echo-6.
Because he believed the part of himself that hated what he saw.
> "That's what I thought," Echo-6 said softly. "You're not broken enough yet. But you will be."
He smiled.
And vanished into static.
MEANWHILE…
Riven stumbled through the corridor alone.
The light was sharp, fractured, like walking inside a broken screen.
She clutched her shoulder the one Jax's bullet had grazed now pulsing with deeper corruption.
Memories flickered in the walls like reflections she didn't ask for.
Her brother.
Kazien smiling in that dumb way he used to smile.
The moment she hesitated.
The moment she didn't press override.
"Why didn't you run?" she whispered to herself.
But the only answer came from the system.
> [ZONE PATH UNSTABLE – REROUTING]
[YOU ARE BEING FOLLOWED]
She turned.
No one there.
Yet.
BACK IN THE VAULT
Kazien stared into the blank air where Echo-6 had vanished.
He whispered, "You're not me."
But something answered.
Not Echo-6.
Not the guns.
Her.
> "Not yet," SYNDRA said. "But soon."
Kazien's blood turned to ice.
> "Echo-6 was never your failure," she said, soft and cold.
"He was my first weapon."
"And now he's ready to complete his loop."
"He'll bring me your heart."