Echo was twelve when she found the door.
Not a physical door. A conceptual one. A gap in the Archive's documentation that shouldn't exist. A hole in records that had been meticulously maintained for over a billion years.
She'd been exploring the Archive since she could walk. Daughter of Wonder, granddaughter of choice, descendant of revival. The Archive was her inheritance. Her history. Her connection to beings who'd died a billion years before she existed but whose testimony had made her existence possible.
She knew the Archive intimately. Knew Emma's chamber. Knew Keiko's. Knew every singular human documented across nine hundred million years of biological singularity. Knew every revived singular across three hundred million years of revival. Knew testimonies. Knew lives. Knew choices. Knew everything that had been documented.
Which is why the gap disturbed her.
