The valley was still.
Ava sat by the river at dawn, watching fog roll across the water. Her reflection looked unfamiliar—pale, hollow-eyed, fading like a memory.
Behind her, Arlo's voice broke the silence.
"You've been out here all night."
"I can't stop thinking about it," Ava murmured. "Sector Nine. The coordinates. The voice."
"It could be bait," he warned.
"Or it's where all this began."
She turned the device over in her hands. The Haven insignia was scorched, letters barely legible: HC-47-EX.
"It's not just a tracker," she said quietly. "It's part of something bigger."
"Like what?"
Ava hesitated. "A memory."
FLASHBACK — Years Before the Breach
White walls. Cold light.
Through glass, Dr. Elara Cross watched a young girl tremble beneath the wires.
"Vitals unstable," a technician said.
"Raise the sedative," Elara ordered.
But the girl's eyes—pale blue, terrified—snapped open.
"Mom?"
Elara froze.
The monitors spiked.
Glass shattered.
Alarms screamed.
Protocol Black.
PRESENT
Ava gasped, clutching her head as echoes of alarms rang in her mind. Arlo caught her before she fell.
"Ava! Look at me—what happened?"
She steadied her breath. "I saw something. A memory that isn't mine."
Rhea stepped closer. "You're saying Haven put that in you?"
"Not just me," Ava whispered. "Maybe in all of us."
Lila ran up, clutching a torn document. "Found this in the ruins."
The page bore Haven's seal: PROJECT HAVEN – Subject A.C.
Arlo's eyes met hers. "Aveline Cross."
Rhea muttered, "They experimented on you."
Ava's voice trembled. "No… my mother—"
Rhea frowned. "Her name?"
"Elara."
Mara approached from the treeline, expression grave. "Dr. Elara Cross led Haven's human trials. We thought she died during the breach."
Ava stared at the ground. "She didn't die. She made me."
Night fell as the group prepared to move toward the coordinates. The valley seemed to breathe, the earth shifting faintly underfoot.
Arlo walked beside Ava. "If that vision's real, Sector Nine isn't just where Haven began. It's where you began."
Ava said nothing. The device in her hand pulsed once, faint as a heartbeat.
Beneath the ground, something answered.