---
White. Endless white.
Evelyn blinked, waiting for something to matter. Nothing did. Not the silence. Not the flickering screen. Not the fact that she was breathing when she shouldn't be.
Her voice, dry even in the void: So this is it? Death looks like a blank PowerPoint slide.
The screen pulsed.
> "Welcome, Evelyn Hart. You have been selected."
She frowned. "Selected for what? A raffle?"
No answer.
The words shifted.
> "Strategic laziness detected. Emotional trauma logged. Rebooting consciousness."
Her chest tightened. She remembered the rain. The kiss. The betrayal. The way her heart had betrayed her too.
She whispered, "So I really died."
The screen didn't care.
> "You are now Agent Zero."
And then she fell.
---
The fall wasn't violent. It was slow, like sinking into water. Her body didn't flail. Her mind did.
She landed in a room. Not white anymore. Dark. Metallic. A hum filled the air, steady and low, like a machine breathing.
A voice spoke. Not the screen. Not human.
"Milo," it said. "Your companion."
She turned. A small orb hovered near her shoulder, glowing faint blue.
"You're awake," Milo said.
Evelyn stared. "You're… a drone?"
"An interface," Milo corrected. "I keep you alive. I keep you hidden. I keep you moving."
She smirked. "Sounds clingy."
"Sounds necessary."
---
She stood, legs shaky. The room stretched into corridors, each lined with screens. Data flickered across them — names, numbers, faces she didn't recognize.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"ValeTech's shadow," Milo said. "The system beneath the system. You built it. Nova stole it. Now you're inside it."
Her throat tightened. "The Sloth Protocol."
"Upgraded," Milo said. "You're not Evelyn Hart anymore. You're Agent Zero. Invisible. Untouchable. Inserted where you need to be."
She laughed, sharp and bitter. "So I'm a ghost employee now?"
"Exactly."
---
A screen lit up. Evelyn's face appeared — not hers, not anymore.
"Elena Voss," Milo said. "Your new identity. Analyst. Background fabricated. Resume flawless. No one will question you."
She touched the screen. The woman staring back looked like her, but sharper. Colder. A version of herself stripped of softness.
"I don't recognize her," Evelyn whispered.
"You don't need to," Milo said. "You just need to wear her."
---
She sat on the edge of the metallic bed, staring at her hands.
Her mind replayed Nova's smile. Jace's silence. The betrayal that had killed her.
She whispered, "Why bring me back?"
Milo hovered closer. "Because you matter. Because you see what others don't. Because revenge requires patience."
Her lips curved faintly. "Revenge."
The word tasted strange. Heavy.
---
She looked at Milo. "So what am I, really? A ghost? A program?"
Milo's light pulsed. "You're consciousness embedded in ValeTech's infrastructure. Not flesh. Not code. Both. You exist where the system breathes. That's why you can't be traced. That's why you can't be photographed. That's why you're Agent Zero."
Evelyn's stomach twisted. "So I'm… nothing?"
"Not nothing," Milo said. "You're the one thing they can't see."
She leaned back, eyes closing.
For the first time since the rain, Evelyn felt something.
Not grief. Not numbness.
Something sharper.
Something alive.
---