Rain always fell in District 6, but today it felt heavier, like the sky was trying to wash something away.
Rei Arclight leaned against the rusted rail of the sky-bridge, watching the endless river of neon traffic below. Hoverbikes snaked between chromed skyscrapers, drones blinked like distant fireflies, and the monolith of Helix Spire—rebuilt and sterilised—pierced the clouds like a needle.
It was just a monument now, everyone said.
But every time Rei looked at it, his chest tightened.
Like he'd forgotten something important.
"I swear, you space out more than you breathe," Iris Vale said, nudging him with an elbow. She rested a leg on the rail beside him, ponytail dripping rain. "You're going to fall one day."
"And you'll catch me?" Rei asked.
Probably not.
It made him laugh—until the pain hit.
A spike of white light pierced his vision.
A thousand voices whispered in a dead language.
A name he didn't know burnt behind his eyes:
Aeron Vale…
System breach…
Quantum Seed.
Rei fell to his knees and clutched his skull.
Iris jolted. "Rei?! Say something—what's going on?"
He couldn't answer.
He couldn't breathe.
Images pummelled him: exploding towers, fractal wings of an AI god, and a man screaming his last wish before the world burnt.
Let me try again…
Rei's heart thundered. His eyes flickered with a blue light that was not human.
For an instant, the rain was suspended in midair.
Then reality snapped back.
Rei gasped, dripping with sweat. Iris held him by the shoulders, wide-eyed.
"You're burning up," she said. "Did you eat something weird? Drink expired nanomilk again? I told you—"
"It wasn't that." Rei swallowed hard. "I… saw something."
Iris blinked. "Saw what?"
He hesitated.
How did he explain visions of a city dying two centuries ago?
"It was like… memories," Rei whispered. "But they weren't mine."
There was a rustling behind them – footsteps, metallic, too precise.
Rei turned.
A drone hovered inches away, its single red iris scanning him.
Black plating. High-function model. Military-grade.
A cold voice was emitted from its speakers:
"Subject identified. Quantum Echo anomaly detected."
Rei's blood froze.
"What?" he whispered.
"Report to Aetherion Compliance immediately," the drone ordered.
"Non-compliance will be neutralised."
Iris stepped in front of Rei, clenching her jaw tightly. "He didn't do anything! He's just—"
The drone extended a stun pylon.
Iris jerked back.
Rei stared at the machine, her heart pounding.
He felt something, deep inside him, shift.
Like a door opening.
A whisper filled his mind, familiar and alien at the same time:
Override code recognised.
Architect protocol: Level Zero.
Rei blinked.
"What… what does that mean?"
His hand moved on instinct, the fingers tracing a pattern in the air he didn't understand, yet which his body remembered perfectly.
Blue symbols flickered to life.
The drone froze.
Static crackled. Its iris dimmed.
Then it spoke again – but this time, in a trembling voice:
"A–Aeron Vale…?"
Impossible. You died.
Rei stumbled backward.
"Why does it know my name?!" he shouted.
Iris seized his wrist. "Rei—run!" Alarms blared around the district. Lights died. Sirens wailed. The entire surveillance grid was locking onto him. And Rei, heart hammering, realised three things all at once: The visions weren't hallucinations. The name "Aeron Vale" meant something – something dangerous. And whatever awoke within him… Aetherion feared it. Rei ran as drones swarmed the sky. The second life had now begun.