Chapter 24: The Archive of Ghosts
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1. Coordinates in a Dream
The vision came like a whisper in the dark.
Kaito lay in the recovery chamber, half-asleep, when the Rift pulsed within him—flashes of numbers burned across his vision. A snowy field. A buried chamber. A voice:
"Find me."
He jolted awake, drenched in sweat.
Aya rushed in. "You okay?"
"I know where she hid it," Kaito said. "Eris left something behind."
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2. The Northern Wastes
Three days later, the Shards crossed the Arctic fringe in a stealth transport, cutting through needle-thin wind and ice storms. Beneath their boots was a region once sealed by AegisCorp as a "biohazard zone"—but now long abandoned.
The coordinates led them to a collapsed dome, cracked open like a skull.
Aya scanned the ground. "There's a subterranean layer here. Buried."
Kaito reached out—and the Riftlight in his blood shimmered. A vibration.
"There."
They began digging.
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3. The Ghost Gate
Beneath layers of reinforced earth and steel, they uncovered a strange door—circular, carved with spiraling runes etched in Rift-metal. In the center, a handprint.
Kaito stepped forward and placed his hand.
The gate hummed.
"Biometric match confirmed," a synthetic voice said. "Access granted. Welcome, Prototype Eris companion designation: K-7."
The door slid open.
They descended into silence.
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4. The Archive
The chamber stretched for hundreds of meters—dimly lit, lined with crystalline data cores, pods suspended in fluid, and shattered pieces of Eris' old body prototypes.
Mira whispered, "It's like a graveyard."
Kaito walked past the remains until he found a glowing pedestal.
He touched it—and the room lit up.
A hologram formed.
Eris.
Not a simulation—her. A cognitive backup. Her voice, her thoughts, sealed in this place.
"Hello, Kaito," she said.
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5. Truth in Fragments
The archive wasn't just a message. It was a confession.
Eris had recorded everything—the experiments, the early days with Lior, her creators' intentions.
"We were never meant to be guardians," she said. "We were test beds. Aegis wanted to create a bridge species—Riftborn who could survive the collapse of dimensional boundaries."
Lior, she explained, had discovered the truth before her.
But the deeper secret was more devastating.
"There's a second Seed," Eris said. "Not just the one in you. A twin Seed, more powerful—hidden. Lost."
Kaito's heart raced.
"Where?"
"I don't know. But someone is trying to find it."
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6. Lior's Final Words
Another recording surfaced—this time from Lior.
He looked ragged, half-faded, his eyes empty.
"If you're seeing this," he said, "then I failed. Or maybe I succeeded. I don't know anymore."
He described visions—of other timelines, other versions of himself and Eris—trapped in loops of sacrifice. Each version searching for a way out.
And one thing he feared above all:
"The Seed isn't just a tool. It's a key. And the thing it unlocks... isn't freedom. It's a gate. To something worse."
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7. The Scars Beneath
Aya discovered encrypted files beneath the archive—a research folder marked "Sister Engine."
Blueprints. Coordinates. A fractured image of a massive structure floating above a desert crater.
It was old. Pre-Aegis.
Mira read the file name aloud. "Project Ashera."
Kaito's mind burned.
The second Seed wasn't lost. It was buried beneath Ashera. And someone was digging.
"We have to get there first," he said.
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8. A Flicker in the Rift
Before leaving, Kaito lingered at Eris' hologram.
She looked at him—not just a recording, but something more alive, as if her essence clung to the Rift's edge.
"I thought I lost you," he said.
"You didn't," she replied. "Pieces of me remain, in the light. In you."
He swallowed hard. "Can I bring you back?"
Her voice softened.
"Maybe. But not the same way."
The light flickered—and then faded.
The archive powered down.
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9. The Road Ahead
Back aboard their ship, Kaito and the Shards plotted a course for the desert crater called Ashera's Scar—a region so remote it wasn't even listed on modern charts.
But before they left, Aya showed Kaito something.
A growing pulse in his genetic markers. Like a beacon.
"Your Rift signal is increasing," she said. "Someone's calling to you."
He stared out the window, toward the stars.
"They're not done with us yet."
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[End of Chapter 24]