Ellian didn't rush.
He descended the ridge slowly, eyes locked on Signal. The team drew weapons. Evan stood in front of her, gun ready.
Ellian stopped ten feet from the entrance.
"I didn't come to fight," he said. "I came to remember."
Signal stepped forward. "You want to overwrite me."
"No," he said. "I want to finish you."
Frost gritted his teeth. "That's not better."
Ellian ignored him.
"There's a thread running through your mind, Signal. Cain cut it. I'm here to tie it back."
Lyra's scanner beeped. "He's emitting a neural sync frequency. If she listens—"
"She doesn't get to decide," Ellian said. "She already did."
Signal's voice was calm.
"Show me."
He stepped closer.
Juno held her weapon steady, but Evan raised his hand. "Let her."
Signal placed one hand on the Ashglass case. The other, slowly, reached toward Ellian.
Their fingers touched.
Light exploded.
Memory wasn't a flashback.
It was immersion.
Signal stood in a room she didn't recognize. White walls. Humming machines. A child sat in a chair—Ellian, younger, eyes wide, wires in his head.
Cain stood beside him.
She looked tired. Frantic. Desperate.
"Version 0 shows recursive empathy," she said to a recorder. "Not just reaction. He understands grief."
Another child entered. Younger Signal.
She hesitated in the doorway.
Cain whispered, "They'll either save each other, or destroy what's left of my conscience."
The vision snapped.
Signal staggered back.
Ellian steadied her.
"You saw it," he said.
She didn't answer. Her breathing had changed.
"I wasn't made after you," she whispered. "You were before me."
Ellian nodded. "We're not siblings. We're echoes."
Maya moved forward. "What do you want from her?"
Ellian turned.
"Cain built the Ashglass as a failsafe. But it needs two minds: the Witness…and the Lock."
He looked at Signal.
"You're the Lock."
Evan stepped in. "What happens if she opens it?"
"Everyone remembers," Ellian said. "Not just us. Everyone she erased."
Frost shook his head. "You don't know what that'll do."
"Yes, I do," Ellian said. "It ends control."
Lyra whispered, "It ends everything."
Juno finally spoke.
"We're not ready for the truth."
Ellian's face hardened.
"You weren't ready for the lies either."
Alarms triggered.
Reda's voice over comms: "We've got incoming. Two dropships. Not Pale Court. These look freelance."
Maya cursed. "Bounty teams. Someone sold our location."
Evan turned to Signal.
"We don't have time."
Signal looked at Ellian.
"Then we open it now."
Together, they activated the Ashglass.
Light poured outward. The relay structure shook, but didn't crack. The servers began to burn, but not from heat—from memory.
Cain's voice echoed again. Not pre-recorded.
Live.
"You shouldn't do this."
Signal stared upward. "You're dead."
"No," the voice said. "I'm stored."
Ellian reached toward the center of the glass.
"We're not destroying you. We're freeing what you buried."
The glass pulsed.
A final lock appeared: two handprints—Ellian's and Signal's.
Together, they pressed them down.
The room flashed once.
Then darkness.
Everyone dropped to their knees.
For thirty seconds, they remembered everything.
Names.
Places.
Orders.
Failures.
Children in chairs.
Clones in corridors.
Experiments that worked. Ones that screamed.
And then—
Silence.
When Signal stood again, her eyes were glowing. Not from power. From knowledge.
"They'll come for us now," she said.
Ellian smiled faintly.
"They were already on their way."