For a long moment, I couldn't breathe.
Not because of the pain in my arm.
Not because the shard was gone.
Not because the shadow hovered somewhere behind us like a stain pressed into the air.
But because the memory I had just touched—
the one the shadow wanted buried—
was Ari's.
Lira's voice trembled as she knelt in front of me.
"Elias… tell me what you remembered."
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
The memory flickered behind my eyes—
dim, trembling—
like a candle burning inside a storm.
"I saw… the scanner room," I whispered.
"The day she died."
Lira swallowed.
"Go on."
"It wasn't just a routine upload. She wasn't just archiving a memory."
My throat tightened.
"She was scared."
Lira's breath hitched.
"Scared of what?"
Of what?
The answer pulsed in the back of my mind like a bruise.
"I don't know yet. It's blurry."
The shadow's voice bled through the wall—
soft, venomous:
"You don't want to remember."
I ignored him.
The memory sharpened—
Ari lying on the scan table.
Her fingers trembling.
Her eyes red from crying the night before.
She wasn't calm.
She wasn't ready.
She wasn't uploading a date memory.
She was saying goodbye.
I pushed the heels of my palms into my eyes.
"I made a promise," I whispered.
"Ari asked me for something."
Lira leaned forward, gentle but urgent.
"What did she ask, Elias?"
My breath turned brittle.
"She asked me… to delete something."
Lira froze.
"Delete… what?"
The answer slid up my spine like cold metal.
"A memory," I whispered.
"She begged me to erase one of her Echoes permanently… before anyone else saw it."
Lira's face paled.
"She shouldn't have had access to deletion-level permissions. That's highly restricted."
"She knew that," I murmured.
"That's why she begged me.
That's why she wanted me.
She trusted me."
Lira's eyes softened with something like pity.
"What memory was it?"
"I don't know," I said, frustration cracking through my voice.
"She didn't tell me. She said it was too dangerous. That if anyone saw it—
Mnemosyne—
Theta—
the auditors—
they would 'lock her away.'"
Lira inhaled sharply.
"Oh god…"
I opened my eyes.
"What?"
Lira looked at me with a kind of fear I'd never seen on her face before.
"Elias… what if Ari discovered something? Something the corporation couldn't allow to be archived?"
The shadow laughed faintly.
"She did."
Lira stood quickly, glaring into the darkness.
"What did she find?"
The shadow's tone was calm, almost pleased.
"Something that would have saved them both."
I pushed myself to my feet.
"Saved who?"
The shadow paused.
Then:
"Ari."
"And Marin."
My stomach dropped.
"What are you talking about?"
Lira stiffened.
"Elias… the Theta children—like Marin—weren't allowed to leave the neural labs. If Ari knew something about them—something Mnemosyne was hiding—she would have been silenced."
The shadow stepped closer, his outline sharpening.
"She tried to protect her."
Protect…
Who?
My pulse thundered.
"Marin?" I whispered.
"Ari tried to protect Marin?"
The shadow nodded—slow, deliberate.
"One lived. One was meant to die.
Ari tried to change that."
Lira grabbed my arm.
"No… that's not possible. Ari wasn't a scientist. She had no clearance."
The shadow's form flickered.
"She had access to someone who did."
Lira's eyes widened.
"Oh my god.
She was dating you."
Silence punched the room.
I stared at her.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Lira's breath stuttered.
"Elias… Archivists have access to Echo audits.
High-level ones.
The kind that include restricted subjects."
Her meaning hit me like a blow.
"No.
No—Ari wouldn't use me like that."
"She wouldn't," Lira said gently.
"But she might have asked for help.
Because she cared about someone trapped in Theta."
I pressed a hand to my chest.
"I don't understand."
The shadow's voice slid through the silence like a knife:
"Ari found Marin's simulation logs."
"And she found out something was wrong."
Wrong.
That word echoed in my skull.
Lira whispered:
"She must have seen a future-echo conflict.
Something Mnemosyne was covering up.
Something dangerous."
I backed up a step.
"No.
No—Ari didn't know Marin.
She couldn't have."
The shadow tilted its head.
"Are you sure?"
My breath choked.
"What do you mean?"
"You think Marin only knew you.
But she knew Ari too."
A cold tremor rippled through my bones.
Impossible.
Impossible.
I shook my head.
"No. I never saw them together."
The shadow's whisper curled like smoke:
"Because you don't remember the day you brought Ari to Theta."
My heart stopped.
Lira grabbed my wrist.
"Elias… is that true?"
I stared at the ground, nausea rising in waves.
"I…
I don't know."
The shadow leaned in, voice dripping with satisfaction.
"That is the memory Ari begged you to erase."
The air left my lungs.
The missing memory.
The promise.
Ari's panic.
Ari's tears.
Her begging.
Her death.
It all snapped into a single bloody thread:
Ari saw something inside Theta.
Something she shouldn't have.
Something that tied me
to Marin
and to the entire cover-up.
I whispered, barely audible:
"…I deleted it."
"…I deleted her memory."
"…I erased the evidence."
The truth hit like a blow to the chest.
"And that's why they killed her."
The shadow's voice exhaled, triumphant:
"Now you understand what you took from me."
I looked up slowly.
"What?"
The shadow grew larger—
taller—
until its form towered over us both.
"Marin was never supposed to be saved."
"And Ari was never supposed to know."
My hands trembled violently.
"What are you?"
The shadow leaned forward…
And whispered:
"I am everything you erased."