The forest seemed quieter now.
Too quiet.
Lucien guided Ava to sit on a large rock while Aurora scanned the area again with her tablet.
"You okay?" Lucien asked gently.
Ava pressed her fingers against her temples.
"I think so."
But the memory was still there.
Sharp.
Clear.
And terrifying.
Lucien crouched in front of her.
"Tell me exactly what you saw."
Ava closed her eyes for a moment.
"I was in a room," she whispered.
"White walls. Machines everywhere."
Aurora nodded slowly.
"A lab."
Ava continued.
"There were people watching me. Scientists. And a man giving orders."
Lucien's voice lowered.
"What did he say?"
Ava opened her eyes.
"He said I remembered too much."
Aurora looked thoughtful.
"That means they didn't just erase your identity."
Lucien finished the thought.
"They erased something else."
Ava's chest tightened.
"But what?"
Aurora crossed her arms.
"That's the million-dollar question."
Lucien stood slowly, scanning the dark forest again.
"Or the twenty-million-dollar one."
Ava looked up at him.
"Why would they experiment on me?"
Lucien hesitated.
Aurora answered first.
"Maybe you weren't just investigating them."
Ava frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Aurora's eyes sharpened.
"Maybe you were part of them."
The words hit Ava like a shockwave.
"No," she said immediately.
"I would remember that."
Aurora shrugged.
"Not if they erased it."
Lucien looked at Ava carefully.
"Did you see anything else in the memory?"
Ava tried to think.
The images flickered again.
Machines.
Cold lights.
Then—
Something else.
Her eyes widened.
"There was a symbol."
Lucien leaned forward slightly.
"What symbol?"
Ava drew it slowly in the dirt with a stick.
A strange circular mark with three lines cutting through it.
Aurora's expression changed instantly.
"Oh… that's bad."
Lucien looked at her.
"You recognize it?"
Aurora nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Ava's voice trembled.
"What is it?"
Aurora looked directly at her.
"That symbol belongs to the Dominion's highest division."
Lucien's eyes darkened.
"The Black Division."
Ava felt cold fear spread through her body.
"What does that mean?"
Aurora answered quietly.
"It means you weren't just investigating them."
She paused.
Then said the words that made Ava's heart stop.
"You were their most important project."