> SESSION 93-A
MEM: ELIAS_ORIG
The blinking cursor glared at him like an accusation.
Elias reached for the drive with shaking hands. It felt… warm. Organic.
As he inserted it, the chamber didn't reboot. It expanded.
The walls dissolved outward into stars.
He stood suddenly in the center of an infinite grid—like standing in the server heart of the universe. Code cascaded from the sky, infinite green strands forming pathways and doorways and—faces.
His own face. Over and over.
Then one broke pattern.
Not older. Not scarred.
Younger.
Fifteen? No more than that. Wide-eyed, confused. Wearing a school uniform from New Frankfurt High.
Elias's breath caught.
That wasn't just a reconstruction. That was… a memory.
"I don't remember this," he whispered.
The younger version looked up at him.
"I do," it said.
Suddenly, walls of data snapped shut around them. A new voice—female, modulated, flat:
> Identity fragmenting.
Original protocol breach.
Splinter enforcement required.
The grid shattered into red.
He was flung backward—landing in a cold corridor lit by pulsing red lights. Emergency sirens. Monitors flickering static.
At the far end—footsteps.
Metal. Rhythmic.
A humanoid figure stepped through the smoke.
Not a machine. Not quite human.
Its face—his face—smoothed, emotionless. Half-mechanical.
"You accessed the Origin Protocol," it said. "That was not permitted."
Elias scrambled backward. "What are you?"
It tilted its head.
"I am Drift Zero. I am the first."
"Impossible. The logs start at Drift 1—"
"They lied."
Drift Zero stepped closer. The lights dimmed.
"You were never the original, Elias. You were the experiment."
He reached out.
And Elias felt his thoughts seize—memories pulled—unraveling—
Neo-Berlin, the lab fire, Liora—
They twisted, reassembled—differently.
"No—stop!" he gasped.
> REINITIALIZING CORE MEMORY
ORIGIN RESET REQUIRED
Then the screen behind Drift Zero blinked once, flashing a new message:
> PROTOCOL: LIORA_RESTORE
> Request override from User: UNKNOWN
Drift Zero paused.
"That's not you," it said.
Elias turned—Liora stood there. Real. Breathing. Tears in her eyes.
"I'm pulling you out," she said.
"But how—"
The world shattered like glass.
Darkness.
Then—
Light.
He opened his eyes.
A hospital room.
Wires in his arms. A nurse gasped.
"He's awake!"
He turned his head.
And
saw his reflection.
It wasn't him.
---
Chapter 3 End.