Rain dripped from the brim of Rowan's hood as she moved through the underground metro tunnel, half-limping, half-running. The injuries from the facility explosion burned like fire in her side, but the pain kept her alert. Alive.
She had escaped.
Barely.
The shadows here were thick, slick with damp and secrets. Each tunnel echoed with phantom footsteps, but she didn't slow down. The retrieval units would think she died in the lab. That was the plan. But ghosts, Rowan knew, didn't always stay dead.
A soft click came from ahead—metal against metal. She stopped instantly, breath held.
"Password," a voice rasped from the dark.
Rowan narrowed her eyes. "Dreams are memory's rebellion."
A pause. Then: "Welcome back from the dead."
A figure stepped into the dim light, revealing themselves as Ash, one of Dev's long-lost contacts from the early resistance days. They wore tech armor and a crooked smile. "Nice trick with the fire. Even better escape. Eira?"
"Safe. With the core."
Ash nodded. "Then we move to Phase Two."
At the safehouse, Eira couldn't sleep.
She kept thinking of Rowan. Of Stark. Of the smell of scorched memory.
Dev sat beside the humming terminal, eyes scanning a screen full of encrypted streams. "We're in a race," they said. "And I think we're already behind."
Eira crossed her arms. "Someone's decrypting it?"
"Worse. Someone's replicating it."
They turned the monitor toward her. A map filled the screen, glowing with points of sudden digital activity. Black sites lighting up one by one across the globe. Mnemosyne hadn't died in that lab.
It had gone underground.
"They planned for a purge," Dev whispered. "They always had backups. We weren't the only project."
Eira clenched her jaw. "We burn them all."
Just then, the door opened.
Rowan stood there, soaked, bloodied, and alive.
Eira rushed to her, ignoring every instinct telling her to stay composed. She pulled Rowan into a fierce hug before punching her shoulder gently.
"You idiot," she whispered. "I thought I lost you."
"You almost did," Rowan murmured. "But I promised I wouldn't die before the ending."
She looked up at Dev, then at the screen. "We're not done, are we?"
Dev shook their head. "We're just getting started."
Eira stepped forward, resolve hardening in her voice. "Then let's finish what they started—our way."