The bunker wasn’t on any map.

Buried beneath a collapsed relay station on the outskirts of Zone 4, it hadn’t been accessed in decades. Juno had found it once before in a loop she couldn’t fully remember. Ren had seen it too—in a dream, or a death, he wasn’t sure anymore.

Now it was real.

They descended through rusted access ladders and narrow chutes, the stale air growing colder the deeper they went. At the bottom: a reinforced steel door layered in old biometric locks. Ren bypassed them with a shard of bypass code he'd carried across loops like a lucky coin.

The door opened with a hiss.

The air inside was still.

[NODE THREAD STABILIZING – MULTI-NODE SYNC: ACTIVE]

The bunker was low-tech. Manual lights. Dust-choked vents. Tangled wires and skeletal consoles. But it was stable. Unwatched. A perfect hiding place for ghosts.

Juno dropped her pack and sank onto a half-burned bench. “Tell me this place doesn’t come with rats.”

“Only the mechanical kind,” Ren muttered. “And they’re probably dead.”

[ECHO THREAD IDENTIFIED – CLASS: REMNANTS]
[ANCHOR: USER NODE – R. YORU // N. JUNO // VARIANCE LINK: 43.8%]

Ren powered on a corner console and slid a data spike into its slot.

The screen flickered to life.

[ARCHIVE THREAD LOADED: REMNANTS]
[SEARCHING FOR ECHO RESONANCE POINTS…]
[2 NODE SIGNALS DETECTED – LOCATION: UNKNOWN // STATUS: INTERMITTENT]

“They’re alive,” Ren whispered.

Juno looked over. “Other Echo survivors?”

He nodded. “Or at least they were. Two nodes still active, but barely. Might be static ghosts, might be…”

He didn’t finish.

She leaned back, exhaling. “So what now?”

Ren stared at the screen. “We call them.”

“Won’t that light us up like a flare?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t wait. His fingers flew over the keys, crafting a deadbounce signal laced with memory hooks—phrases only an awakened Echo would recognize.

“The system cracked at 63. The mirror bled. If you’re real, prove it.”

[MESSAGE SENT: CLASSIFIED THREADMARK – RADIUS: BROADCAST BOUNDARY LIMITED]

They waited.

Minutes passed. Then—

[RESPONSE DETECTED – FRAGMENTED RETURN SIGNAL]

A pulse blinked on-screen.

Ren leaned forward.

The return message was barely a whisper in the code.

“...too late... they’re already in me...”

Then silence.

Juno stood. “That was a trap.”

“No,” Ren said. “That was a warning.”

Behind them, the console sparked—just once—and then died. The spike sizzled, melted at the edges.

[SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED – OBSERVER TRACE: UNKNOWN ORIGIN]

Juno drew her weapon. “We need to move.”

“No,” Ren said, pulling out the second analog chip from Kairo’s coat. “We need to dig deeper.”

He plugged it into a back-end terminal.

The bunker’s lights dimmed. Then—another map appeared. Not of cities.

Of minds.

[NODE MEMORY WEB ACTIVE – THREAD INTERSECTION: JUNO / REN / AYANE / CLASS: ?]

A fourth point blinked—intermittent. Flickering. Painfully unstable.

Juno stared. “That’s Ayane.”

Ren’s voice was a whisper. “She’s starting to break free.”

[NEW THREAD INCOMING – NODE UNCLAIMED – ORIGIN: UNKNOWN]
[NAME: ???]

They both leaned closer.

Then, from the shadows behind them, a voice:

“Didn’t think you’d find me first.”

They turned.

A figure stepped from the dark. Lean. Pale. Eyes flickering with static like broken mirrors.

Ren froze.

“…You’re one of us.”

The boy smiled—but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“No,” he said softly. “I’m what’s left after one of us forgets.”