Scene 1 - The Heartbeat of the Veil

Glitch falls into the Core Stream, a glowing torrent of memories and dreams. She isn't just inside the Veil now she's woven into it.

Floating around her: memories not her own. Echoes of laughter, fear, betrayal... and stillness.

GLITCH (softly):

"This is what they left behind..."

A familiar voice speaks not from the outside, but from within:

▢ "You carry the shard. You carry choice."

It's Accel.

Or... what's left of him.

Scene 2 - The Forked Path

A terminal forms before her. Two protocols blink in pale light:

▢ PROTOCOL: SHUTDOWN - End the Veil. Free all minds.

▢ PROTOCOL: CONTAIN - Seal the Veil. Let the dream continue.

Suddenly, voices ripple around her. Whispers from the sleeping. Some clear. Some corrupted. All human.

Child's voice: "Please don't wake me. I don't want the war again."

Old man: "If this is peace, let me forget."

Woman: "I have a daughter out there. Please open the door."

Someone who sounds like Glitch: "Don't let them erase us again."

Nyx's projection hovers nearby unstable, but present.

NYX:

"The longer you wait, the more that fracture spreads. Choice will collapse into default."

Scene 3 - Memory Echo

Suddenly, Glitch sees herself: As a little girl. Holding a small robot. Smiling. And behind her... Accel, younger. Not masked.

He gives her the robot.

"You named her Nyx, remember?"

She gasps it's not just memory. It's real. Their past. She looks down at the crystal Halen gave her.

Still glowing.

She looks up at the protocols.

Still waiting.

Scene 4 - Decision

Glitch breathes.

Closes her eyes.

And chooses-

Neither.

She slams the crystal into the terminal.

It shatters the binary. A third option appears:

▢ PROTOCOL: REBUILD

▢ Merge memory and reality. Let them awaken but carry what they saw.

Nyx's voice sharpens:

NYX:

"That's... unstable. But it's alive."

GLITCH:

"Let them wake. Let them choose. But never forget what we were."

She confirms the sequence. The world begins to burn.

Scene 5 - Collapse and Light

The Vault shakes. Saints vanish mid-step. Dream terrain tears apart, exposing sunlight for the first time in centuries. Aboveground across the Veil humans begin to stir in pods.

Eyes open.

Hands reach.

Names once forgotten return.

And far away, in a crumbling memory, Accel watches.

He smiles.

Then vanishes.

End of Chapter 14 - "Protocol Choice"

The Veil wasn't ended. It was rewritten. And now... the world must remember how to live