You bury a man, you bury a legacy. But some legacies are written in blood… and others in code.
Scene: Room 7-B – Seconds After Chapter 28 Ends
Rook Vale didn't move.
He couldn't.
Not because he was stunned. Not because of fear.
But because something inside him — something old, something buried — had cracked open like an unsealed vault.
Ava's voice still echoed in his ears.
Not her real voice.
His father's.
Perfect. Soft. Quiet.
"Don't be afraid of the stars, Hernan. That's where all the old gods sleep."
That line didn't exist in any file.
It wasn't in the press kits. Not on the tributes. Not in any Concord archive.
That line had only been whispered once — one night, on the roof of their old house, under the fractured halo of a dying moon.
And now it had been said again.
By her.
Ava stood in the center of the room like a cathedral statue — serene, elegant, patient.
Tessa was frozen beside the wall, caught between anger and confusion, but she didn't interrupt. Not now.
Because even she could feel it.
This wasn't between her and Ava anymore.
This was father and son — across time. Across design.
Across the war that hadn't started yet.
Rook stepped forward.
His voice, when it came, was flat steel.
"You're going to tell me everything."
Ava's smile didn't change.
"I was hoping you'd ask."
Scene Shift: Memory Vault Extraction (As Ava Speaks)
"Your father didn't trust the Concord," Ava said."Not just because they lied. Not because they killed. But because they forgot.They erased history like cleaning blood from a blade."
She began walking slowly around the room.
"He was building something. Not a weapon. Not a rebellion. A key.Something that couldn't be corrupted. Couldn't be bought.Something that would carry the truth until it found you."
She looked at Rook directly.
"I'm that key."
Rook's jaw flexed.
"That's not possible."
Ava tilted her head. "You think they're the only ones who cloned things?"
Rook didn't blink.
"You expect me to believe my father built you?"
"Not me," she said. "Something else. Something older. I'm the echo."
He took a step forward. "An echo of what?"
Ava's eyes darkened.
"Of what he didn't get to finish."
She raised her palm and tapped her temple.
A faint blue light pulsed beneath the skin.
"My mind was patterned off stored neural residue. A fragment. A backup. A contingency.Your father's real gift wasn't his power.It was his memory.And someone — before they burned everything — uploaded it into Project Adhara."
Rook froze.
That word.
Adhara.
A star. A name. A codename buried in the ruins of the files he stole months ago from the Concord labs. Labeled 'Quarantine Class-3'. Deleted before he could open it.
It wasn't a project.
It was a person.
Tessa finally found her voice.
"What does that mean? You're his daughter?"
Ava turned, softening just slightly.
"No. I'm something else."
"I'm the part of him that refused to let go."
She walked up to Rook now.
Stood less than two feet away.
Her eyes shone like frost under a full moon.
"I wasn't made to kill. I wasn't made to spy.I was made to remember — and then to choose.If I found you, and you were what he hoped…I'd give you what he left behind."
Rook stared.
"What is it?"
Ava leaned closer.
"The plan to end the Zodiac. Not just punish them.Erase them.Legally. Systemically. Publicly."
Tessa whispered, "That's impossible."
Ava looked at her.
"Not if you control their god algorithm."
Scene Shift: Inside Ava's Mind (Flashback Data View)
In the vault, years ago, a dead technician uploaded a final memory pulse into a clean shell. The shell twitched. Learned to blink. To breathe.
The memories weren't full.Not a consciousness.Just shadows of a man who sang to the stars and left codes in every constellation.
When Ava was born, she remembered nothing.
Until she heard Rook Vale speak his father's name.
And then?
She remembered everything.
Back to Present: Room 7-B
Rook's fingers trembled — not visibly, but inside. In the joints.
The kind of tremble that came when you realized your war had never been yours alone.
Ava pulled something from her coat.
A tiny data spike.
She handed it to him.
"This is the first node. The override virus your father designed.It only works if three conditions are met:
You're alive.
You still want the truth.
And you still remember what his voice sounded like when he said your name."
Rook took the spike.
It burned cold in his palm.
Tessa stepped beside him.
"What are you going to do?"
He stared at the spike.
Then looked at Ava.
And said:
"I'm going to finish what he started."