Some truths don't belong in the light. That's why Solaris buried his message in a machine no one could find — except for the boy he left behind.
Scene: Underground Lift Shaft – Beneath Hero Tower
The walls were sweating.
Not with heat, but pressure. The kind of pressure that came from being somewhere the world had buried — not just physically, but politically, historically, ideologically.
The three of them moved in silence.
Ava, leading.
Aya, pacing behind, hand flexing near the hilt of her pulse knife.
And in the center: Rook Vale.
No uniform. No symbol. Just the silver spike drive Ava had given him, glinting cold in his palm like a bullet that hadn't been fired yet.
They reached the bottom.
A sealed door waited — no handle, no reader.
Just a blank panel.
Ava stepped forward. Pulled back her sleeve.
Revealed the faint circuit beneath her wrist.
Tapped twice.
The panel blinked.
Then spoke.
"Authorization detected.""Welcome, Solaris."
The door opened.
Scene: The Memory Vault
It wasn't a lab.
It was a tomb.
The room was circular. Clean. Stainless steel walls curved upward into darkness. No furniture. No screens.
Just a single chair, facing a blank wall.
And a cylindrical device — no taller than a knee — sitting in the middle of the floor, humming.
Ava stepped back.
"This is where he kept the backup."
Rook stepped forward.
The hum got louder.
He inserted the spike.
The floor vibrated.
The wall in front of the chair flickered.
And then — his father's voice.
Hologram: Solaris
He looked younger than Rook remembered. Early 30s. Beard trimmed short. Eyes still bright. Shoulders unbroken.
He sat in the chair.
Spoke like he was talking to the dark.
"If you're hearing this, Hernan…They got me.And you're not safe."
Rook's chest tightened.
Aya stepped back.
Ava didn't move.
"I tried to stop them. Not with force. Not with speeches. With truth.But the truth isn't what they fear.It's someone who can prove it."
The hologram leaned forward.
"That has to be you."
He spoke of Project Hollowframe.
Of the loyalty trials.
Of Project Adhara — the memory vault.
"You'll meet her. I don't know how she'll turn out. I never finished the programming.I left pieces. Fragments.I hoped… the part of me that survived in her… would find the part of you that survived in yourself."
Rook felt something clawing at the back of his throat.
A noise he hadn't made in years.
Something like… grief.
"You're going to be hated. Used. Lied to.They'll crown you if it benefits them. Kill you when it doesn't.So wear the mask. Let them think they own you.But remember this —"
Solaris leaned closer. His voice dropped.
"You are not their weapon.You are my reckoning."
The message ended.
The light went out.
The room went dark again.
Scene: Aftermath – Same Room
No one spoke.
Not for a long time.
Aya was the first.
"…That wasn't a goodbye."
"No," Rook said. Voice raw. "It was a blueprint."
Ava stepped forward.
"He left one more thing."
She tapped the vault core.
A compartment opened.
Inside: a second spike.Older. Hand-inscribed.
It read:
Zodiac Override: Gate One
Rook took it.
Turned it in his palm.
A map lit up in the air above them — a full spread of Zodiac Tower infrastructure. It marked every blind spot. Every security loop. Every falsified kill report.
Thirteen names.
Each one marked with a number.
Aya stared at the map.
Then looked at Rook.
"What now?"
Rook stood.
Straightened.
His voice was quiet, but absolute.
"Now we kill them properly."