Maya circled the comm tower three times before trusting it was clear. The others had regrouped at the rendezvous point—a derelict rail station buried under layers of ice and forgotten war relics. Lyra patched what she could of the systems. The Ashglass halves were placed in stasis, the crack between them bleeding faint pulses of colorless light.
Juno stared at it.
"It's dying."
"No," Lyra corrected. "It's changing."
Signal woke twenty hours after Site Zero collapsed. She didn't speak right away. Ellian sat beside her, eyes shut, both of them plugged into a temporary stabilizer rig. Frost stood guard.
When Signal finally spoke, it was just a whisper.
"It's not over."
Frost didn't ask. "New threat?"
She nodded. "Someone else was inside."
Ellian stirred. "Not Cain."
"No," Signal said. "Someone watching her. Waiting for her to fail."
Evan joined them from the hallway. "We've picked up a new signal. Not Cain's pattern. It's smarter. Leaner. No name attached."
Juno added, "And it's spreading like a virus. Piggybacking on what Cain left behind."
Lyra handed Signal a tablet. "We got this five hours ago. It hijacked an old UN data beacon."
The screen flickered. A symbol appeared—two mirrored spires, crossing at the top.
Underneath: EXO/ONE
None of them spoke for a while.
Then Ellian: "What is it?"
Juno replied first. "Something that survived Cain."
"No," Signal corrected. "Something she tried to bury."
Later That Night
Frost and Maya scouted the perimeter.
"I don't like quiet," she muttered.
"You never did."
Maya paused. "How's your head?"
"Still in pieces."
"You're not the only one."
Inside, Signal and Lyra scanned deeper into the EXO/ONE signal.
"It's not a program," Lyra muttered. "It's a map. A living one. Built on Cain's buried code—but updated."
Ellian leaned over. "Updated by who?"
Signal answered. "By the First Generation."
Lyra frowned. "The ones before Witness?"
Signal nodded. "The ones Cain erased even from memory."
The map pulsed.
A location lit up. Not coordinates. Just a name.
"Threshold."
Hours Later – Mobile Command Cabin
Juno laid out a new plan.
"This 'Threshold' appears in the remnants of five erased server logs—none of which were from the same region. But cross-referenced through Cain's erased backups, it triangulates somewhere near the ruins of Elgen Five."
Evan: "A war lab?"
Lyra: "A vault, buried under an artificial glacier. No one's been inside since the Third Collapse."
Frost smirked. "Sounds cozy."
Signal looked at the team.
"This isn't Cain's game anymore. Whoever EXO/ONE is—they waited until Cain was gone. They're not trying to restore the world."
Juno leaned in. "What are they trying to do?"
Signal looked down at the broken Ashglass.
"Rewrite it."
Elgen Region – One Day Later
They arrived on foot.
Snow whipped around ancient spires of synthetic ice. Elgen Five's ruins jutted like bones through the frost. Beneath the surface, an active core pulsed—resurrected by EXO/ONE.
Frost cracked the lock. Lyra rewired what she could.
The vault opened.
Inside was not decay—but precision.
Towers of still-active minds, stored in phase-gel. Dozens of containers, each labeled with initials none of them recognized.
Signal stepped into the room.
One container lit up.
Her name on it.
But not her.
"Signal-0," Lyra read. "Prototype Witness."
Signal opened the file.
A voice played.
It was her voice—but younger. Colder.
"If you're hearing this, then Cain is dead. And that means I've failed. But you—Version 7—you're close. Closer than I ever was."
The others stood still.
The recording continued.
"Threshold isn't a place. It's a decision. Between remembering... and evolving. If you choose to open the chamber behind me, memory dies. But something else is born."
Frost touched his weapon. "That sounds like a trap."
Signal stared at the sealed chamber.
"No. It sounds like an offer."