The chamber door hissed as the lock disengaged. Frost raised his rifle. No one moved.
Signal stepped forward.
On the other side, sterile white lights flickered on, one by one, revealing a narrow corridor descending into shadow. No dust. No signs of time. This vault hadn't just been sealed—it had been preserved.
Maya whispered behind her. "How long has this place been waiting?"
Signal didn't answer.
She walked ahead.
At the bottom was a circular chamber. A single chair sat in its center, encased in transparent crystal. Inside it: a girl. No older than fifteen. Sleeping. Tubes in her spine. Skin pale. She looked like Signal—an earlier version, more fragile, untouched by war.
Ellian scanned the capsule. "Vitals steady. Neural patterns active."
Frost circled the edge. "Looks like Cain's idea of a time capsule."
Signal walked up to the glass.
The girl's eyes opened.
"You're not her," the girl said.
Signal froze. "What?"
"You're not Cain. But you carry her code. A broken weave of her thoughts."
The voice was mechanical, filtered. It came from speakers overhead, not the girl's lips. She hadn't spoken—her mouth never moved.
"I'm Signal-Zero. Not a person. A mirror. I was the first test: could memory survive without pain?"
Lyra whispered, "A memory engine…"
"No," Signal-Zero corrected. "A failover. In case Cain was erased, I was the ghost waiting."
Juno stepped forward. "Then why did you wake up now?"
Signal-Zero's image flickered. Not just alive—sentient, processing.
"Because she died. And the world didn't stop. Which means someone else triggered the sequence."
Ellian nodded. "EXO/ONE."
Signal-Zero paused. "That was the backup to the backup. The last hand on the wheel."
"Can it be stopped?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, the room's center opened. A pedestal rose, holding a crystal seed. Not Ashglass—this one shimmered gold and red.
Lyra stepped forward. "What is it?"
Signal-Zero's voice dimmed.
"The Origin Core. The first memory storage Cain ever designed. Before Ashglass. Before the Witness Project. Before the Court."
Maya muttered, "How the hell did that survive?"
Juno scanned it. "Sealed in quantum stasis. Undetectable. Hidden even from Cain herself."
Signal looked at her younger self. "Why show us now?"
"Because you've come too far. You're no longer players. You're pieces of the reset."
The lights dimmed.
A low pulse beat from the walls.
Signal-Zero's eyes fluttered.
"My time's over. I'm not needed anymore."
The glass cracked from inside.
Ellian lunged forward. "Wait—"
Too late.
The capsule dissolved in mist.
The girl was gone.
No body. Just particles—data—absorbed into the Origin Core.
Frost raised his weapon, uncertain. "That's not good."
Signal stared at the pedestal.
"She just gave us everything."
Thirty Minutes Later – Exiting Elgen Vault
They climbed back into the cold. Above, clouds had shifted. Sky darker. The Ashglass shards in Lyra's bag pulsed wildly.
Lyra stopped walking.
"What is it?" Evan asked.
She opened her hand.
The shards had reformed—partially fused around the golden core they recovered.
Not just Ashglass now.
Something new.
Signal took it in her hand.
And then she heard it.
A voice not Cain's. Not Signal-Zero's.
But hers.
From a future that hadn't happened yet.
"This world ends in memory, or begins in forgetting. You decide."