"The mind, once split, cannot be resealed without bleeding."
—Cipher Doctrine 8, Found in Vault: Echo-3
---
The moment Iris touched her hand, the recursion detonated inside Sera's skull.
No pain. No warning.
Just pure, merciless memory.
---
She was ten, locked in a white room. A man with silver gloves injected a serum beneath her tongue.
She was seventeen, bleeding out on a marble floor, whispering Elias's name as fire alarms blared overhead.
She was twenty-three, holding a child in her arms. A child with eyes like hers. A child the system erased.
And then—
She was someone else.
---
Sera stumbled back. Her fingers trembled as she gripped the cold wall.
"I—" Her voice broke. "I remember…"
Iris's voice was calm, almost gentle. "Not enough. Not yet."
Kaito's voice crackled in their ears: "We've got company. Elite retrieval squads—non-lethal gear. They want you alive."
Yasmine cursed and aimed her gun. "We're aborting."
But Elias didn't move. His eyes were locked on Sera.
"She's changing," he whispered. "I can see it. She's… syncing."
Sera turned to Iris. "Why now? Why show me this?"
Iris tilted her head. "Because you weren't ready before. But now, they've pushed you to the edge. I just gave you the last shove."
---
In seconds, boots thundered down the hall outside. Kaito's voice faded under static.
Sera looked at Iris. "If I free you, will you help us stop them?"
Iris smiled, sharp as broken glass. "No. But I'll help you remember what they're truly hiding."
Before Sera could respond, the vault doors exploded inward.
---
The squad entered—black armor, white visors, each armed with stun lances and restraint rigs.
But they hesitated.
Because Iris was standing free.
And the look in her eyes wasn't human.
She moved before the first command was shouted.
---
She swept one guard's legs with precision. Grabbed another and slammed him against the wall. The third didn't even see the knife appear in her hand before it pierced his throat.
Elias fired a stun round—covering her escape.
Sera ran.
Yasmine grabbed her wrist. "MOVE!"
---
Through the chaos, down a side corridor, Elias leading them through the architecture of shadows.
Sera glanced back.
Iris had vanished.
But in her mind, Iris's voice remained.
"You were never the first. Just the best copy."
---
Minutes later, they burst into the underground tramline.
Kaito was already inside a hacked maintenance drone. "Go, go, go—doors closing in ten!"
They leaped in.
As the tram sped into the dark, Sera sat against the cold wall, her lungs burning.
Yasmine collapsed beside her. "That… was suicide."
Elias leaned over her. "Sera. You okay?"
She looked up.
And said the one thing none of them expected:
"My name isn't Sera. Not originally."
They all stared.
She touched the mark behind her neck. The place Iris had touched.
"My name is Sivra Delane. I was one of the Twelve Architects."
Silence.
Only the hum of the rail and the whisper of the recursion deepening inside her.