Silence followed his words—thick, oppressive, alive.
Not even the hum of the cryo-pods dared to fill it.
Kade stood at the edge of the chamber, staring into the dim reflection of his younger self preserved in stasis. The realization hadn't just shifted the battlefield—it had shattered it.
"We're not who we think we are," he said, voice low.
Marei stepped back from her own pod, her weapon half-raised, eyes still fixed on the glass that bore her untouched reflection. "No… we are. That's what makes this worse."
She tapped her lens, pulling up system overlays. The feed was scrambled, corrupted—fragments of video looping out of sync, like the Citadel didn't want them seeing what was coming.
"I don't trust anything in this place," she muttered.
Kade moved toward the Catalyst orb still hovering midair, flickering faint gold.
"System," he said, "acknowledge: Sovereign active. Memory unlocked. Authority confirmed. Grant access to Project Origin logs."
The orb pulsed once.
**System Notice: Access Denied.**
**Reason: Presence of Remnant Entity.**
Marei's head snapped toward him. "Remnant?"
Before Kade could respond, the chamber darkened. Lights flickered. The floor beneath them vibrated—not a quake, not damage. A pulse. Rhythmic. Measured.
Like something waking up.
A hiss sounded from the far wall—then the metal parted in a seamless, surgical fold. No alarm. No warning.
Just... precision.
A figure stepped out of the void.
Tall. Encased in obsidian armor with shifting Catalyst script etched into the plates. The helm was a featureless black oval, interrupted only by a single vertical red line, glowing like a scar.
Kade's weapon was in his hand instantly.
Marei's lens whispered warnings, but none made sense.
The figure didn't raise a weapon. It didn't speak.
Until it did.
"I am the Remnant," it said, voice filtered through layers of static and steel. "Protocol Enforcer. Origin Gatekeeper."
"What gate?" Kade asked, stepping in front of Marei.
The Remnant turned toward him, head tilting almost curiously.
"You were not meant to remember," it said. "You were not meant to return. Yet the Catalyst failed to erase you."
Marei raised her blaster. "Define 'erase'."
"You," the Remnant said, "are an error."
Without further warning, the walls behind it unfolded—and two more figures stepped forward. Identical armor. Same red slash across their visors. All of them humming with dormant power.
"System Override in progress," one of them intoned. "Re-sequencing Sovereign identity. Preparing reset."
Kade took a step back, his mind racing.
The Catalyst wasn't just a tool. It was a cage. A weapon. A script someone had written, and rewritten, to ensure obedience.
"No," he said. "I won't let this repeat."
He reached for the shard embedded in his palm—the sovereign imprint. Gold veins surged across his skin, fighting the override.
"You want to reset me?" Kade growled. "Come try."
The Remnant closest to him stepped forward.
"Request accepted."
The world lit up in a flash of red.
A fight for identity had begun—and this time, forgetting wasn't an option.