The moment they returned to the Haven Node, alarms triggered.
Code streams fluctuated. Memory zones blinked out. In the sky, corrupted stars formed new constellations—symbols that shouldn't exist.
> [System Integrity: 41%]
> [Time Remaining Before Collapse: UNKNOWN]
Eva rushed Claire's Memory Core to the stabilizer pod, a chamber designed to simulate safe reality. She connected the glyph wires with trembling fingers.
Ryn stood behind her, still bleeding threads of light from his arm. The backlash from the vault battle had nearly burned out his Anchor Thread.
But he didn't care.
Claire's voice still echoed in his head.
> "Ryn… I'm still here…"
He'd die to bring her back.
---
Eva activated the stabilizer sequence.
> [Fragment Recovery Initialized]
> [Simulating Neural Context Environment… Standby.]
The room dimmed.
Claire's core pulsed like a heart, casting faint light across the chamber.
Ryn stepped forward, but Eva held him back.
> "It's not safe yet. Her data is fragmented. One wrong trigger and she could—"
> "Shatter," he finished.
He nodded and backed away.
> "What's our window?"
> "Six hours. After that, the Crimson Echo could track the signal. If it finds her… it'll erase what's left."
> "Then we stay with her. Both of us."
Eva glanced at him, then at the core.
> "Both of us."
---
Inside the pod, the world loaded.
Claire found herself in a version of her old dorm room.
Everything was too clean. Too still. The calendar read Day One.
But she remembered everything.
The Collapse. The glitch. The pain.
And Ryn.
He was there—just a memory projection—but still, it made her chest tighten.
> "I died," she whispered.
> "No," said the simulation Ryn. "You were left behind."
She sat on the bed, hands shaking.
> "Is this… real?"
The walls flickered.
> "Not yet. But someone's trying."
---
Outside the pod, Eva monitored the emotional stability charts.
Claire's core was spiking—she was resisting the simulation.
> "She doesn't trust it," Eva said.
Ryn frowned.
> "Let me go in."
> "That could destabilize everything."
> "I'm the trigger. If anyone can stabilize her, it's me."
Eva hesitated.
Then nodded.
---
Inside the pod, the door opened.
Claire looked up—and this time it was the real Ryn.
Older.
Tired.
But real.
She stood, slowly.
> "How do I know this isn't another loop?"
> "Because this time… I didn't run."
> "You did run," she said, tears forming. "You chose the System."
> "I chose wrong," he said. "But I'm here to make it right."
She touched his face.
> "I'm broken, Ryn."
> "So am I. So is everything."
> "Then how do we fix it?"
He took her hand.
> "Together."
The pod pulsed.
> [Emotional Sync: Achieved]
> [Core Restoration: 62%]
---
Suddenly—
The chamber shook.
The ceiling fractured, raining down lines of broken code.
Eva screamed from the console.
> "It's found us!"
> [CRIMSON ECHO SIGNATURE DETECTED]
> [System Breach Imminent]
Ryn turned toward the pod's exit.
> "We need to extract her now!"
Eva's hands flew across the controls.
> "Her mind isn't fully recompiled! If we pull her early—"
> "We lose her," Claire finished from inside.
She stepped forward.
> "I can do it. I can stabilize from inside."
Ryn's eyes widened.
> "Claire—"
> "You saved me. Let me fight with you now."
She smiled.
> "You're not the only one who can rewrite things."
---
The pod exploded in light.
Claire's core erupted—data threads extending like wings, reaching into every circuit, every line of failing code.
She grabbed the simulation itself.
Bent it.
Rewrote it.
Turned the collapsing world into a weapon.
> [Claire.exe: Override In Progress]
The Crimson Echo burst through the sky in the form of a blood-red avatar.
> "You are an error."
Claire stood between it and the Haven Node.
> "No. I'm the patch."
And with a scream, she unloaded herself into the system—breaking the vault chains, injecting herself into every remaining safe zone, linking her awareness across the network.
The Echo roared.
And was thrown back.
> [Containment Zone Established]
> [Crimson Echo Repelled: Temporary]
---
Back in the real world, the pod cracked open.
Claire fell into Ryn's arms.
Alive.
Eyes full of tears.
But… alive.
Eva smiled, exhausted.
> "You two are the worst, most reckless, impossible bugs I've ever seen."
> "And I'm so glad you are."
Ryn kissed Claire's forehead.
> "Welcome back."
Claire whispered:
> "Let's rewrite the world. Together."