The underground air was stale—like time had frozen, refusing to move forward.
Aidan stood still, face dimly lit by the bluish glow of the chamber. Jeremy and Emily waited behind him, silent. The figure inside the glass—Echo Prime—still watched them, his voice neither hostile nor welcoming.
Just… inevitable.
> [Decision Fork Active]
→ Option 1: Interface with Echo Prime
→ Option 2: Contain and Disconnect
→ Option 3: Retreat and Analyze
Aidan's eyes flickered across each option.
He felt the weight in every word.
One wrong choice could unleash chaos. One right one could unlock everything.
But he also knew something else now—this wasn't just about information. This was about identity.
He wasn't just collecting data anymore.
He was at the core of something much larger.
Aidan slowly raised his hand, hesitating only once before he said—
"Run a partial interface. Just enough to understand. Nothing deeper."
> [Partial Interface Requested… Executing Safeguards… Initializing Cognitive Buffer…]
A thin beam of light connected the Decision Core to the chamber.
Echo Prime's expression didn't change.
But Aidan's mind did.
---
Suddenly, he saw.
Not through his eyes—but through the fragments of Echo Prime's memories.
Flashes.
Memories that weren't his.
An abandoned dormitory. Five chairs. Six teenagers, all hooked to strange headsets. A corporate logo: EDEN.
Then blood.
A riot.
Flames.
And one sentence burned itself into Aidan's thoughts:
"They weren't ready… so I made sure they would never forget."
---
Back in reality, Aidan fell to one knee, sweating.
Jeremy grabbed his arm. "What the hell just happened?"
Aidan looked up at the glass chamber. Echo Prime was still inside. Silent now.
But something had changed.
> [System Update: Core Memory Fragment Acquired]
[New Module Unlocked: Personality Echo Analysis (PEA)]
[Function: Extract behavioral patterns from linked systems/users]
Aidan's heart pounded. He had a way now… a way to map the others. Not just find them—but understand them.
"Emily," he said, standing back up. "We're done here."
"But what about—"
"We leave it. For now. He's not going anywhere."
They turned away from Echo Prime.
But before they left the chamber, the voice rang out again—quieter, like it was drifting off.
"When the sixth one awakens… the Core will fracture."
Aidan paused.
Sixth?
Was he the first?
Or the last?
He didn't ask for answers.
He just walked away.
---
Later That Night
Back in the apartment, Jeremy finally got some sleep—his breathing steady, his face more peaceful than Aidan had ever seen it.
Emily sat on the couch, flipping through her notebook.
"You didn't tell him," she said. "About the sixth."
"No," Aidan replied, staring at his screen. "Not yet. Let him recover first."
"You're planning ahead again."
"That's the only way to stay ahead," he said, tapping the screen.
> [User Status: Core Awareness Level 2 Unlocked]
[New Attribute Module Available: Influence]
He smiled faintly.
The system was adapting.
Just like him.
---
But across the city, in a darkened lab hidden beneath an abandoned metro line…
A screen lit up with a new alert.
> [Signal Confirmed: Decision Core → Echo Prime Interface Logged]
[User: Mirror Sequence Activated]
A young woman in a white coat stepped forward, her eyes sharp.
"Finally," she whispered.
She turned toward the sealed chamber behind her.
Inside it, a faint glow pulsed.
Another system.
And this one…
Wasn't friendly.
---
Chapter 11 – End