The spheres in Zero and Fry's hands began to vibrate.
Not violently. Just enough to remind them that whatever truths they contained—there would be no turning back once they looked.
"Separate?" Fry asked.
Zero nodded. "Yeah. I think we're meant to see different pieces."
Patch raised a finger. "I respectfully suggest we don't split up in the creepy memory forest where time is soup and nothing makes sense—"
The mnemonic tree pulsed once more.
And the world split around them.
[Zero's Memory Fork]
The sphere dissolved in his palm.
Zero blinked—and he was no longer in the clearing.
He stood in a city of glass and wire, staring up at an enormous spiral-shaped tower made of floating data panels. The sky glitched. The air shimmered with heat but left frost on his breath.
And in the reflection of one panel—he saw himself.
Older.
Feral.
Wearing recursion glyphs burned into his chest.
That version of him stepped out of the reflection.
"You always wanted to know the truth," the older Zero said. "But truth doesn't care who asks. It only burns."
Zero took a step back. "What am I looking at?"
"A possible outcome. A version of you who decided the Karnyx wasn't a curse. But a weapon."
A scream echoed from the tower.
Zero turned. At the top, bound in recursive chains, was a woman—face obscured. Crying his name.
"Who is she?" he asked.
Older Zero tilted his head. "The one you let die. Because you chose knowledge over people."
Lightning cracked through the sky.
Zero screamed as the reflection collapsed.
[Fry's Memory Fork]
The sphere melted.
Fry blinked—found herself in a sterile lab, lit with humming blue panels.
She recognized it.
This was before the recursion war. Before she joined the rogue archivists. Before she met Zero.
She was standing in front of a terminal labeled: Project: Umbilical.
And beside her… Zero's mother.
"Fry," the woman said. "You shouldn't be here."
"I came back," Fry replied. "To remember why I betrayed you."
The woman looked tired. Older. Her hands trembled.
"You didn't betray me. You chose him."
Fry's voice broke. "I didn't think it would cost your life."
The woman smiled. "It didn't. Not all of it."
She reached out—and pressed something into Fry's palm.
A memory glyph.
"This is for him. When he's ready. But if you give it too soon… it'll destroy him."
Fry stared at it.
Then the lab vanished.
[Back in the clearing]
Zero and Fry both gasped awake at the same moment.
Patch nearly dropped the bear.
"Okay, I am done being the one left conscious during these flashback festivals. You guys have trauma, I have abandonment issues."
Zero was trembling.
Fry's hand was clenched around something.
He looked at her. "I saw myself. A version that kills for knowledge."
Fry nodded. "I saw your mother. She gave me this."
She uncurled her fingers.
The glyph pulsed softly.
Zero stared at it. "That's a recursive unlock. A core seed decoder."
Patch groaned. "I swear if this unlocks another betrayal I'm going to fake my own deletion and start farming algae."
Zero met Fry's eyes. "Why didn't you give it to me before?"
"Because she told me it would break you. And she was right."
He took a breath. Held it.
Then nodded.
"Give it to me now."
Fry placed it in his hand.
The tree pulsed once.
Core Seed Alignment Initiated. Next Anchor: Deep Spiral Node.
Patch blinked. "That sounds promising."
Zero stood. His voice was stronger.
"We follow the spiral. Deeper."
Fry raised an eyebrow. "Even knowing where it leads?"
He looked down at the trauma bear.
And smiled.
"Especially because I don't."