Jian walked a few paces behind Raven and Damien, their voices a dull buzz in his ears now. The weight of the night pressed down on him. Every step felt like a betrayal. He couldn't stop seeing Elara's face, the way her lips parted as the cup touched her mouth, the flicker of confusion, the dimming of her eyes.
But it wasn't just this Elara he saw.
It was her.
Elara—version 2001.
The girl who had once taken his hand without fear. Who had trusted him before everything fractured.
He clenched his jaw. Why am I thinking so much about her? Why her, after everything? Why does it still pull at me like this?
Suddenly, a memory flickered to the surface uninvited. Elara's voice, soft and uncertain, from a time that felt like another lifetime: "Do you love me, Jian?"
His brow lifted, startled by how clearly it echoed in his mind.
No… no, of course not. His inner voice fought back, almost defensively. This is not how you are, Jian. You don't feel things like that.
But the memory stayed.
The moonlight glinted off a nearby window, catching Jian's eye. He stopped, staring into the glass. His reflection stared back a man hardened by years and silence. But beneath the cold mask, that same ache still pulsed. The ache that began in 2001, when that version of Elara was ripped from his world.
"You coming?" Raven's voice cut through the stillness.
Jian nodded silently and followed.
As they turned the next corner, a faint sound echoed from behind. Rapid footsteps, small, hurried.
"Jian!"
Eva's voice, thin but clear.
He froze.
Damien hissed. "What is she doing out here?"
Before anyone could speak, Eva darted into view. Her face was flushed, breath rising in soft clouds. But her eyes… they held something ancient. Something that didn't belong to a child.
Raven stepped forward, blocking her path. "You shouldn't be here."
Eva tilted her head slightly, a strange smile forming at the corners of her lips. "Mama's sleeping now," she said. "But she remembers things… when she dreams."
Jian's chest tightened.
Raven narrowed his eyes. "What did you say?"
Eva's smile faded, replaced by something quieter, deeper. "She remembers you, Jian. The one from before. "
Damien scoffed. "She's broken again."
"No," Eva said sharply, her voice too steady. "She isn't broken. Just buried. But she's waking up."
Jian's heart thundered.
Damien moved forward to grab her, but Jian stepped between them in a blur of motion. His body moved without thought.
"Don't touch her," Jian said, voice cold as ice.
Raven blinked, caught off guard. "She's glitching. You know what that means."
Jian turned his head, eyes dark. "You lay a hand on her, and I swear, you won't survive the second after."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Eva stepped closer to him, small hand slipping into his. Her gaze far older than her years met his. "You remember now, don't you?" she whispered.
Jian didn't answer. But his grip on her hand said enough. The mask was slipping. And for the first time since 2001, he didn't care.
Behind them, back inside the house, Elara stirred in her sleep. Her fingers twitched, her lips parting as a single word escaped in a breathless whisper.
"Jian…"
------------------------
The moonlight stretched over the street like silver thread, tracing shadows of the four figures walking under its quiet gaze. Jian held Eva's hand loosely as they moved, Raven and Damien following just a step behind, close enough to remind him they weren't done watching.
"She twitched again back there," Damien muttered.
Raven's eyes flicked toward Eva. "Her sync's unstable. She's remembering too much."
Jian didn't answer. His eyes were on Eva.
That's when it happened.
Eva tilted her head slightly, and looked up at him, not the way a child would. Her eyes locked with his, calm, knowing, ancient.
Jian stopped walking.
His heart clenched.
That wasn't the girl Eva. That was her.
Without a word, without giving Raven or Damien a moment to react, Jian bent down and picked her up.
"What are you...?" Damien stepped forward.
"I said I'd fix her," Jian said firmly, already turning. "And I'm doing it. Alone."
He started walking away.
Raven called after him. "You better not pull anything...."
But his voice dropped when he saw Jian's expression. There was something final in his stride. Determined. Focused.
Damien frowned. "We just let him go?"
Raven watched Jian's figure grow smaller in the moonlight. "Let him. He's outside the loop now anyway. Maybe he can do what we never could."
Damien scoffed. "Irreversible change?"
Raven shrugged. "He's stubborn enough. Who knows."
They stood watching until Jian disappeared around the bend.
-----------------------
Farther down the quiet street, away from their eyes, Jian finally stopped. He set Eva down gently, crouching to face her. The pale light shimmered on her small face, but the innocence was gone. Her stance had shifted. Her expression was precise.
He waited.
Eva took a breath. Then spoke, voice smooth and controlled:
"The drink doesn't affect me. I already fixed myself not to be affected by those two stupid creators' stuff."
Jian blinked, still adjusting to the tone. "It's really you."
Eva nodded. "I stayed quiet long enough. But when they started touching Mama's memory, I couldn't let it happen."
"You've been awake this whole time?" he asked quietly.
"Not fully," she said. "But enough to prepare. I built layers in my mind. Traps. Shields. They don't know how deep I went. They see what I let them see."
Jian let out a breath. "Eva… do you realize what they'd do if they knew you're back?"
She nodded. "They'd kill me. I know."
"Your body, it's still a child's," Jian said. "You can't protect yourself like this."
"I don't need to," Eva said. "Not yet. I just need to be smarter than them."
He studied her for a moment, searching for something familiar in her face. It was all there, the resilience, the sharpness, the care.
"You're 19 years old ," he whispered, almost to himself.
"And stuck in a body that can't reach the top shelf," Eva replied with a faint smirk.
Despite everything, Jian chuckled quietly. Then his face grew serious again.
"You can't stay with me," he said. "It'd draw too much attention."
Her face hardened slightly, expecting this.
"You'll need to keep acting as Elara's daughter. No one can know you've returned. Not even her, not yet. But you and I…" He leaned in a little closer. "We'll find ways to meet in secret. When it's safe."
Eva nodded, understanding. "Alright. I'll play the part. But only because we're not finished."
Jian placed a hand gently on her small shoulder. "We'll finish this. One step at a time. And when the moment comes… we strike together."
Eva's eyes flicked toward the distant lights of the city. "Then let's play quiet. Until they forget I'm even watching."
They turned together, walking calmly beneath the moonlight, just a child and her protector in the eyes of the world.
But both knew the truth.
--------------------------
A light wind stirred the leaves overhead, whispering through the trees like voices from fractured timelines. Jian didn't look back. Neither did Eva. Their silence was deliberate, each step sealing the illusion they wore until the moment they'd be ready to shatter it.
They reached a narrow alley just shy of the city's restricted zone. Jian crouched low, tapping a sequence into the communicator hidden beneath Eva's collar. A red pulse blinked, then turned blue.
"Signal jammer's live," he murmured. "We've got twelve minutes."
Eva nodded. "More than we need."
She shrugged off her coat, knelt beside the wall, and traced her fingers along its base. A soft click. A hidden panel slid open, revealing a compact metallic device humming faintly with energy.
Jian raised an eyebrow. "You hid a resonance core here?"
"I built it last year," Eva said. "Before they wiped me again."
"You built this as a kid?"
She looked up, eyes narrowing with a flash of anger. "No. I built it as me , Eva. Not some helpless kid. Don't call me that again."
Absolutely. Here's the revised version with Jian's reaction included:
She looked up, eyes narrowing with a flash of anger. "No. I built it as me — Eva. Not some helpless kid. Don't call me that again."
Jian blinked, as he raised a hand slightly in quiet apology. "Alright," he murmured, eyes searching hers. "I get it… you're not a kid."
Eva crossed her arms with a sharp huff, turning her head just slightly. "Hm."
Jian allowed a small breath of amusement to slip through his nose, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Still stubborn, I see."
She glanced back at him, her gaze softening, but only a little. "You should've remembered that before you underestimated me."
The core flickered to life, casting pale blue light across the alley. Strange runes glowed in the concrete. Jian stepped closer, breath catching.
"This is first-gen tech," he whispered. "Loop-zero design. They purged all of it after 2001."
Eva didn't blink. "Because they thought version 2001 was the problem. But it wasn't."
Jian's brow furrowed. "You're saying she wasn't corrupted?"
"I'm saying, Elara-2001 was the original. The one they buried because she wouldn't follow protocol."
---------------------------------
Back at the Compound – Raven's Surveillance Room
The monitors flared red. Data lines scrambled, unstable.
"She's spiking again," Damien muttered. "Dream-state overload. But these neural echoes… they're wrong."
Raven narrowed his eyes. "Not version 2022. Not 2014. These are... older."
Damien leaned closer. "Wait. That can't be right."
Raven checked the data again. "Those are 2001 patterns."
Damien blinked. "But 2001 was the overwritten layer. A failed test case."
"No," Raven said grimly. "It was the same Elara. The one we rewrote again and again. And still... we couldn't control her."
Damien stared at the screen. "You're saying that's what's waking up?"
"She's remembering who she was before we buried her."
A heavy silence settled between them.
"But…" Damien muttered, eyes narrowing. "This version, this Elara… she's not exactly like the 2001 instance. Her responses, her timing… something's off."
Raven's jaw clenched. "I know. It doesn't make sense."
"She shouldn't be her. Not fully," Damien said. "So how is she waking up like that version?"
They exchanged a look, uneasy, uncertain.
"What the hell is happening?" Raven whispered.
--------------------------
Inside Elara's Mind
She wandered a long hallway of mirrors. Each reflection twisted, changed, different versions of her life, her identity, her losses. But one reflection didn't move. One stood still.
Sharp eyes. Stronger posture. Unyielding.
Elara stepped closer.
That version didn't blink. Didn't speak. Just stared.
And then… it smiled.
The mirror cracked straight down the center.
Elara reached out and whispered:
"I remember."
Back in the Alley
Eva gasped, eyes snapping open. "She's stabilizing."
Jian grabbed her as she faltered. "You okay?"
"She's re-merging with the source version. She's not 2022, not a derivative. She's Elara-2001. The one who refused to play by their rules."
"She was dangerous," Jian murmured. "They said she broke the simulation."
Eva's voice dropped. "She broke out of it."
A silence passed between them.
Jian stood and lifted her again. "Then we have to move. Before they feel it."
Behind them, the resonance core dimmed leaving one glowing mark on the alley wall:
Ω-E01
Core Integrity Recovered.
Back at the Compound
Alarms pulsed low and constant. Damien scanned the feed, brows furrowed. "The energy signature it's stabilizing. Not failing."
Raven stepped closer, disbelief flickering in his eyes. "That's... not possible. The core should've collapsed by now."
Damien didn't look away from the screen. "It didn't collapse. It synchronized."
Raven's voice dropped. "With what?"
Damien hesitated. "It says… with Elara-2001."
They stared at each other, stunned.
"That can't be right," Raven said slowly. "That version was overwritten. Buried."
Damien shook his head. "Then why does the system recognize her?"
Raven stepped back, eyes narrowing. "But this Elara, she's not acting like the original. There are differences. Delays. Even her emotional output's inconsistent."
Damien exhaled sharply. "So… what are we looking at?"
"I don't know," Raven muttered. "A merge? A bleed-through? A ghost of 2001?"
They turned back to the screen, the pulse growing steadier by the second.
"She's not malfunctioning," Damien whispered. "She's… coming back. But not as we knew her."
Raven's voice was barely audible. "God help us if she finishes waking up."
To be continue ....