They didn't stop running until the sky changed.
The terrain beneath them shifted from cracked, red rock to charcoal-colored earth veined with silver moss that glowed faintly beneath their boots. The wind had died somewhere behind them, along with the sound of pursuit.
But Selene didn't relax.
Not even when they reached the crumbling stone outpost nestled against a cliff face. Half buried. Half forgotten.
Arin ran her hand across the rusted doorframe and exhaled. "Still intact. Barely."
"This place feels wrong," Kai muttered, glancing at the vine-covered walls. "I thought we swore never to come back here."
"We swore a lot of things," Arin replied, giving him a hard look. "We broke most of them."
Selene followed silently, eyes scanning every crack in the stone. The walls pulsed faintly, like the place itself was breathing. Something was buried here—she could feel it in her teeth, in the back of her throat. Not fear. Familiarity.
Like returning to a childhood home and realizing you don't recognize the furniture anymore.
Inside, the outpost was dusty but functional. A single working console flickered in the corner, still powered somehow after all this time. Arin tapped a few commands, and a soft hum lit the room.
"Safehouse systems online," a synthetic voice chimed.
Kai dropped his gear and slumped against the wall. "About time."
Selene stood near the console, arms crossed. "Why here?"
Arin looked at her. "Because this is where you were reborn."
Selene stiffened. "Excuse me?"
Arin hesitated, then opened a side panel on the wall. Behind it—rows of cryotubes. Most were empty. One had been shattered.
"Twenty-three months ago," Arin said slowly, "you walked out of that pod with blood on your chest and stars in your eyes. Said you remembered nothing. Not even your name."
Kai picked up where she left off, voice unusually soft. "We thought it was trauma. You'd been on a deep recon run through the second Veil. We assumed you saw something… broke something. But then you started changing."
Arin nodded. "Healing faster. Moving quicker. Hearing things no one else could. We should've known it wasn't just damage."
Selene approached the shattered tube. She touched its edge—and something surged through her.
A flood of broken images.
> A laboratory carved into moonstone.
Screams behind glass.
A voice—hers—shouting in a language she didn't understand.
And then… silence. A white room. A name whispered like a command.
"Project Echo," she whispered aloud.
Arin blinked. "What did you say?"
Selene pulled her hand back, shaking. "I… I think that's what I was. Not Selene. Not a person. Just a… contingency."
Kai laughed bitterly. "We always thought the Void was just a place. Turns out it was a forge."
Arin stepped closer. "Does anything else come back?"
Selene shook her head, frustrated. "It's like looking through frost-glass. I can see shapes. Flashes. But nothing holds. It's all slipping away the moment I get close."
Suddenly, the console beeped.
> "Incoming signal. Uncoded."
Kai was on his feet instantly. "Already? How?"
Arin checked the readout. Her face went pale. "It's not a signal. It's a location tag."
"What does that mean?" Selene asked.
"It means someone wants us to follow."
Kai swore. "It's bait."
Selene looked at the coordinates on the console. The numbers stirred something deep in her gut—an ache like hunger, but colder.
She didn't know why she knew that place.
But she did.
"We're going," she said flatly.
Kai stared at her like she'd lost her mind. "That's suicidal."
"I agree," Arin said—but her eyes didn't leave Selene. "But she's right. This is too specific. It's not a trap. It's a message."
Selene turned away from the screen, her voice low. "Something out there remembers more about me than I do. I don't have the luxury of ignoring it."
Kai muttered a curse under his breath. "Fine. But if we die, I'm blaming both of you."
They left the outpost as dusk began to fall, the sun melting behind the distant ridges in a cascade of orange and violet. The silence pressed down harder now, like the world was holding its breath.
As they moved out into the canyon, Selene spoke without looking back.
"I want you both to promise me something."
Arin and Kai exchanged a glance.
"If I turn," Selene said slowly, "if something inside me wakes up and it's not me anymore—don't hesitate. End it."
Arin frowned. "You're not turning. You're returning. That's different."
Kai just nodded once. "You got it."
Selene smiled faintly, more bitter than amused.
The last light of day flickered out.
And far ahead, the coordinates pulsed with promise.
Or a warning.
She couldn't tell which.