Jay Arkwell: "The Weight I Cannot Name"
Location: Disintegrating Observation Hall – Mid-Structure Layer
Timeframe: Same as Alicia's sidebar
Status: Data Flux Threshold Unstable
Environment: Quiet. Echoing footsteps. Fragments of old battles flicker in the walls.
---
Jay stood still, surrounded by fractured memory panels.
One glitched past him: Rei standing defiantly. Another: Alicia shielding him, eyes defiant beneath collapsing skies.
Each fragment tried to replay itself, but none could hold form.
None of them showed what came next.
Because Jay had not decided yet.
He sat on the edge of a collapsing platform, watching the code below ripple like a sea made of glass and regret. His fingers curled, as if trying to hold onto something that kept slipping between them.
"I can feel her," he murmured. "Even when she is not here."
Alicia. Still unwavering. Still refusing to turn away. Even now.
And that terrified him more than any of Null's madness.
