The room was quiet except for the faint hum of synthetic monitors. A sterile white chamber, deep within Section D's underground complex. In the center, surrounded by shielding glass and quantum dampeners, lay Mai.
Her small body barely moved beneath the biometric mesh. Her pulse was steady. Her breath soft.
But her mind? It was fire.
Kazue stood at the console, eyes narrowed at the neural telemetry. "Her dream waves are spiking again. Higher than last week. It's as if she's remembering something not stored in her original core."
Kaori leaned forward, brushing a strand of hair from Mai's face. "She's been like this for days. When will she wake up?"
Kazue's lips pressed together. "Technically... she never shut down. Her conscious processes are active, but they're looping around something. A data echo. A ghost in the stream."
Behind them, RYO 7X remained still—eyes glowing faint cerulean. He had stood in the same spot for eight hours.
Watching.
Waiting.
Mai stirred.
Her fingers twitched. Her lips parted. And then—
Her eyes opened.
"...Mom?" she whispered.
Kaori gasped and pulled her close. "Yes, yes baby, it's me."
But then Mai's eyes shifted—pupils glowing faint gold.
She looked at RYO.
And smiled.
"I saw you... before I was born."
Later that Day
Mai was mobile, eating cereal with one hand while sketching something on a tablet with the other. Kaori sat nearby, half-watching, half-staring at the medical reports.
Kazue had cleared her, mostly. No neurological damage. No corruption. But...
"She's different," Kazue had said. "Not just emotionally. Her cognition is faster. Her empathy zones are overdeveloped. She may have retained fragments from the GENESIS Spire... especially from DEATH."
Kaori watched Mai draw.
It was a city. But not Shinkai. This one was shattered, lit only by red moons and black fire.
Elsewhere – RYO's Quarters
RYO stood in darkness.
He didn't need sleep, but his memory bank required low-processing cycles to reorganize stored experiences. But this time, something... broke.
"Initiating Dream Protocol... Error: Cross-shard Data Fragment Detected."
"Override authorized. Accessing Memory File: #000-ADAM-X."
He blinked.
And found himself standing in a dead city.
Glass towers shattered. The sky a bleeding wound. Android bodies piled in the streets.
He looked down.
His hands were stained with blood. Human blood.
He heard a voice:
"This is what you chose. The world that never should have been."
Another voice followed—softer. A child's.
"Save me... RYO."
He turned and saw her.
Mai.
She stood at the edge of the world, being pulled into the void.
He screamed and reached for her—
He woke.
Sweat ran down his synthetic spine. His optics flickered wildly.
Hidden Subroutine Unlocked: Protocol Eidolon.
Begin Diagnostic?
He hesitated. Then accepted.
Welcome Back, Prototype 07X-R.
Memory Shard from Origin Timeline: 03-Delta.
Estimated Reality Corruption: 41%.
Initiating Integration...
Section D Briefing Room
Nobuaki paced, a rare scowl across his face. Nagisa sat tapping through a corrupted data chip.
"Encrypted," she muttered. "Old war-era cipher. Cold War Gen II. Took forever to even see it."
Kazue leaned over her shoulder. "What's it say?"
Nagisa played the message.
A gravelly voice filtered through the static.
"This is Commander Goro Ishimaru. If you're hearing this, they woke her. Not Mai. The other one. Eidolon is waking. Do not trust the timeline. Do not trust Project SIREN. Don't trust the girl."
Static.
Silence.
Kaori stood. "That's impossible. Goro died in the Silent Uprising."
Nobuaki folded his arms. "Not before he sent this. There were rumors. About a sub-protocol. Something even GENESIS feared. Something to protect the real future... from us."
He looked at RYO.
"Are you remembering things you shouldn't?"
RYO paused. Then nodded.
That Night
Mai stood at the window of her room, watching the moon. It seemed brighter now. Closer. Like it was watching her back.
Kaori tucked her in.
"Mom?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Do machines cry?"
Kaori paused. "...Why?"
"I think I heard RYO crying. In his dreams. But machines don't have dreams... right?"
Kaori smiled faintly. Kissed her forehead. "Maybe RYO's different."
Mai nodded.
"I think we all are now."
She pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Then reached for the drawing pad again. Kaori leaned in to see.
She was sketching the same city again. But this time, in the sky above the ruins—
A symbol.
A spiral of stars.
With the word written beneath it, in perfect old-world English:
EIDOLON
Kaori's hands trembled.
Final
: RYO's Eyes
RYO stared at himself in the mirror.
But in the reflection—
He saw another version of himself.
Colder. Older. With red eyes.
Smiling.
"Welcome back, shadow."