Lab was barely standing.
Dust curled into the scorched air like silent screams. Sparks crackled from exposed panels. Half of the ceiling was gone, and the cold bite of upper-atmosphere wind whistled through the jagged opening. Sirens had begun to wail in the lower sectors, but up here on Level Theta no one was coming.
Because Level Theta didn't exist.
"Echo doesn't just hack systems," Norren muttered, dragging a half-scorched terminal to life. "He rewrites them."
Lyra sat with her knees pulled to her chest, blood smudged on her cheek, trembling from more than just cold. She had been inside something that wasn't entirely a dream, memory, or illusion. It was all of them, stitched together by someone else's mind. Echo had shown her the interface not the virtual network, but something deeper.
Something ancient.
Something personal.
Mina patched up Finn's shoulder with a burst of nanosealant while keeping one eye on Lyra. "She's still syncing," she whispered. "Her vitals are stabilising, but the brainwave spikes are off the chart."
Finn rubbed his eyes. "We can't keep going like this. One more shock and she'll crash."
"She's not going to crash," Norren said grimly. "She's going in."
Lyra lifted her head slowly. "What do you mean?"
Norren adjusted the terminal's interface, revealing a pulsating map made of light and patterns. "This… is the Ghost Network."
It was beautiful and terrifying. A swirling lattice of data, pulses, glowing rivers of memory and thought. Unlike any virtual environment Lyra had ever seen, it didn't look artificial. It looked organic. Breathing. Alive.
Finn stepped back. "That's inside the system?"
Norren looked at Lyra. "No. That's inside her."
Lyra's lips parted, a sick dread forming in her chest.
"This was locked away," Norren continued, voice soft. "You were never supposed to access it. It's the neural seed embedded in your subconscious when you were six. Hidden even from your own mind."
"You're saying there's a… world in my head?" Lyra asked, her voice barely audible.
"It's not just a world. It's his door. The origin point Echo's been trying to reach."
Mina zoomed in on the holographic structure. "This whole thing is encrypted in layers of synthetic and biological code. It doesn't even follow standard neural architecture."
Norren's eyes narrowed. "Because it wasn't meant to be human."
The silence hit like thunder.
Lyra stood, her knees shaking. "What's inside it?"
"No one knows," Norren said. "But if Echo gets there first, he'll be able to rewrite everything memories, systems, consciousness."
"Reality," Mina added softly.
"But I can stop him?" Lyra asked.
Norren nodded. "You're the only one who can navigate it. Because you are the interface. The ghost code. That's why he's obsessed with you."
Finn grabbed Lyra's hand. "You don't have to go alone."
She smiled faintly. "Yes, I do."
Then she stepped toward the neural dock.
Norren activated the uplink. "Once inside, the lines between simulation and memory will blur. You'll face projections shadows Echo's planted in your mind."
"I know," Lyra said. "I saw one already."
"Don't trust anything," Mina warned. "Not even your own thoughts."
Lyra lay down on the neural cradle.
The interface hissed, and the world folded.
Inside the Ghost Network
Lyra landed barefoot on grass that shimmered like metal. The sky above was black, scattered with fractured constellations spinning too fast to be natural. A silver tree rose from the centre of a vast field, glowing with soft pulses like a heartbeat.
Her glasses were gone, but she could still see more clearly than ever.
"Welcome back," said a voice behind her.
She spun.
A version of herself stood there sixteen, smiling, dressed in the academy uniform she never wore in real life. This Lyra held no fear in her eyes. Only… calculation.
"Who are you?" Lyra asked.
"I'm the version they deleted," the copy said. "The one Echo left behind to guide you."
Lyra stared.
"You don't trust me," the other Lyra said with a grin. "Smart. That's why you survived."
"Where is Echo?"
"He's already inside. Hunting for the Memory Thread. It's the spine of this world the original memory that seeded the network. If he reaches it, he'll overwrite you."
Lyra took a step back. "So where do I go?"
"To the Source Tree," the copy said, pointing toward the glowing silver tree. "But it's guarded. By you."
"What?"
The false Lyra blinked. "The first version of you. The one who surrendered. She lives at the root now, repeating the same day over and over. The day everything was taken."
"What happens if I face her?"
"If you can remember what really happened if you accept it the Source Tree will unlock."
"And if I fail?"
The other Lyra's smile faded. "You won't come back."
The Root
The ground cracked beneath Lyra's feet as she approached the tree.
She saw flashes brief, jarring images stitched into the air. A woman's face. Fire. Screams. Her own voice crying. A pair of silver eyes watching from the shadows.
Then she saw her.
The younger Lyra.
Six years old.
Wearing that same white dress. Sitting under the tree, arms wrapped around a stuffed toy, eyes empty.
Lyra stepped closer.
The child didn't move.
"This is the memory they buried," Lyra whispered. "This is when they took my parents."
The moment snapped.
The world shifted.
Suddenly Lyra stood in a house, flames licking the ceiling, alarms blaring. Her mother screaming her name. A man in a black suit holding her dragging her toward the door.
"No!" Lyra screamed.
And she remembered.. Her mother's voice.
"Run, Lyra! Don't let them turn you into.."
Gunfire.
Then nothing.
The screen blinked.
Echo appeared in the doorway, face half-human, half-algorithm.
"You found it," he said softly. "The origin thread."
She stood tall, shaking but fierce. "Why did you make me forget?"
"I didn't," Echo said. "They did. I just lit the match."
"Why?"
"Because memory is power. If you remember, you become the one thing they fear: free."
She reached for the glowing thread in the centre of the room.
Echo lunged.
But something inside her had already changed.
Lyra remembered everything.
Not just the fire. The experiments. The academy. The whispers in her head. The countless versions of her they deleted and replaced.
She had always been the variable.
The uncalculated element.
The girl with glasses who saw through illusions.
The thread pulsed as her fingers brushed it.
And the world burned white.
Outside the Network Lyra woke up with a scream.
Mina nearly dropped the tablet. "She's awake!"
Norren ran to her. "Did you find it?"
Lyra sat up slowly. Her eyes shimmered.
"I remembered."
"What did you see?" Finn asked.
She smiled faintly.
"Everything they tried to bury."
Norren leaned in. "And Echo?"
"He tried to stop me," Lyra said. "But he doesn't understand something important."
"What?"
"I'm not like him."
She stood, strength radiating from her frame.
"I don't want to control the system."
She picked up her glasses, cracked but still wearable, and placed them on her face.
"I want to break it."