The door hissed shut behind them.
A final exhale from the house that had tried to consume them both.
Jonas and Mara stood on cracked concrete, facing a sky that was neither bright nor bleak just honest. Heavy clouds drifted low over the ruined cityscape, as if time itself had grown tired.
The facility's outer perimeter was overgrown. Vines had torn through the fencing. Nature had begun reclaiming the ground, like it knew the place had outlived its purpose.
Jonas shielded his eyes, scanning the treeline.
"Something's wrong," he muttered.
Mara tensed. "You mean besides the fact that we just walked out of a psychic recursion chamber built on memory residue?"
"No birds," he said. "No sound. No wind."
Mara frowned.
And then.
A click.
Metal.
Behind them.
They spun.
A figure stood at the tree line, mostly hidden by the tall grass. Then another. And another.
Not echoes.
Not shadows.
People.
Real.
Or… real enough.
The lead figure stepped forward slowly, raising both hands to show they were empty.
"Jonas Hale," the man said calmly. "You made it out."
Jonas narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
The man smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Let's say… I work in recovery."
Two more stepped into view, weapons lowered but ready.
Mara shifted closer to Jonas. "This feels off."
"It is," Jonas said. "This site was sealed years ago. Nobody was supposed to know it could still open."
The man shrugged. "And yet here you are. The Gate opened. The static ended. You woke something up."
Jonas stepped forward. "We didn't let anything out."
The man's smile widened.
"You didn't have to."
He nodded toward a fourth figure emerging from the trees.
It was a woman.
Tall, shaved head, lab coat stained with old dust. Her eyes locked on Jonas with clinical precision.
"You're not the only one who made a copy," she said.
Jonas froze.
Mara grabbed his arm. "Jonas.."
"I know her," he whispered. "Dr. Elaine Voss."
"But she's dead," Mara said.
"She was."
Elaine smiled coldly.
"I backed myself up before the collapse," she said. "And now I'm here to finish what you ran away from."
The trees rustled behind her and then something else stepped into view.
Not a person.
Not even a shape.
A pulse.
Like the shimmer of heat on metal.
Jonas felt it before he saw it.
The same energy that lived inside the Gate.
Alive and outside.
"No," Jonas breathed.
"You didn't shut the Gate," Elaine said.
"You rerouted it."
The shimmer moved closer.
And as it passed the others, they didn't flinch.
They welcomed it.
Like it was theirs.
Mara pulled Jonas back. "We need to run."
Jonas didn't move.
Because the shimmer was speaking not in words, but in recognition.
It knew him.
"Jonas Hale. Erased… but not forgotten."
And somewhere deep in his pocket, the SELF drive began to vibrate.
The past wasn't done with him yet.