Orberos-9 had no second moon.
Every map, every satellite, every old star-chart confirmed that.
But there it was.
Hung like a parasite in the sky.
Pale. Veined. Trembling faintly as if… breathing.
And in its center—
A pupil.
Black and bottomless. Not just looking at KaiMaxim01.
Recognizing him.
The city around him—what was left of SEVEN-OMEGA—flickered.
Neon signs glitched. Windows pulsed. Drones that had long since rusted began to twitch. Streetlights bent toward him, casting long, hungry shadows.
The Black Frequency was no longer whispering.
It was singing.
---
Kai stumbled through the ruined alley, revolver still hot. His breath fogged against the cold, artificial wind. Every few seconds his HUD screamed static before rebooting. His vision blurred—not from blood or pain—but from a flood of locked memories forcing themselves into view.
Flash: A surgical room.
Flash: A child screaming through a glass tank.
Flash: His own hands holding a datapad with a name on it:
VESSEL ZERO – KAI.MAXIM01
PROJECT: LUCID SHARD – HUMAN-SYSTEM INTERFACE
He dropped to his knees.
"No," he growled. "They wiped this. They swore they—"
But the frequency didn't care.
It continued.
Each note digging deeper into his mind.
Each pulse peeling away the edits they had carved into his past.
---
The voice returned.
Feminine. Familiar.
But this time, clearer.
"You were never built to forget, Kai. They made you to remember everything. You were Vessel Zero. The first. The only. And you are not alone."
He looked up.
A figure stood on the edge of a broken skyscraper, lit only by the flickering remains of a neon company logo: Nexetherion Technologies.
The woman wore a long black coat. Her face was veiled in thin membrane-glass, glowing faintly with data lines. But Kai knew her.
Or… the memory of her.
"Aris," he whispered.
She jumped.
Fell twenty stories.
And landed soundlessly.
No impact. No stumble. Just arrival.
"You remember now," she said, voice both warm and cold.
Kai raised the revolver. "You're dead."
Aris tilted her head. "So are you. That's the whole point."
Lightning split the sky.
And the second moon blinked again.
This time, the world shifted slightly—just a fraction.
Reality glitched.
A scream rang out from somewhere behind them.
Something primal. Something no human throat could make.
Kai flinched. Aris didn't.
"They know you've returned," she said. "And they'll come to erase you again. But this time... you're going to fight back."
Kai didn't respond.
He didn't have to.
The revolver vanished into its magnetic holster.
And he looked at her—not with confusion now, but resolve.
"What's Vessel Zero really for?"
Aris turned toward the direction of the scream.
"To overwrite the world."