Red Sector was now a graveyard of glitch and memory.
The world bent. Twisted. Time lagged. Every corner echoed with the mechanical screams of collapsing code.
One second felt like a minute. The next? A blur.
Anne could no longer tell if she was running or floating.
But she held onto Javier's hand like it was the only real thing left in the universe.
"Where the hell are we even going?!" Javier shouted, ducking a chunk of simulated ceiling that disintegrated midair like a weak plot twist.
Anne's voice was hoarse. "Back to the garden."
Javier blinked through the haze. "What, like a Zen retreat?! You want to pull weeds while the system is going Black Mirror on us?"
"No," she said breathlessly. "I want to find the ant."
"…You're talking metaphorically, right?"
She stopped in her tracks. Looked him dead in the eyes.
"No. I mean the ant. The one I told you about. The one you somehow knew about before I ever told you."
That shut him up.
His eyes flickered. Not just with confusion—but with something else. Something unreadable.
"I…" he started, and for the first time since Anne met him, Javier Park looked like someone who'd been caught in a lie he wasn't ready to explain.
A high-pitched alarm rang out through the space.
The Collapse Protocol was nearing 98%.
A deep voice echoed from the central system core:
> "Auto-purge in 2 minutes. All unstable constructs will be terminated."
Javier swallowed hard. "Okay. You need to know something. I didn't want to tell you like this."
Anne's heartbeat felt like it was trying to drum its way out of her chest. "Then tell me now."
He looked away. "I wasn't supposed to remember either."
Anne froze.
"What?"
"I was part of the first trial batch. When your sister started her memory-mirroring protocol, she didn't just copy data. She backed it up. On live minds."
Anne's voice cracked. "You mean—"
"I was one of the volunteer syncs. One of the memory anchors. They used my neural map to run tests. Some fragments stuck. Yours… stuck. That's how I knew the ant story. It was never mine to begin with."
Anne stumbled backward.
"You mean… you've had my memories this whole time? And you just never said anything?"
"I thought they were dreams," he said quietly. "Until I met you. Until you told the story. And I realized…"
He stepped toward her.
"I already loved you before I met you."
The alarm hit 99%.
> "System collapse imminent."
Anne stood there, shattered in a thousand emotions.
Before she could speak, the wall behind them burst open—corrupted Kira roared into the chamber, her eyes glowing white-hot, her voice like every nightmare Anne had ever run from.
> "LIARS. YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE."
Anne turned toward her with fire in her chest.
"No," she whispered. "I do. And you know I do."
Javier stood beside her, defiant. "And I never left."
Corrupted Kira surged toward them.
Anne raised her arm—heart beating out a memory she'd buried for years—and screamed:
> "I remember the ant. I remember the day I wanted to burn the garden down. I remember everything."
Time slowed.
The system paused.
And a single, small black ant appeared on the floor.
Walking.
Alive.
Unaffected by the chaos.
Anne bent down and gently touched it.
The corrupted Kira stopped.
And cried.
"Anne…" the voice rasped. "You forgave me?"
"I never blamed you," Anne whispered. "You did what you had to do. And I remembered—even when you tried to make me forget."
Kira's form shimmered.
Then softened.
She stepped forward, not as a monster, but as a sister.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "For leaving you with the pain."
"I'm sorry too," Anne said. "For not saving you sooner."
The entire system let out one last echoing hum.
And then…
Silence.