Ash felt the words even before Silva spoke them aloud.
You are my origin.
They weren't spoken in a voice.
Not whispered.
Not imagined.
Just felt.
A quiet truth sliding through him like ripples in still water.
Palo looked between Ash and the glowing mark, baffled.
"So, he sees Ash like… a starting point? A blueprint?"
Silva didn't answer at first.
She was staring at her tablet, brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
Finally, she whispered:
"It's more than that.
Zero-B is identifying Ash as the emotional imprint that shaped his earliest responses."
Ash's stomach tightened.
"You mean he remembers me?"
"Fragments," Silva corrected.
"But fragments are powerful.
A remnant's identity can be rebuilt from just a single emotional anchor."
The Founder stepped closer, tone heavy.
"And that anchor is you."
Ash pressed his fingers lightly over the glow.
The spark pulsed in response. Not tugging, not demanding,
but acknowledging.
Like a quiet nod.
"Something's changing," Ash murmured.
Silva snapped her attention back to the readings.
"What do you feel?"
Ash's gaze unfocused slightly.
"It's like… a room in the dark. And something inside it just turned toward me."
The forest wind stilled.
Silva's voice softened.
"That's early awareness."
Palo swallowed.
"He's… aware of himself?"
"No," Silva whispered.
"He's aware of Ash.
That's the first step."
Ash's pulse quickened.
The spark stirred again..
not pulsing this time.
Projecting.
A sensation unfurled through him, light and fragile.
A memory that wasn't his.
He sucked in a breath.
"I'm seeing something."
Palo panicked.
"Seeing WHAT?!"
Ash steadied himself against a tree.
"It's blurry… but it's not mine."
Silva moved closer, eyes sharp with focus.
"Describe it."
Ash closed his eyes, letting the faint impression unfold.
"It's… a hallway. Empty. Metallic floors.
There's a light flickering overhead."
The Founder stiffened instantly.
Silva exchanged a look with him.
"A lab corridor?" she whispered.
Ash nodded slowly.
"And… something small is moving across the floor."
Palo leaned in.
"Like a person?"
"No."
Ash frowned.
"It's… like a spark. A drifting light. It's confused.
Alone."
Silva covered her mouth.
"Oh my God.
These are Zero-B's formative memories."
Ash's heartbeat stumbled.
"I don't know why… but the spark drifts toward a room.
It stops at the door."
The spark inside him pulsed hard,
as if recognizing its own past.
Ash continued quietly:
"The door is locked from the outside.
But there's a sound coming from inside."
Silva's breath hitched.
"A cry?" she whispered.
"No."
Ash shook his head slowly.
"Not a cry.
More like… someone humming."
Palo blinked.
"Who's humming in a lab?!"
Ash didn't have to guess.
Because the next moment, the spark inside him responded. Warm, bright, almost eager.
Ash whispered:
"It was me."
Silva stiffened.
"You? But when?"
Ash didn't know.
He couldn't place it.
The memory wasn't his.
But the hum… the warmth behind it…
He recognized it like a dream half-remembered.
"I was younger," he murmured.
"Much younger.
I'm sitting in the room.
I don't look hurt.
Just… bored."
Palo looked confused.
"You were in a lab? When?!"
Ash shook his head.
"I don't remember ever being there. But in Zero-B's memory… I'm humming a tune.
Where the spark and him moves closer to the door. Like he wants to hear better."
Silva's voice trembled.
"He imprinted on you before either of you met consciously."
The Founder spoke quietly:
"That explains the attachment. His earliest emotional recognition wasn't fear or pain. It was your presence."
Ash felt the spark pulse again.
Warm.
Steady.
Certain.
He closed his eyes, breath trembling.
"He felt safe," Ash whispered.
"That's why he keeps coming back to me.
Why he's rebuilding himself around me."
Silva nodded.
"You were his first moment of calm."
Ash opened his eyes slowly.
The fragment-memory faded, dissolving back into the spark.
But the connection felt deeper now,
as if Zero-B wasn't just echoing him…
…but remembering him.
Palo let out a low breath.
"So… what does this mean for what he becomes?"
The Founder answered without hesitation.
"It means his developing identity will revolve around the strongest memory he has."
He looked at Ash.
"And that memory is you."
Silva turned to Ash, her voice gentle but worried.
"Ash… whatever he becomes, whatever consciousness he develops, you are going to shape it more than any system or algorithm."
Ash swallowed.
The spark pulsed again .A soft, almost grateful rhythm.
Palo pointed at his arm.
"Uh..Ash? Something is happening again."
Ash looked down.
The glow beneath his skin brightened..
then shifted.
Not randomly.
Not accidentally.
Into a shape.
Silva gasped.
"That's....
that's a symbol."
Ash stared at the forming mark, heart pounding.
"What symbol?"
Silva whispered:
"The same one Zero-B created in the lab… the first time he tried to reach you."