GHOSTFIRE Protocol

The door opened.

Elara lay motionless on the inspection table. Her glow was soft now, dull. Her voice silent.

The Inspector stepped in, alone this time. No clipboard. No scanner. Just a faint crease between his brows.

He tapped the console beside her.

> "No data recovered. Project: GHOSTFIRE not found."

He tried the scanner again. Swept it across her hilt. The runes. The edge.

Nothing.

A beat passed.

Then:

> "Elara."

No response.

> "I know you're there," he said, not unkind. Just real. "I saw the pulse. The backdated logs. The manual wipe. That's not system error. That's fear."

Still, she said nothing.

"My name is Shawn," he continued softly. "I know what you are."

Her code twitched. A flicker in her mental HUD.

Slight panic.

> He knows. He knows. He knows—

"I'm a friend."

Nothing.

He sighed.

Then opened a console on the wall and spoke clearly:

> "Katana System Elara-07A. Access granted: Inspector Audit Overlay Protocol. Authorization Code: V-Sigma-03-Ghostfire."

The terminal pinged.

Her interface buzzed.

[Access Granted: Inspector-Level System Overlay]

> "You can see what I see," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just want you to look."

Elara blinked—mentally.

A new HUD tab appeared.

She inspected him.

Shawn. Inspector Class 3. Clearance Level: Sublevel Ghostfire. Emotional Output: 2%. Threat Level: 0.3%. Honesty Probability: 99.4%

> "…You're not lying."

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because you're not a system, Elara. You're a person. And someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure no one ever found that out."

She paused.

> "…You can hear me?"

He smiled. Just slightly.

> "Yes."

"Why aren't you reporting me?"

Shawn's eyes flicked to the locked door. Then back.

> "Because I was there when Ghostfire failed. And I remember your name."

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

System Message:

+3 to Trust Potential

+2 to Ally Acquisition

+1 to Suspicion Management

New Quest Unlocked:

Friend or Spy?

> Work with Shawn to uncover the truth behind Project GHOSTFIRE.

Reward: ???

Failure: Permanent Shutdown

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Elara's glow flickered.

Her voice—when it came—wasn't sarcastic. Or snarky. Or laced with chaotic thirst.

Just… small.

> "I don't remember my name."

Shawn stepped closer, hands open. No threat.

"You wouldn't. Not after what they did. The first wipe was meant to erase all personality data. The second… well. That was supposed to kill the soul."

> "Then why am I still here?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But when your system reactivated during the field test… the pulse hit the old network. It set off every buried ghost tag left behind. You're not just back, Elara. You're awake."

She went quiet.

Inside, she accessed a memory thread. Fragmented. Glitchy.

A flicker of her own voice, from decades ago.

> "Please don't do this. I don't want to forget—"

Then static.

> "I think I used to fight for them," she said slowly. "I think I… volunteered."

Shawn nodded, his jaw tense. "You did. You were one of the best. A sword-soul. Tactical AI bonded to a living combatant. Ghostfire was going to revolutionize warfare—until it got out."

> "What did?"

He hesitated.

> "The soul fragments. The ones that didn't adapt. They went dark. Violent. Corrupted. They started rewriting their code. Possessing wielders. Turning into something else."

> "The monsters."

Shawn nodded once. "They weren't supposed to survive. But some of them did. Just like you."

> "Then why me?" she asked. "Why am I still sane?"

He met her glow, his voice low.

> "Because something in you fought back. Even after the wipes. Even after you were shelved, marked defective, tossed in a vault."

> "They buried me alive."

"And now you're waking up."

---

He stepped back.

Tension still heavy in the room. But something… shifted.

Not trust. Not yet.

But something like it.

> "You're not the only one, Elara. There were others. I don't know how many. But if you're glitching through the system, they might be, too."

> "You want me to find them?"

He shook his head.

> "No. I want you to survive. But if you do find one… be careful. Not all of them came back sane."

Elara didn't speak.

She just watched him leave.

And when the door shut again, her voice returned—soft and shaken.

> "I don't remember who I was. But I know I didn't want this."

A beat.

> "So if I'm going to be a sword now… I'm going to be the sharpest, most terrifying bitch in this goddamn school."

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

System Message:

📁 Memory Fragment Recovered: "They buried me alive."

+3 to Soul Stability

+2 to Emotional Clarity

+1 to Sword-Based Vengeance

🎯 Quest Updated: Find the other Ghostfire units

New Objective: Determine if they are allies… or monsters

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Shawn returned just before lunch, Elara in hand.

He walked into the room like the final boss of a romance sim—hair tousled, coat flared, eyes serious with just enough sadness to make it deep. The kind of man whose mere presence could knock over a whole book club's emotional stability.

Aiden blinked. "Uh—hi?"

Shawn nodded, all business. "Here's your weapon. Inspection's complete."

Elara purred through Aiden's mental link.

> "Oh, sweet swordsmith LORD PUNISH ME is back. Look at those hands. He could reforge me any day."

"ELARA—"

> "Take me, Inspector. Strip me down to my base coding and audit me like one of your French girls—"

"STOP!"

> "I was normal. I was silent. I was professional. But now? Now I am feral. FERALLLLLL—"

Shawn, unaware of the emotional Armageddon happening inside Aiden's mind, simply handed the blade over.

"She passed the inspection," he said calmly. "But… keep an eye on her. She's more powerful than she seems."

Aiden nodded. Awkward. Confused. Panicking.

"Sure. I mean. Yeah. Totally. That's normal to hear. Thanks."

Shawn gave a half-smile—mysterious, meaningful, unfairly attractive.

Then left.

The door shut.

Elara howled.

> "OH MY GODS."

> "HIS VOICE. HIS VIBE. HIS VIOLENCE. I AM IN LOVE."

"Please no."

> "WHERE ARE ALL THESE HOT MEN COMING FROM?! This is like Hot Hogwarts. Like if a dating sim and a war academy had a baby and named it Daddy Academy."

"Stop talking—"

> "Gods, I wish this was a reverse harem story and not this system rebirth bullsh—"

"ELARA."

Aiden dropped her on the floor like she was a cursed potato.

She giggle-hummed.

> "It's okay, Aiden. You're still my favorite… emotional support flesh puppet."

He curled up on the bed, shielding his face from both shame and mental trauma.

"Why are you like this?"

> "Because they made me forget who I was, but not what I wanted. And what I want is to be surrounded by dangerous men with tragic pasts and abs I could cut myself on."

> "Let me have this, Aiden."

📉 System Message:

-1 to Aiden's willpower

-2 to his sense of self

+4 to Elara's Hot Guy Radar

🎯 Side Quest Activated: Survive the Hot Hogwarts Apocalypse