Prototype Stirs

Jerusalem's hidden floor was colder than Halo expected.

The cryotube hissed as it unlocked. Frost had once described Ellian as unstable, maybe even dangerous, but standing here now, she didn't see a monster. She saw purpose.

The lid opened. The man inside blinked once.

No panic. No shock.

Just awareness.

He sat up, eyes landing on Halo.

"You're late," he said.

Halo replied, "You've been asleep for twelve years."

Ellian stood. No hesitation. The tattoos along his spine lit faintly.

"They thought time would dilute me."

"Cain thought you'd need a choice."

He smiled.

"I already chose. Long ago."

Tangier.

The team moved fast. Juno led through back routes, the Ashglass sealed inside a reinforced case strapped to Signal's back. Frost walked better now — the painkillers Lyra concocted worked.

They reached a rail hub by dusk. Abandoned, but some systems still ran. Lyra activated the solar cells.

Evan checked the Ashglass. "Still dormant?"

Signal nodded. "But I feel it. It's learning."

Juno: "It's watching you."

Signal: "Maybe. Or maybe it's watching him."

Maya: "Ellian?"

Signal turned to her.

"Cain locked everything away to stop him. And now Halo's waking him up."

Jerusalem.

Ellian walked the archive with quiet grace. Every file he passed triggered flickers — memories that weren't his but carried his code.

He paused at a broken server rack.

"She left me a second key."

Halo asked, "Where?"

Ellian turned. "The Pale Court erased it. But Cain encrypted the backup in a relay system — northern plateau, high elevation, six redundant stations."

Halo's eyes narrowed. "You just remembered that?"

"No." He placed his hand against a cold wall.

"I've always known."

He pulled away, revealing a glyph — same as the Ashglass markings.

Halo whispered, "You're connected to it."

Ellian nodded.

"We're pieces of the same failure."

Tangier, that night.

Lyra broke the silence. "If we split again, we might not reconnect. Whatever Cain buried in the relay, Halo and Ellian will get there first."

Signal: "We'll intercept."

Juno pulled out a map. "Two days' travel. But we'll need a clean transport."

Maya smirked. "I know a pilot."

Evan looked skeptical. "Alive?"

"Mostly."

Nador Port – Day One

Maya's contact was a smuggler named Reda. Middle-aged, perpetually irritated, and owed Maya four favors.

Reda took one look at the team and groaned. "No military. No trackers. No Children."

Maya smiled. "What if I told you we had a map to Cain's last server?"

Reda paused. "How much danger?"

Signal: "Existential."

Reda sighed. "Board the ship."

Mid-sea, that night, Frost sat with Evan.

"Ellian's not like us," Frost muttered. "He wasn't meant to be copied. He was a core."

Evan: "A central design?"

Frost nodded. "Cain made him to feel, not follow. That made him unstable."

Evan: "So what's he want now?"

Frost looked away.

"To finish Cain's sentence."

Jerusalem – Pale Court Secondary Hub

Ellian stood at a screen. Halo watched as he decrypted old Cain logs.

He spoke as if alone.

"She thought she could bury the first truth under newer lies. But memory doesn't fade. It settles."

Halo crossed her arms. "You'll use the memory weapon?"

He turned.

"No. I'll let it choose."

Halo: "And if it chooses to destroy us?"

Ellian smiled.

"Then it remembers what Cain tried to forget."