Chapter 7: Ghost Code.
Chapter 7: Ghost Code
The hallway lights strobed red as Sierra and the man ran, their footsteps echoing against the cold steel walls. Sirens howled overhead, and the compound shifted from secrecy to full lockdown mode. She could barely think—her legs moved on instinct, but her mind… her mind was stuck in that room, staring at a terminal that whispered lies. Or truths. She wasn't sure anymore.
"I need answers!" she shouted over the alarm.
"You'll get them—just not here!" he barked, leading her through a narrow maintenance shaft. "We need to get out before the Protocol deploys autonomous enforcers."
Sierra's chest burned as they crawled through the vent, the heat of adrenaline surging beneath her skin. I'm not Sierra Vale. Someone made me forget. And the Protocol was looking for me.
When they finally burst into an old service chamber, the man slammed the door shut and bolted it with a thick iron bar.
"You've got five minutes before they triangulate this room," he said. "If you want the truth—now's your shot. I can patch you in to the server again. But after that, we run."
Sierra hesitated. Part of her wanted to scream at him, to demand more—Who am I? Why me? Why now? But there was no time for breakdowns.
She dropped to her knees and pulled the cracked portable interface from her satchel. Her hands were shaking as she connected to the emergency uplink. "Plug me in."
The man crouched beside her, typed in a few commands, and nodded. "You're back in."
As the interface activated, the world blurred and pulsed. Sierra's vision dimmed—and in a heartbeat, she was inside again.
Not the real world.
The other one.
She stood in a space that wasn't a room, but felt like one. Shadows moved like smoke, and towers of code flickered like digital flame. This was the heart of the Protocol. Not data. Not firewalls. A mind.
She wasn't alone.
"Welcome back," a voice whispered.
She turned—and saw herself.
Not a mirror. Not a trick.
Another version of her, cloaked in light and shadow, standing across the void.
"You are the key and the lock," the duplicate said, voice like a thousand whispers layered into one. "You are not the first, Sierra. And you won't be the last."
"What are you?" Sierra whispered.
"I'm the version of you that was left behind… before they wiped your memory."
Sierra stumbled back. "No. That's not possible."
"Everything you are now is built on what was erased. But I remained here—in the code. You're the ghost. I'm the original."
"No!" Sierra's fists clenched. "You're just a projection—an echo of a girl who was used and broken. I survived."
"But at what cost?" the version of her asked. "You let them take everything. Even your name."
Sierra's breathing was ragged. Her mind screamed, Disconnect, run, get out—but something held her in place.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"To show you who you were meant to be."
The space shifted. Scenes flashed—Sierra hacking government systems at fourteen, sneaking out of a research lab at sixteen, whispering the word Starlight before her memories faded.
"You weren't chosen by chance," the other her whispered. "You were engineered. The Protocol didn't find you by accident—it recognized its maker."
Sierra's knees buckled. "I… created this?"
"No. You helped. Then you tried to destroy it. That's when they wiped you."
Her heart thundered. Nothing felt real, and yet everything clicked into place.
She wasn't just a hacker.
She was a creator.
A threat.
The shadow around her flickered, and alarms from the real world started bleeding into the code-space.
"They're coming for you," the ghost said. "But you don't have to run anymore."
"Then what do I do?" Sierra whispered.
The other her smiled faintly. "You wake up. And you fight."
With a gasp, Sierra ripped off the interface cable. The man stood by the door, weapon drawn.
"They're here," he said. "We move now."
She stood slowly, power humming through her veins. The fear wasn't gone—but something deeper had awakened.
She wasn't just surviving anymore.
She was remembering.
And the Protocol was about to regret ever coming for her.