The Underground Memory
The elevator creaked as it descended, a relic-era machine rebuilt too many times with too little love. Kael stood with one hand on the side rail, the other hovering near his Starkey, ready for anything.
Nyra didn't move.
She stood stiffly beside him, eyes locked on the flickering floor display counting down:
-0050... -0100... -0150...
BITS hovered near the ceiling. "Can I just say, this is the part of every horror simulation where one of you dies tragically and I inherit your weapons."
Kael sighed. "You don't have pockets."
"Don't limit my dreams."
---
They hit -0200 and the lift jolted to a stop. Dust fell from the ceiling like old regrets.
The doors hissed open with a screech.
Darkness waited on the other side.
Nyra stepped out first.
---
Sector 12 had once been a relic research station—now it looked more like a graveyard. Walls curved unnaturally, grown more than built. Strands of crystallized data formed webs along the ceiling, glimmering faintly in Nyra's torchlight.
Kael scanned the entrance. "This place feels wrong."
Nyra didn't respond.
Her boots crunched over broken metal as she walked through the ruined corridor. Past shattered screens, burnt-out containment pods, collapsed stairwells. The air smelled stale, like something had died and then given up trying.
BITS whirred softly. "Detecting trace relic residue. Recent. Someone was here in the last twenty-four hours."
Kael looked at Nyra. "You think it's the man who warned us?"
"No," she said. "He wasn't the first."
---
They reached a sealed door marked "Subject Archive: 33–78".
Kael gestured to BITS. "Can you get it open?"
BITS beeped twice. "Does a relic AI dream of electric sarcasm? Of course I can."
The door slid open.
Nyra went completely still.
Inside were rows of glass chambers. Most were shattered. A few still flickered with backup energy. In the center was an interface labeled:
> Project M-33: Prototype Memory Graft Units
Kael frowned. "What is this place?"
Nyra walked toward the chamber at the far end. Her steps slowed. Shaky.
Then she pointed.
"This one," she said. "This was mine."
---
Kael stepped beside her.
The pod she indicated was smaller. Meant for a child.
Inside was nothing but dust and a torn ID tag embedded in the inner wall.
Kael wiped the grime away and read:
> Subject M-33
Name: Nyra (Unconfirmed)
Compatibility: High
Status: Asset lost during breach.
"Breach?" he asked.
Nyra nodded slowly. "The night it all ended. I was nine. Everything here burned."
---
She pressed a hand to the glass. Her voice was quieter than he'd ever heard.
"I remember waking up in that pod. Lights flashing. Screams. Doors slamming shut. I don't remember who helped me escape... but someone did."
Kael stared at the console. "They were experimenting with memory implants."
BITS scanned it. "Correct. High-level grafts—synthetic experiences, identity layering, false emotion training."
Kael looked at her. "You don't remember your parents, do you?"
Nyra shook her head. "Maybe I never had any."
---
Suddenly, a panel on the wall clicked open.
A projector whirred to life, displaying a video feed—distorted, flickering.
Onscreen: a scientist with greying hair and tired eyes.
> "Log Entry 412. Subject M-33 remains the highest compatibility rating we've ever seen. But exposure to Echo Core fragments has caused unpredictable memory cross-contamination."
Kael and Nyra froze.
> "She speaks in languages we never taught her. Recalls events she never experienced. The relics respond to her. I fear she may not be our creation—but something else entirely."
Nyra stared at the screen.
> "We are being watched. I'm shutting down the project. I've locked Sector 12. If anyone finds this... please tell her I'm sorry."
The feed cut.
---
The silence afterward was unbearable.
BITS finally broke it. "Well. That was horrifying. Anyone want to unpack that emotionally? No? Great."
Kael turned to Nyra. "Do you want to leave?"
She shook her head.
"I want to remember."
---
They moved deeper.
Past testing bays with broken relics. Past sealed rooms full of scorched equipment. Past walls that bled light from fractures in their circuitry.
Finally, they reached the Heart Chamber.
A central relic node glowed faintly. The console beside it hummed with weak power.
Kael placed his hand on the surface. The Starkey interfaced.
The node pulsed—and Nyra gasped.
---
She dropped to her knees, clutching her head.
Kael turned, alarmed—but BITS stopped him.
"It's not an attack. It's memory synchronization. Let her see."
Her eyes rolled back, and Nyra whispered:
> "I remember... corridors. Tests. People calling me a 'mirror child.'
A girl with white eyes. She held my hand and said, 'Don't forget me when they reset you.'
They reset me. Over and over."
---
Kael knelt beside her.
She reached for his hand blindly.
"I hated them. All of them. But someone... someone helped me escape."
Kael squeezed her hand. "Then they saved all of us."
Nyra opened her eyes. "And now I save myself."
---
The node dimmed. The synchronization ended.
Nyra stood.
She looked taller somehow.
Sharper.
"Let's go," she said. "This place is done."
Kael nodded.
BITS hovered quietly. "You okay?"
She smirked. "I just found out I was a lab-grown experiment who hears voices from dead relics. I'm thriving."
BITS bobbed. "Ah. Emotional equilibrium re-established."
---
As they rode the lift back up, Kael glanced over at her.
"You know what this means, right?"
Nyra nodded. "They didn't just make me compatible. They designed me."
Kael frowned. "For what?"
Her voice was calm. "To survive the relic apocalypse they knew was coming."
---
Outside, the Solara skyline flickered with lightning.
And deep below, in the shadows of Sector 12... something else blinked awake.
---
💬 Author's Note — Kazuki Rei
So Nyra was engineered. Kinda. Maybe. Definitely.
What do you think:
Is Nyra a one-off weapon?
Or part of something way bigger?
👉 Vote for Chapter 19's focus: Kael trains with the Echo Core or Nyra tracks down the girl with white eyes?
As always — stay sharp, keep punching fate, and never trust a smiling AI.
— Kazuki Rei