Ghosts of the Past

Location: Forest Outskirts – Early Morning

A thin veil of frost clung to the branches overhead as morning light crept over the ridge. Cyg stirred beneath the makeshift shelter, having barely slept. Across from him, Hikari leaned lightly against a tree, her eyes closed but her presence steady.

She hadn't asked more questions after last night. She didn't need to.

For someone as calculating as Cyg, that silence meant more than a thousand gestures.

He finally broke the stillness.

"Why did you really come?"

Hikari opened her eyes slowly.

"Because you're part of this team. Part of us. And because…" she hesitated, voice softening, "…I knew you wouldn't come back otherwise."

Cyg didn't respond immediately. He stood, brushing the frost off his coat, and turned toward the ridge.

"There's one more location. Below the ruins. If you want to turn back, this is the time."

She shook her head.

"You'll just go alone again."

He paused, then started walking.

She followed.

Location: Subterranean Shaft – Facility Depth Level X

Descending through a half-collapsed elevator shaft, the light dimmed until only the glow of Cyg's Mystic Eye illuminated the descent. Their boots clicked softly against metal rungs.

"This place," Hikari murmured, "it doesn't feel like Gaia tech."

"It isn't," Cyg said. "It was funded by the Gaia Defense Oversight Council. Before the King disbanded it. Before even Thea was born."

At the bottom, a sealed doorway buzzed faintly, marked by ancient warning glyphs.

"Ether resonance lock. Dual signature," Cyg muttered.

He reached toward the panel. Surprisingly, the glyphs shifted… and accepted Hikari's presence as well.

"Me?" she blinked. "Why?"

"Your bloodline. The 'Vessel' aspect of your power," Cyg said, more curious than surprised. "It's not just genetic. It's legacy-bound."

The doors opened.

Location: Archive Chamber: Codename 'Vault Echo'

Rows of containment tubes, now long powered down, lined the walls. Some were shattered. Others still held hollow remains—failed subjects.

Cyg stepped inside with silent purpose, scanning the control panels. One of them beeped with recognition.

"Subject 11: Status – Reactivated."

Hikari felt a shiver crawl up her spine.

"Cyg… what was this place?"

He turned to face her.

"A creation site. For the first Synthesis candidates. Before the trial system. Before ethics. Before the war against Orion and the Abyss. They called it Project Edenfall."

His voice was cold, but she sensed the shift in his aura—something deeper.

Pain.

Flashback: Age 11 – Vault Echo

Cyg sat inside a medical chamber, cables attached to his spine and temples. A voice echoed overhead.

"The candidate has shown excessive synaptic activity. No emotional instability."

"But no empathy either," another voice noted. "He's... efficient. Pure logic."

"Then he's perfect."

"He's empty."

"He's exactly what we need."

The lights turned red. A scream from another chamber rang out.

Cyg didn't blink.

Back to Present

As Hikari walked down the rows of glass, she noticed inscriptions etched into each tube. Names. Ages. Numbers.

"These were children," she said, voice cracking.

Cyg didn't answer. He stood before a final tube, sealed in a blackened pod, marked:

SUBJECT 00 – Status: Contained. Origin: UNKNOWN.

Suddenly, the facility lights flickered.

From the far end of the room, abyssal static buzzed.

Then a voice, distorted, echoed through the air.

"Subject Eleven… you returned to the womb of your birth."

Cyg drew his gunblade in an instant.

"That voice… isn't human."

From the shadows, a twisted humanoid figure emerged. Its limbs were elongated, spliced with leftover artifact technology, and in place of eyes were twin ether cores, pulsing erratically.

"They left me here to rot. You got a name. I got a designation."

"What are you?" Hikari asked, stepping beside Cyg.

"I'm what happens when the synthesis fails," the creature snarled. "And now… I'm going to take back my number."

Combat Begins – Vault Echo

The monster lunged, hurling a ripple of distorted ether through the chamber. Cyg shielded Hikari with his cloak, his Mystic Eye activating instantly.

"Trajectory... locked."

With perfect precision, he fired a split-shot burst from Aetheron, shattering one of the creature's ether eyes.

But it only screamed louder.

"You still analyze everything! Still trying to solve me like an equation!"

The chamber pulsed, and the dormant tubes began to shudder—ether resonance igniting corrupted remnants.

"We've got a problem," Cyg said tightly.

Hikari stepped forward, scythe in hand, her ether flaring with a deep crimson glow.

"Then let's solve it together."

Together, they moved. She sliced through falling debris, shielding Cyg's flank while he aimed for the creature's joints, stripping away corrupted armor piece by piece.

"You're not a failure," Hikari said aloud during the battle.

"I never said I was," Cyg replied coolly.

"I meant me. You and I… we're not mistakes. We're survivors."

Cyg met her gaze for a fleeting second—and she saw it.

A flicker of warmth.