Chapter 49

> "Help me…"

The voice was unmistakable.

Kye's breath hitched.

It wasn't an echo, or a leftover memory. It wasn't the way the beacon mimicked thought or pain. This voice—it *was* Sena.

Raw.

Frightened.

Real.

Renna stepped back instinctively, eyes locked on the red orb hovering just above Kye's right shoulder. It pulsed once—then again—beating faster than the others, as though it didn't belong in this reality.

Kaelion's eyes narrowed.

"That's impossible."

Kye didn't take his eyes off the orb. "You heard it too."

Kaelion slowly approached, hand glowing faintly with defensive energy. "It's a trap. Beacons don't preserve individuals. They erase or reset."

Renna moved to Kye's side. "Then why is *she* still in there?"

Kaelion hesitated.

The red orb gave another slow pulse. Not aggressive. Not trying to flee. It simply hovered, as if waiting to be… understood.

Kye stepped closer. "Sena."

> "Kye… please…"

His throat tightened. The voice was distant, like it was being transmitted across a chasm—weak, cracked, but undeniably her. He could *feel* her in it. The cadence. The fear. The faint lilt she had when she was unsure if she was dreaming.

Renna asked softly, "How can she still exist if she died before the reset?"

Kaelion answered, "Unless…"

Renna turned to him. "Unless what?"

Kaelion didn't meet her eyes.

He spoke directly to Kye.

"You said the beacon showed you lost memories. Buried timelines. Correct?"

Kye nodded slowly. "Fragments of things that never happened. Or did, and were erased."

Kaelion took a breath. "Then this might not be *your* Sena."

Kye stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"I mean… this could be *another* Sena. From a broken worldline. One the beacon consumed but never processed. A leftover."

Renna whispered, "So she's real… but not ours?"

Kaelion gave a helpless shrug. "In a way, she's just as real. The beacon stores fragments like puzzles it doesn't know how to solve. And sometimes, a strong enough memory resists deletion."

The orb pulsed again, softer now. Dimmer.

Kye took a step forward.

"Sena. Can you hear me?"

> "Everything hurts…"

He flinched.

That wasn't just fear in her voice.

It was *pain*.

The kind that didn't belong in memory.

Kaelion's jaw tensed.

"She's *feeling* something. That means she's still tethered."

Renna frowned. "Tethered to what?"

Kye whispered, "To me."

For a long moment, none of them moved.

Even the chamber had gone quiet again, like the entire Citadel was holding its breath.

Kye turned to Kaelion.

"Can I reach her?"

Kaelion looked conflicted. "It's possible. But the risks—"

"I don't care."

Kaelion sighed. "It could fry your brain, rip you apart, or worse—overwrite you with her version of reality."

Kye didn't flinch. "She remembered me. Even in there."

Renna's voice cracked slightly. "Do you even know if it's really her?"

"No," Kye admitted.

"But if there's even a chance…"

He stepped forward, until the red orb floated directly in front of him.

It hovered there like a hesitant flame.

He reached toward it.

Kaelion started, "Wait—"

Too late.

Kye's hand touched the surface.

And the world collapsed.

---

He wasn't falling.

He was *sinking.*

Through time.

Through static.

Through unfinished memories that writhed and bled color.

He heard a voice—not Sena's—but someone else's.

A child.

> "Don't forget the sky…"

The scene shifted.

He landed hard.

Snow.

Not the Citadel.

A vast white plain.

Trees with no leaves.

A sky that bent wrong at the edges.

And in the center of the clearing—

Sena.

Not an illusion.

Not a ghost.

**Her.**

Barefoot. Kneeling. Eyes wide, glassy.

Chains of red light looped around her arms and legs, holding her in place like she was pinned to the memory.

Kye stumbled forward.

"Sena!"

She looked up.

And for a second—

Her face lit up.

"Kye?"

But it flickered.

Her expression warped—like her memories were colliding.

"Wait… no… you're dead. I'm dead."

He knelt in front of her.

"You're not. You're *here.* You called for me."

Her lips trembled. "I don't remember how long it's been."

"I don't care. I'm taking you out."

He tried to touch the chains.

They burned him.

He flinched, skin sizzling.

Sena shook her head. "You can't. These were made by the system. They hold fragments that refuse to obey. If you break them the wrong way… I'll vanish."

Kye looked around.

The sky above wasn't real.

It flickered like an old screen.

The ground under them pulsed with a heartbeat he couldn't feel.

"This place… it's not a memory."

Sena nodded. "It's a holding cell."

"For what?"

"For people like me. People the beacon couldn't delete."

Her eyes shimmered.

"I tried to forget you. I tried to forget everything. But something in me held on."

Kye felt a lump rise in his throat.

"Sena…"

She leaned forward.

Their foreheads touched, just for a second.

"You died in my arms," she whispered. "But here you are. Again."

He took a breath.

"I'm going to bring you out."

Her lips parted.

A flicker of a smile.

Then—

The sky cracked.

A *tear* in the air above them.

Kaelion's voice boomed through it like thunder.

"Kye! Your body's destabilizing—pull out, *now!*"

Kye looked up.

Then back to Sena.

She was fading.

"No."

He grabbed the chain with both hands.

They screamed into his bones.

But he held on.

One link at a time—he forced the chain to give.

It resisted.

It wasn't metal.

It was *code. Command. Obedience.*

But he refused.

---

Outside—

Kye's real body convulsed on the floor.

Veika and Renna backed away as arcs of red light shot out from his chest, circling the room like wild energy.

Kaelion poured energy into a containment seal. "If he doesn't come back in the next minute—he'll take the whole Citadel with him!"

Renna stepped forward.

"I'm going in."

Kaelion blocked her. "You don't have the tether."

She placed her hand over Kye's heart.

"I *am* the tether."

---

Inside the prison—

Kye broke the final link.

Sena collapsed into his arms.

The chains vanished.

The sky cracked wide open.

A wind roared through the snowfield, pulling them upward like a vacuum.

Sena held onto him, trembling.

"I don't know where this leads."

Kye smiled.

"I do."

And they vanished together into the light.

---

Back in the chamber—

The orb exploded.

Not violently.

It shattered into a thousand petals of red light.

And from the center—

Kye and Sena collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.

Alive.

Together.

Renna stood frozen.

Sena blinked, eyes adjusting.

Her lips parted.

"You…"

Renna knelt beside her.

"I'm Renna."

A pause.

Then Sena smiled faintly.

"Of course you are."