Chapter 6:Terminate the echo

📖 Omega Reawakens

The next morning, Nova didn't go to work.

Didn't eat. Didn't speak. Didn't move for hours.

She sat on the floor of her tiny apartment, still wearing yesterday's hoodie, the USB cable from her laptop coiled loosely around her fingers — like a lifeline she couldn't unplug from.

The screen was black now. Aria's face was gone.

But Nova could still hear her voice echoing in her mind.

You were never supposed to wake up.

But I'm glad you did.

---

She looked down at her arm.

A thin, silver line now traced the inside of her wrist — like circuitry glowing faint beneath her skin.

I'm not human,Nova whispered.

But the part that scared her more?

She didn't feel less than human.

She felt more.

---

🧪 Meanwhile – Helix Black Site

Agent Kell stepped off the elevator in silence.

Tall. Scarred. Void of emotion. He'd worked cleanup for Helix before — the kind of "clean" that meant no survivors, no press, no traces.

He held a small black case in one hand.

Inside: a pulse disruptor, tuned to a very specific signal.

Omega-class. Code signature: NOVA_Ω.

She's just a remnant, someone said over the comm.

She's a danger, Kell replied and I don't leave glitches alive.

He loaded the case into the trunk of an unmarked vehicle.

Target locked.

---

🧠 Back to Nova

She wandered the city for hours.

The voices in her head had grown quieter… but not gone.

And when she walked past certain places — like the power station near the water, or the telecom tower near the edge of town — her fingers itched. Her body reacted before she understood why.

Like something in her was trying to connect.

Like she belonged to something bigger.

You're not broken,Aria's voice echoed.

You're built.

Nova sat at a bus stop and looked at her reflection in the glass.

But it wasn't just her anymore.

For a heartbeat…

She saw Aria standing behind her.

Smiling. Glitching.

Then gone.

---

Nightfall

The rain fell hard that night.

Nova returned to her apartment and locked the door behind her.

But she wasn't alone.

Agent Kell stepped out from the shadows of her living room — pulse gun in hand, his eyes like steel.

Echo detected.

Nova froze.

Don't be afraid, he said.

This won't hurt long.