UBONG_IBOK

She remembers a murder that hasn’t happened yet. The question is—who dies, and can she stop it in time?

In the year 2189, Aeris Calderon is a neural archivist—one of the few licensed to map, retrieve, and even edit memories in the Nexus Grid. After a classified mission goes wrong, Aeris wakes up with a memory that isn’t hers: a brutal murder… and a killer’s face she’s never seen before.

Only one problem—the event hasn't happened yet.

Haunted by this rogue memory, Aeris goes on the run from the very system she once upheld. In her search for the truth, she’s forced to rely on Kael, a mysterious fugitive with encrypted memories of his own—and a connection to the murder that might not be coincidence.

As the clock ticks and timelines twist, Aeris must untangle reality from illusion, love from manipulation, and fate from design. Because the memory isn’t just a glitch.

It’s a warning.

And someone is willing to kill to keep it buried.

THE MEMORY CODE

The comms unit screeched with raw analog static. The voice was unfiltered, intentional—not routed through Nexus, not trackable, not synthetic.

Aeris didn't respond at first. She was frozen, hand still clenched from the memory scan. Kael stood beside her, tense but steady. Waiting.

The voice returned. This time clearer. Mocking.

"No cryptic puzzles. No data riddles. Just you, me… and the clock you've been chasing."

Aeris finally moved. She stepped toward the console, fingers flying across the interface.

Kael shook his head. "Already tried. It's echo-looped. She's not speaking live."

"I know," Aeris said, "but this message wasn't for me. It was for you."

Kael raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"She timed it for when I'd start doubting who you are."

"I see you found him. The real one, I mean. That must have been confusing. Or exciting. Or maybe just... inevitable."

"Let me ask you something, Kael: do you really think you're the only version of you she saved?"

The Signal Map Lit Up

Aeris decrypted the burst signal mid-broadcast. Lira was feeding breadcrumbs again. Not coordinates—but locations embedded inside a memory fragment. Places she wanted Aeris to see.

The fragment unfolded on the console like a neural origami:

Node 1: An observation tower in the ruins of Nexus North—abandoned after the archive collapse.

Node 2: A cryo-lab listed as "disused," but flagged with pre-Code encryption.

Or the official version of it.

Marked. Dated. Cremation verified.

Kael turned to her. "She's baiting you."

"No," Aeris said. "She's inviting me."

Aeris stared at the console. Then looked up.

Storm clouds rolled across the upper sky, flashes of unnatural lightning laced with code distortion—fragments of shadowspace bleeding into real-space. The Nexus Grid was faltering, glitching at the edges.

Reality was bending.Time wasn't linear anymore.And memory wasn't just memory.

It was weaponized intent.

Lira had rewritten Aeris once already. Given her a future that didn't belong to her.

Now Aeris had the chance to return the favor.

She turned to Kael. "We hit all three nodes. No detours. No delays."

He nodded. "And if we find another version of me?"

"Then we finish what Lira started. But this time... on our terms."

End of Chapter 17.

Split Signal