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

Aeris didn't speak for a long time.

The truth sat between them—thick, hot, impossible to swallow. Kael paced near the edge of the chamber, jaw tight, arms rigid. The revelation didn't seem to surprise him.

"I suspected," he said. "I felt it. The gaps. The instincts that didn't line up. The memories that… skipped."

"I didn't know what I was. Not until now."

Aeris clenched her fists. "You're not a person, Kael. You're a replica. A test model. That's not just a gap. That's a lie."

"No," Kael said, finally turning to face her. "The lie is thinking the original was better."

He stepped closer. "Who you fell for—who fought beside you, bled beside you, risked everything for you—was me. Not the template. Not the code. Me."

"What if the real Kael is still alive?" she asked. "What if he remembers everything Lira didn't wipe? What if he's the one she's protecting—and you're just... filler?"

"Then let's go find him," he said. "And I'll prove I'm the one who deserves to stay."

Outside the Vault

The air was colder. The storm system that had loomed over the perimeter now pressed down in earnest—glitch lightning cracking across the sky. A storm seeded by Nexus. Artificial chaos.

Aeris and Kael made it halfway to the evac shuttle when the ground split.

The space around them rippled—as if reality itself had been unzipped—and then came the sound.

And standing just ten meters away, flickering into the world like a program buffering—

Scarred in places the copy wasn't.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to fight. I'm here to ask one of you to stand down."

Kael—the one beside her—didn't move.

The one before them stepped forward.

"Lira made you first. I know. I remember the test vault. I remember her saying 'We only need one that feels real.' I was locked out after that. Discarded."

He gestured to the version Aeris had come to trust.

"She didn't pick you because you were better. She picked you because you were easier to control."

"This doesn't have to become a choice."

"It already is," said the original. "You just didn't realize which part of yourself you were compromising."

"You're not a memory archivist anymore, Aeris. You're a rewriter. So rewrite."

And reality glitched—only for a second—but long enough for Aeris to realize:

This moment wasn't happening by chance.

Someone—Lira—wanted this.

End of Chapter 19.

The First Betrayal