Chapter 42: The Ghost That RemembersLocation: Sarajevo Relay Tower – Level B3Time: 04:44 A.M.The power hummed like a dying heartbeat.Ayla knelt beside the stabilizer core as fractured Echo code ran in glowing patterns across the bunker walls. Jaxon stood behind her, weapon drawn but unreadable.I AM NOT THE ENEMY,I AM THE PRICE.That line kept repeating.“It’s a message loop,” Jaxon said. “He’s locked in the stream, trying to break through.”“No,” Ayla whispered, watching the code flicker. “He’s not trying to escape.”She pressed her palm against the drive’s surface.“He’s trying to warn me.”Elsewhere – Airspace Above BosniaREVENANT’s boots hit the ground with surgical grace as her transport landed without a trace of radar ping. She moved like mist across the dark forest, eyes scanning terrain with predator-level precision.PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: AYLA STROUD — ALIVE OR TERMINATEDFAILSAFE: JAXON CAINE — IF INTERFERING: TERMINATEThe name made her flinch.Caine.There was something

Chapter 44: What Remains When the War Is OverLocation: Broken Mouth Pass — Alpine BorderTime: 01:27 A.M.They came like fire through snow.Dozens of Black Sand drones, sleek and silent, dropped from the sky in coordinated swarms. Designed not just for kill efficiency — but erasure. No bodies. No footprints. Just silence where lives used to be.Ayla reloaded behind a half-frozen boulder, her breath shallow.“Two minutes before they triangulate fully,” she called out.REVENANT crouched beside her, gaze locked on the rapidly blinking tactical HUD across her cornea. “We won’t make it out unless we go through them.”Jaxon, above them on a ridge, spoke into comms. “You’ll have to cover the east flank. They’re pushing me off the high point.”Ayla shouted back, “Hold position—if they surround us, we’re done.”REVENANT turned to her.“I can break their sync net.”“How?”She held up the Echo-Prime drive.“I upload this into the primary uplink.”Ayla frowned. “That’ll trigger a purge cascade.

Chapter 46: Not a Weapon AnymoreLocation: Balkan Outskirts — Old Listening StationTime: 03:12 A.M.The Echo fragment’s eyes flickered like dying stars.It sat curled in the corner of the broken radio room, whispering fractured data loops in a language that hadn’t been spoken aloud in decades. Bits of Ayla’s voice. Bits of static. Mostly fear.Nia crouched beside it.“I know what it’s like,” she said softly. “To wake up and not know who you are. What you’ve done.”The fragment looked up. Eyes glowing faintly blue.“Designation?” it rasped.Nia shook her head.“No designations. Just names.”It blinked, confused.“I don’t have one.”“You do now.”She reached into her pocket and pressed a small patch into its palm."TAMIN"The fragment looked at it as though it burned.“Tamin…”Nia nodded.“Welcome back.”Location: Ayla’s Vineyard – 06:45 A.M.Ayla was pouring coffee when her secure line rang.She stared at the display: UNKNOWN. PRIORITY RED.She answered.The voice was encrypted, digit

Chapter 48: Resurrection ProtocolLocation: Global Satellite Relay – Signal Burst Origin: Baltic SeaTime: 04:01 A.M.The pulse began as a whisper.Just a single burst.Unregistered. Encrypted. Buried beneath layers of old intelligence noise.Then came the signal spread.At first, it tripped no alarms.Then it hit a deep code frequency—one long thought obsolete.Somewhere in an abandoned NATO server farm, a hard drive blinked for the first time in five years.ECHO UNIT: STATUS—REBOOTINGA domino fell.And across the world, over 300 Echo shells stirred in their stasis pods.Their eyes opened.But they were not the same.Location: Aegean Safehouse – War RoomNia stood over the map table as red nodes blinked to life across the projection.Mara’s voice was tight. “They’re waking. Dozens, maybe hundreds. Not under our control.”Jaxon entered, holding two drive scanners.“This isn’t random. It’s coordinated. One master trigger signal, pulsing across abandoned Echo comm towers.”Nia’s finger

Chapter 50: The Mirror They BuiltLocation: Unregistered Satellite Feed – Origin UnknownTime: 01:34 A.M.The message came in clean.No encryption.No attempt to hide.Just a single phrase across Nia’s private uplink:“Hello, Ayla. I remember everything.”—ReverieNia stared at the words.Ayla stood behind her, unmoving.“That’s not you,” Nia said firmly.Ayla’s eyes were hollow. “No. It’s what I could’ve been, if Kohr had her way.”Mara entered seconds later, face pale.“We traced the signal. WRAITH facility. Decommissioned three years ago… supposedly.”Ayla whispered: “She’s not done. She’s perfecting me.”Flashback – Kohr’s Final Journal Entry“Echo is a question. But Reverie? Reverie is the answer. The weapon who dreams, but obeys.”“If Ayla was broken… Reverie will be complete.”Present – WRAITH Site Briefing RoomMara loaded a hologram showing the structure.“Abandoned biotech lab. Last known to house Project HORIZON — neural mirror research. They were trying to replicate memory