Echo's body dropped limp as the Overseer's light engulfed her—but her mind surged forward like a missile through firewall clouds.
Her eyes snapped open again, but this time,she wasn't in the real world.
She stood in a vast obsidian void, barefoot, breath fogging in the digital chill.Around her, whispers of data slithered like smoke—fragments of Zero-One's stolen mind, fluttering like torn memories.
Ahead of her, a door shimmered into view.It pulsed with a heartbeat that wasn't hers.
She placed her palm on it.It burned.
And then it opened.
Inside, it was worse than she feared.
Zero-One was curled up in the corner of a hollow throne room—his own mind twisted into a prison.
His skin flickered with lines of broken code.His voice was hoarse.
"Mom… why are you here? You'll break too."
She knelt beside him."I'd rather break with you than let you rot in silence."
He looked at her, tears forming—real, not digital.
"But I… I let it in."
