Echo fell to her knees as her memory threads flickered, entire sections of her life unraveling.The first time she held Zero-One's hand? Gone.His crooked baby smile? Gone.
"No," she gasped, clutching her head. "No, not him—don't take him!"
Specter reached her, teeth clenched, hands glowing with an override circuit.
"We've got seconds before it wipes everything," he said. "We either anchor the memories… or lose him forever."
Zero-One floated above, eyes dim, lost in a sea of song fragments.
The Lullaby Protocol sang softly around him—
"Forget the fire. Forget the fear.Sleep now, child, there's nothing here."
Inside, Zero-One wasn't numb.He was overwhelmed.
Each erased memory left a hole—and the holes filled with comfort.With quiet.
No guilt. No responsibility.Just the soft hum of forgetting.
But in the silence…he felt one thing remaining.
Echo's voice.
A mother's memory shouldn't vanish.
And Specter's defiance.
A father who'd rather be hated than erased.
