The air was different here.
Not sterile like the cell. Not cold like the void. It smelled of ash, sweat, and scorched metal. The ruins around her—walls half-eaten by rust, floors split by overgrowth—screamed of a war long finished, but not forgotten.
And yet, she couldn't recall ever walking these grounds.
She had a name now. Selene.
Given, not remembered.
The soldier who'd spoken it was long gone—vaporized in the firefight that had forced her into the ruins. But the name clung to her mind like blood under fingernails. Selene. It didn't feel right. But it was all she had.
Her boots crunched over broken glass as she moved deeper into the compound. The static in her ears hadn't let up since the comms went dead. Just behind it, a strange sound began to rise—something between a whisper and a growl.
Then she saw them.
Figures emerging from the fogged hallway ahead, guns lowered but eyes sharp. Their armor was marked with sigils—burned-in symbols she almost recognized.
And then the tallest one stepped forward.
He was scarred, heavy-set, wearing an old naval coat draped over mismatched body armor. His eyes narrowed the second they met hers. For a moment, he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"Selene...?" His voice broke at the edges. "Gods, it is you."
She instinctively stepped back, hand tightening around the pistol holstered at her thigh. "How do you know my name?"
The man stared. "You don't remember." It wasn't a question.
"No," she said flatly.
Behind him, a younger woman with a buzzcut and glowing data goggles muttered, "She's glitching. Or it's another trick."
"No trick," the man said, never taking his eyes off her. "She saved my life six times. Once on Tyros Prime, once on that frozen hell in the Sera Belt... She shot me once too, for being stupid."
"I should shoot you now," Selene replied, unsure if she meant it.
He gave a dry, cracked chuckle. "There's the edge I remember."
Selene's grip loosened slightly, but the tension in her shoulders didn't fade. "Who are you?"
"Name's Kael Draven. You called me 'Captain' once. We served together. Fought across six systems. You died. Or so they told us."
Buzzcut girl snorted. "She did die. They cremated her on Cindar—"
"Shut it, Lira." Kael's voice was sharp, commanding. "You weren't there. The body they burned wasn't hers. I knew it then, I know it now."
Selene's head pounded. "I don't remember any of that. Not you. Not Lira. Not... myself."
Kael stepped closer, slowly. "What do you remember?"
She hesitated. "Pain. Cold. A machine voice. Then silence."
Kael looked at her like she was a puzzle half-solved. "They did something to you. The Void Initiative, or worse. We need to get you out of here before they find you again."
"I don't trust you," she said.
"I wouldn't trust me either," he replied. "But I know who you are, Selene. You were the best of us. You broke command. Burned a noble house to the ground. Walked into the Eye and came back breathing. You don't remember it, but I do. And I'll remind you—one damn memory at a time."
Selene's fingers brushed the metal collar still fused to her neck. She could feel it now—like a ticking bomb. There wasn't time to argue.
"Then move," she said. "Before I start remembering all the wrong things."
Kael nodded once. "Lira, scout the back corridor. We're moving to the drop point in ten."
As they started down the corridor, Selene glanced sideways at the crumbling murals painted on the walls—soldiers, rebels, and one particular figure, drawn with ink-black eyes and a crown of glass.
She didn't recognize the face.
But something inside her did.