After about an hour of running they were able to make it into the tunnels and far enough that they weren't able to see the Black-Suits chasing them anymore.

  The tunnel air was heavy with dust and old power. Casen adjusted the cracked visor on his helmet, the static hiss of the air filtration system louder than he remembered. Elian moved beside him, her steps cautious, hands tense around the pulse-light. Behind them, Milo traced a path through the wreckage of fallen beams and flickering emergency lights.

  They had descended below the Ash Core—into the ruins of the city’s original Return research site. What remained was twisted metal, scorched plastic, and echoes. Actual echoes, Casen realized, that repeated their words seconds after they spoke them.

  "Residual sound loops," Milo said, eyes narrowing. "Return fallout. Sound ghosts. They only happen when the tether in a place gets unstable."

  Casen’s voice came back to them from the shadows: unstable... unstable... unstable.

  Elian turned to him. "This was supposed to be the containment center?"

  Milo nodded. "Before Project Requiem went dark. This is where they kept the first confirmed Red List subjects—those who came back wrong."

  Casen tightened his grip on the pulse-blade. He hadn’t forgotten the name on that corrupted file.

  Lyssa, Yul.

  His mother. Listed. Marked. No death date. Just a red stamp: RECOVERED.

  He still didn’t know what it meant.

  They reached a sealed door buried halfway in rubble. Milo knelt, brushing away debris and dust.

  "This is it," he said. "Central Archive Node. If there’s anything left, it’ll be in here."

  Casen glanced at Elian. She gave a single nod.

  Milo linked his rig to the broken panel, rerouted the power through his shoulder drive, and with a low mechanical click, the door hissed open.

  What lay beyond wasn’t ruin.

  It was pristine.

  Polished walls. Intact lights. A hum of servers still running.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Elian took a step in and stopped.

  Holograms blinked to life.

  Dozens of them.

  People. Moments. Returns.

  Footage of the dead walking at noon. Footage from other cities. Other countries. Glimpses of past Returns from before they were ever public knowledge.

  And then—

  The Red List.

  Projected across the far wall, names scrolled slowly. Many were labeled CONFIRMED or DECEASED. But others—

  Casen walked closer. His mother’s name flashed past.

  Then Elian’s.

  And then his.

  YUL, CASEN. Status: Unknown. Date of Death: —

  He froze.

  Elian approached, her hand barely touching his shoulder.

  "There’s no date," she said softly. "Just like last time. But here… it’s not crossed out."

  Milo leaned in. "I think I know why. Look at the metadata." He pulled up the logs.

  Subject linked to Category: Anchor / Fracture Point.

  Casen took a shaky breath. "So it’s true. I was part of it from the beginning."

  Milo tapped another file. "And this might explain how. Dr. Wynn’s early research logs. She was trying to trace memory loops. Gaps in recovered timelines."

  He looked up. "She flagged you and Elian both as irregulars before either of you were even exposed to a confirmed Return. That means it wasn’t the ghosts that changed you. It was something else."

  Elian turned away, her voice barely a whisper. "Then what did change us?"

  Casen was about to respond when the archive lights dimmed.

  A new presence entered the space. A smooth voice echoed from behind them.

  "So this is where you ran."

  They turned.

  Three Black-Suits stood in the doorway, weapons drawn. But the one in the center wasn't masked.

  A name tag revealed his name: Agent Kye.

  Milo stepped in front of the others. "You tracked us."

  Kye smiled. "Not hard when someone in your crew doesn’t shield their signal."

  Casen stared at Milo.

  "I didn’t mean to," Milo said. "But if they’re here, that means they know about the list. The Red List isn’t a blacklist. It’s a priority set. A hunting order."

  Kye stepped forward. "It was never about retrieval. It was about prevention. You two—" he pointed at Casen and Elian, "are tethers to unstable loops. You don’t die clean. You fracture the world when you go."

  Elian drew her blade. "Then we don’t go."

  Kye tilted his head.

  Then the power cut.

  Darkness.

  Then red light.

  Then everything exploded into motion.

  Casen and Elian moved fast, using the archive tables for cover. Milo flung an EMP puck that shattered one of the agents' visors. Sparks rained down.

  Casen tackled Kye, but the agent countered, striking with surgical precision. Elian launched herself at another, blades dancing. Milo worked fast, rerouting power to the emergency exit.

  Kye pinned Casen against the archive wall. "You should have stayed dead."

  But Casen slammed his fist into a wall panel—releasing a burst of Return energy captured in the archive's stabilizer.

  Ghost light flared.

  Kye recoiled.

  Casen broke free.

  "Let’s go!" Milo shouted. The exit flared open.

  They ran.

  Smoke. Sirens. A thousand echoes following them up through the broken levels of the Ash Core.

  When they surfaced, the sun was high.

  Almost noon.

  Elian looked at Casen, eyes burning.

  "If we’re really the ones who break the world..."

  Casen nodded.

  "Then let’s break it our way."

  As the clock struck twelve, the world began to shift again.

  And above them, something unseen turned its gaze toward the living.