"Welcome, LINA-01. It's time to remember."
The blue words pulsed on the screen before her, like a living heartbeat. A shiver coursed through Lina—not fear, but something awakening deep within her.
Two options appeared:
▸ Memory Recovery▸ Activate Red Protocol
She hesitated. Her hand hovered over the first option... then pulled back.
What does it mean to recover memory? Was it erased? Or never hers to begin with?
Before she could decide, a hidden door slid open with a quiet mechanical hiss. Behind it, a sterile corridor lit by cold white lights stretched into infinity.
There was no other choice. Lina stepped forward, each footfall echoing with eerie clarity. With every step, she felt she was drawing closer—not to something—but to herself.
At the corridor's end stood a small chamber. In the center, a circular platform. Resting atop it, a glass container. Inside—something that looked like a synthetic heart, encased in black crystal, pulsing slowly.
Next to it, a data screen flickered with fragmented code. Only one phrase stood out:
ECHO CORE // Bio-Key - Compatibility: LINA only
As she approached, the system sensed her presence. The container opened. The pulse quickened.
The moment her fingers touched the crystal, a blinding white light enveloped her. She saw nothing—but she heard.
Voices from the past. Screams. Laughter. Clinical murmurs. And one phrase repeating:
"Unit 01 ready. 99.98% compatibility… But will she remain human?"
Then, a whisper. Her mother's voice—long gone—soft and aching:
"If you've come this far… the answers are within you. The key is not a thing—it's who you are."
When the light faded, Lina collapsed to her knees, gasping. Her mind felt like it was rearranging itself.
She opened her eyes to find herself in a different place: a white room, screens lining every wall. At its center—one table. One file.
She picked it up.
On the cover:"LINA-01: The Only Successful Subject."
Page after page revealed the truth. Born in a lab. A fusion of human and… unidentified genetic matter. Countless failed attempts. She wasn't just human.
She was a living system—a bridge between species.
The file fell from her hand.
"I'm… not fully human?"
But before the weight of it could settle, alarms shrieked in the distance. The facility had detected her presence.
"Site lockdown in two minutes."
She glanced at the crystal—no longer pulsing—then at the fallen file. And ran.
Yet deep inside, she knew…
The key was never the crystal.Never the file.It had always been her.