CHAPTER 46: "The Ones Who Burn"
> "Some things don't die when you kill them. Some wait for the next shape."
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Scene 1: Entering the Core
The Core isn't what they imagined. It's not a hive or a system or a dungeon—it's home. Or what home used to be—fractured, bent, and swallowed by Root logic.
Gift stops walking. He sees his childhood home. Except… the roof's caved in. The lights are blinking. There's a figure in the window. It's her. Reen. For a moment—alive, smiling. Then gone.
Maiku doesn't speak. He's gripping his wristband tight, holding back a scream. He sees them—him and Reen, laughing in the lab. Just dreamers. Antidote bottles scattered across the table. She's teasing him about his notes.
Jakku drops to his knees. His breathing's heavy. He tries to form words—but they fall apart before they can leave his throat. He hates crying. Hates it more than anything. But this? This is too much.
Matthew stares at the strange sky—memory fragments moving like constellations.
Matthew : "How did we let the world become this?"
No one answers him.
And then… Reen sees them.
Her eyes twitch. Her breath shortens. Something ancient and forgotten flickers in her face.
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Scene 2: The Cathedral of Memory
They enter the cathedral. It breathes. It hurts to look at—a living church of neurons and Root tendrils, glowing with pulse-like rhythm. And inside—memories.
Reen's 10th birthday. The fight with her mother. The mission she never returned from. The time she hugged Maiku during the Feeder breakout, whispering
Reen : "Don't be scared. I got you."
Each memory is being dragged downward, buried beneath Root soil.
Jakku, almost whispering:
Jakku : "It's not killing her. It's composting her."
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Scene 3: Reen's Face
They find her. Still. Glowing. Suspended in a womb of Root tissue—a reinforced prison. There's silence—then her eyes open. And the moment they do, everyone freezes.
She knows them. But she doesn't move.
Two voices speak at once: One soft. One distorted.
Reen: "I can't hold it anymore. I remember… but I'm not alone in here."
Jakku raises his weapon. His hands are shaking.
Maiku stops him. No force. Just a hand.
Jakku (to himself): "What am I doing… she's my friend."
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Scene 4: The True Body Reacts
The Nest above begins screaming. Not loud. But deep. Like a tectonic hum.
Cracks splinter across the cocoon. The Root's tendrils lash outward—not attacking, but pleading.
It knows. It's losing her.
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Scene 5: Reen's Breakout
She turns to Maiku.
Reen: "Do you remember? The word we made up... for the venom…?"
Maiku's lips move: "Hopelet."
She throws a piece of paper made of unknown writing almost ancient but somehow.
Maiku understands it.
It's a Codeword.
A purpose but it'll soon meet its worth.
The neural web around her begins snapping.
Reen's voice breaks. Tears fall.
Reen: "I don't want to be saved. I want to be me." "I choose this time… to leave you guys with peace." "I love all of you. Thank you for your love and support." "And I'm sorry… for making the wrong decision. For causing all this." "Right now, I don't even know who I am. But I choose to be Reen."
And then—she rips herself free. Light erupts from her skin.
But she's burning. From inside. From memory. From truth.
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Scene 6: The Crew's Last Moments with Her
She stumbles. Gift catches her.
Her skin flickers like a candle in a storm.
Reen: "I'm not gone. I'm given." "Whatever comes next… don't let it become me."
She gently places her fingers on his forehead. A kiss. Tears fall from Gift's cheeks.
Then places a tiny glowing seed—a memory seed in his palm.
Silence. She exhales. Her last breath. And then… she's gone.
Not a scream. Not a sound.
Just... absence.
Pure silence. Silence so loud it's louder than a gunshot.
Then...
Tears fall. One by one.
Their friend came back. She took back her memories, her identity, her life it was truly Reen but... it came with a price.
HER LIFE.
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Scene 7: Collapse
The True Body shrieks. But the shriek isn't rage—it's grief. Loss.
It folds back into itself, hurling tendrils inward. Retreating. Dying.
The Nest begins to power down.
Jakku: "It's hibernating. Stage 1 again."
Matthew: "Looking for someone new."
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Scene 8: The Empty Wake
They climb out. Return to the surface. No triumph. No joy. No words. No plans. Just wind and the silence that clings.
Maiku digs a grave under the burnt tree near Outpost Delta.
He places a small device into the soil. Reen's favorite song plays. Over and over.
Gift doesn't cry. He just stares at the sky.
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Scene 9: New Signals
Later that night…
Gift picks up a pulse—erratic, stuttering.
Then it clears:
Reen : "We remember Reen. Who's next?"
Jakku clenches his jaw.
In the background, Jiro and Florin crouch near the hill.
Jiro: "They won't wait long. We send the Titan. Now!"
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Scene 10: Jiro and Florin's Dilemma
Florin doesn't move. Doesn't blink.
Just says one word:
Florin : "No."
Jiro (snarls): "They killed Irogi."
Florin's voice cracks.
"They did it for their friend. What the hell were we doing, huh?"
Jiro grabs the Titan remote. Squeezes.
Snap.
The remote shatters.
Florin looks at him. Jiro looks at his hands.
Trust is eroding....
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Scene 11: A Seed Left Behind
In the Root's Archive, a flicker stirs.
A projection. A shimmer.
It's Reen—walking between memory tombs.
She's whole. Aware.
She looks to the sky. Then disappears into the dark.
She left something. Maybe she's still in there, in pieces. The Memory Seed. The Codeword.
Most importantly her memory will forever be in their friends hearts.
To Be Continued...
Final Line:
> "You can kill a voice. But if the memory learns to scream… it becomes something else."
Narrator (Reflective, solemn, reverent):
>
They thought they were walking into war. But what they found was grief wearing a familiar face.
This chapter was never about fighting the Root. It was about confronting what the Root fed on: memory, pain… love twisted into code.
Reen was never just another lost soul. She was the heartbeat of their journey, the center they didn't know they orbited. And when they found her—still, suspended, part Reen, part something else—they weren't prepared for the truth: She remembered them. And it was killing her.
Every step through the Core was a wound reopened. Old homes twisted by alien logic. Echoes of birthdays, fights, laughter, betrayal—composted into something the Root could use. Not to erase Reen… but to rebuild her as something else.
And still, she fought. Not to survive, but to choose. To burn bright and vanish, rather than fade into someone else's code.
The sacrifice wasn't just hers—it was theirs. They had to let her go. Not just once, but twice. Because memory, when loved too tightly, becomes a cage.
And as her light flickered out, what remained wasn't ashes…
…It was a seed. Planted in memory. A codeword. A promise. Hopelet.
But in the silence she left behind, something stirred. The Root recoiled. The Titan was stopped. Trust cracked like glass.
Because Reen didn't die for nothing. She died for them. And now… her memory is no longer silent.
>
You can kill a voice. But if the memory learns to scream… It becomes something else. Something that burns.