The corridor of Sector F7-12 pulsed with stillness.
Rotlight didn't crawl here. It listened.
Every breath Elian took pressed against walls once built to silence men like him. Now they whispered back in threadcode, fragments twitching along the floor as if reality itself feared what was about to happen.
He stood at the threshold of Cell #12. The door stood open—not broken, not forced.
Willing.
The Seed hovered beside his shoulder, its pulsing rhythm aligned perfectly with Elian's heartbeat. The woman inside didn't flinch. She had waited far too long to fear what came next.
[Security Breach: Cell #12 – Manual Override: Signal Source "Crownless"]
[System Response Delay Engaged: 00:02:19]
[Traitline Echo Conflict Detected – Resolution Pending]
She stepped forward.
No chain pulled her. No scream fought its way out. Just the sound of bare feet on thread-clean stone.
"You shouldn't have come."
Elian didn't blink.
"You shouldn't have stayed."
His voice was cold. Flat. A blade forged from old guilt and newer truth.
She stopped a pace away.
Close enough to smell the faint copper rot that clung to him.
"You left us."
"You watched me scream."
He nodded.
"And then I stopped watching."
A pause.
"Because there's no point watching something that won't save itself."
Her hands curled into fists, but she didn't strike him.
"I waited for rescue."
"Then I stopped waiting."
"Then I stopped believing."
"Now?" Elian asked.
He held up the Seed between them. The rotlight cast pale lines across her face.
"Now I'm not offering belief."
"I'm offering use."
The Seed pulsed again.
Soft. Steady.
The girl behind Elian, watching quietly, frowned.
"You're giving her a trait?"
Elian shook his head.
"No."
"I'm giving her a choice."
He turned back to the woman.
"You rot here in memory."
"Or you rot with me in purpose."
"The system already wrote you off."
"So write yourself back in."
She stared at the Seed.
Then at Elian's face.
It hadn't changed.
But there was something new in his eyes.
Not kindness.
Not forgiveness.
Freedom.
"Will it hurt?"
"Yes."
"Will it save me?"
"No."
He held the Seed out further.
"But it will make your pain mean something again."
She stepped forward.
One step.
Then another.
And placed her hand beside his.
[Consent Registered – Seed Integration Triggered]
[Initiating Trait Rewrite – Status: Rotborne: Hybrid Echo Class D]
[Warning: Subject Loop Break Detected – Emotional Recoil Imminent]
She didn't cry.
She screamed.
The rotlight surged into her spine, carving sigils through her veins. Her Soul Echo shattered — then reformed as something twisted and sharp. Bone pushed through her arms. Thread-veins wrapped around her throat. Her hair turned to black thread.
She dropped to one knee, not in submission…
But in violent clarity.
When she rose, she didn't breathe.
She burned.
Her voice, when it returned, was ragged and raw.
"You should've let me die."
Elian's answer came cold.
"I did."
"Now I'm letting you decide what rises from it."
[New Entity Created – Rotborne Echo]
[Designation: Tier D | Loyalty Status: Rooted – Emotional Residue Anchored]
[System Alert: Breach Identified – Purifier Squad Inbound | Estimated Response Time: 00:01:48]
Boots echoed from the far hallway.
Sharp. Measured. Armed.
Purifier voices called codes to one another.
Not afraid.
Just unprepared.
"Protocol Theta. Room breach. Tier D rot confirmed."
"Contain or cleanse. Orders clear."
The woman turned toward the sound.
Her eyes no longer human. Not glowing.
Just alive in a way they hadn't been in years.
"They're the ones who locked me in."
"Let me return the favor."
She stepped forward, hand flexing as her new body adjusted to its reality. A rot spine extended from her shoulder like a banner.
Elian nodded once.
"No mercy."
"No memory spared."
The Rotkin stepped beside her.
The girl readied her blade.
And Elian?
He didn't move.
He waited.
Because this wasn't escape.
It was a lesson.
"Make them remember."
"Or let their blood do it for them."