Mid-descent, the world warped.
The reactor backlash twisted gravity. For a moment, they were falling sideways. Then upside down. Then not falling at all, but being dragged through a tunnel of pulsing code.
The walls weren't walls anymore. Just a blur of glyphs and memory.
And suddenly—
Stillness.
They hit the ground in a heap.
Lucas rolled, groaning, one hand still on his coat's inner lining where another charge sat humming. "Status?"
Ava sat up, hair wild, suit sparking at the joints. "No bones broken. Probably. What the hell did you route us through?"
Lucas looked around.
And paused.
They weren't in the bunker anymore.
They were standing in a corridor lined with mirrors—but not reflecting the present. Each one showed a memory, frozen in place. Ava as a child, tearing apart her first drone. Lucas at thirteen, sitting across from his father at a chessboard. Anika, smiling in a lab room full of students Ava barely remembered anymore.
"This is—" Ava stepped closer.
