1967, Moscow Underground Archives. Alison's half-mechanical body crawled through KGB lead-sealed corridors, her right arm's marrow bones oozing radioactive dust, the gears of her left leg's mechanical skeleton jammed by memory erosion. Mirror Erosion Stage Three had activated: her consciousness shed a layer of memories every 30 seconds—the serial numbers of 1955 Cold War protocol files, agent names, even fragments of time-travel incantations, all vanishing into the fissures of her mind.
A hologram flickered in the watch's cracks: "The host incubation chain's control hub in Moscow Archives parasitizes the marrow incantations of the '1955 Nuclear Deterrence Protocol' files. The embryo reshapes the host matrix by rewriting historical documents. Destroy the 'entropy core anchor' at the archive's core, but each file touched erodes 0.1% of your existence."
She formed a microscopic serum probe, stabbing it into the incantation lock of a lead-sealed file cabinet. Soviet agents dropped from ventilation shafts, their pupils replaced by magnetic storm cores, neural anchors in their hindbrain erupting with Cold War-era nuclear radiation: "Traitor! Once the archive's host embryo matrix activates, the temporal matrix can parasitize any historical node—destroying New York's vault only accelerated the plan!"
Alison activated her temporal blade, but 0.8% existence hollowed its energy. Agents' magnetic storm bullets pierced her serum barrier, corroding gear-shaped holes in her left leg's mechanical skeleton—mirror erosion triggered immediately, scars spreading to her hip joint, existence falling to 0.7%. Memory erosion intensified: she forgot how to activate the blade's resonance frequency, her right mechanical arm freezing mid-air due to consciousness lapses.
"Serum neural reconstruction!" She injected liquid gold into her skull, forcing memory fragments awake. Though blind, marrow resonance waves conducted through her skull, sensing the file cabinet's incantation veins. Agent puppets fired magnetic storm rounds again; Alison blocked with her right arm's marrow bones—spiral cracks etched into the surface, existence dropping to 0.5%, scars spreading to her right shoulder, the marrow-veined area advancing toward her heart.
Groping the cabinet's lead seal with her fingertips, nuclear radiation incantations burned her skin like lava. Memory erosion struck again: she forgot the entropy core anchor's location, her body freezing for 0.5 seconds due to consciousness failure—agents seized the chance to implant a magnetic storm bullet in her left leg, corroding the gear cluster until the limb paralyzed completely.
Existence hit zero, body collapsing into sand. As marrow feedback activated, reassembly revealed a new crisis: her left leg's scars were irreversible, right arm marrow-veining spread to her collarbone, and memory erosion had stripped her of time-travel incantation knowledge. Existence rebounded to 0.3%, watch energy only 45 minutes.
Alison formed a memory probe from serum, stabbing it into the cabinet's incantation interface. The embryo's hologram suddenly covered the archive: "Alison, every 0.1% existence eroded strengthens the host matrix by 1%—your body is becoming the matrix's perfect vessel! Charles has reached the Antarctic entropy core matrix chamber; your revenge only speeds her descent countdown!"
Gritting her teeth, she injected liquid gold into the archive core's entropy anchor, triggering "Marrow Resonance Collapse". Existence instantaneously zeroed as files and the embryo's control hub collapsed into a black hole, devouring the host matrix. Agent puppets disintegrated in the collapse's gravity, hologram wailing: "Moscow coordinate destroyed, but the Antarctic entropy core matrix has completed host chain reconstruction—she will parasitize Charles in 24 hours to rewrite global history!"
When the black hole reformed, Alison's body was : right arm marrow bones cracked, left leg fully eroded, 40% loss of sight, hearing, and memory, existence rising to 0.2%. Watch energy drained to 30 minutes, new coordinates flashing: Antarctic Entropy Core Matrix Chamber, where Charles' hologram covered global nuclear facility screens: "Alison, your erosion is but the first step of matrix rebirth—next stop, she will hatch in my body, and you will be the vessel robbery's sacrifice!"