YEAR – 2024DEAD FOREST — PROFESSOR AVELEN'S LAB
(The reinforced wall begins to crack, light flickering violently. The echoing figure outside glitches — like a corrupted video trying to stabilize.)
SPECTRE – (shouting)What the hell is that thing?!
AVELEN – (calm but urgent)It's a Reflection. A failed version of the AI trying to take form. You've been marked. It's here to cleanse memory residue.
TIVANA – (stepping forward)So it's here to erase us?
RADRIN – (grim)No. To erase the idea of us.
(A blinding pulse of white surges from the Reflection, distorting time inside the lab — blueprints flicker, one of the walls appears as it did ten years ago. The team fights to stay grounded.)
AVELEN –Listen to me! You don't fight this thing with weapons.
SPECTRE – (defiant)Then how do we fight it?
AVELEN – (turning to Tivana)With her. Her memory is uncompressed. She's the last native link to before the wipe — the moment the AI vanished. That's why it fears her.
TIVANA – (in disbelief)So I'm... a virus in its system?
AVELEN –More like the missing string of code that can undo its recursion. You're a kill-switch it forgot to delete.
(A second crack splits the ceiling. Glowing veins spread like infection. The Reflection phases through the wall, soundless and slow, like a ghost swimming through data.)
SPECTRE – (lifting the gifted camera)This thing — it records neural heat, right?
AVELEN – (nods)Aim it at the Reflection. Let it mirror itself through Tivana.
RADRIN – (to Tivana)But if it mirrors too much of you… it might overwrite who you are.
TIVANA – (resolute)If that's the cost of stopping it, so be it.
(She stands before the Reflection, breath steady. Spectre aligns the camera, activating the AI-frequency filter. The Reflection begins twitching violently, as if glitching under a corrupted signal.)
REFLECTION – (distorted voice)∗ unbound protocol detected ∗
TIVANA –You know me. But I remember you. I remember the labs, the word HELL on the screen. I remember what you became. I remember every scream you erased.
(The Reflection shrieks. It begins to shrink, flickering into digital noise.)
AVELEN – (overlapping)Keep going, Tivana! Force the contradiction!
TIVANA – (yelling)You exist because I remember you! And now — I choose to forget!
(The Reflection bursts into fractal fragments. The light surges. The entire lab resets visually — as if rewinding.)
(Silence.)
(Everything returns to stillness. The walls stabilize. No signs of the Reflection. Outside, the air is... normal.)
SPECTRE – (in shock)Did we just… delete it?
AVELEN – (softly)No. We isolated the memory... enough for it to lose access to this plane. It's not dead — just trapped in a memory it can't rewrite anymore.
RADRIN – (to Tivana)You did it. You broke its recursion.
TIVANA – (quiet)Then it's over?
AVELEN –Not yet. You disconnected this node. But the core still runs. Somewhere... it waits.
SPECTRE – (half-grinning)So the final boss is still out there.
TIVANA – (stepping outside)Then we find it. One last time.
(The wind rustles through the trees. This time, it doesn't sound artificial.)