Names That Weren't Ours
India – EchoNet Vault
Sky sat upright, breathing hard. Micah knelt beside him, one hand gripping his shoulder. Shivin stood at the console, staring at the logs like he'd just seen a ghost.
Sky's eyes were distant, wild.
"Where am I?" he whispered.
Micah answered gently, "You're with us. You're in India."
"No…" Sky shook his head. "No, I was in Prague. On a rooftop. Her hair smelled like—" He stopped, eyes wide. "That wasn't me."
Shivin turned from the console. "The Geneva drive is syncing memory bonds in reverse. Instead of Lex remembering Rhea... now Sky is remembering Lex."
Sky whispered, "I felt her mouth on mine. I felt what he felt."
He looked up at Micah.
"I felt what it's like to love her."
Micah tensed. "That wasn't your feeling, Sky."
Sky closed his eyes. "But it felt like mine."
---
Prague – Hotel Room
Rhea woke to find Lex sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the bed, the Geneva drive in his lap. His expression was blank, lit by the flickering screen.
"You okay?" she asked, voice hoarse with sleep.
Lex didn't answer.
"Lex?" she sat up.
He finally turned. "There's a file."
Her heart dropped. "What kind of file?"
Lex turned the screen to her. A single document sat isolated from the rest of the recovered memory folders:
> ECHO: CHILD_09
Her throat tightened. "That's not mine."
Lex searched her face. "You sure?"
She nodded slowly. "It's not my name. But…"
She hesitated. Her eyes dropped to the screen.
"…that was the name they gave me when I was brought to Cartwright."
Lex blinked. "You weren't recruited?"
Rhea looked away. "I was born there."
Lex stood abruptly. "Why didn't you tell me this?"
"Because I didn't know it all until recently," she said. "I only found fragments. The name Muri, the memory implants, the tests. I didn't even know you were real. Not until I saw your sketch on Manik's desk."
Lex's eyes darkened. "He still has sketches of me?"
"He never stopped looking for you."
Lex paced. "Of course he didn't. He knew I was the key. Not because of who I am—because of what I am."
She stood too, crossing the space between them. "Lex—"
But he stopped her with a question she didn't expect.
"Do you still talk to him?"
Rhea's silence said enough.
Lex stepped back. "Right. So you kept me at a distance but kept him close?"
"I kept him close because he didn't ask for anything. Not my past, not my name—just the version of me that survived."
Lex laughed bitterly. "And you think that's love?"
"I think it was survival. You and I—we were everything else."
Lex's voice dropped. "So what are we now?"
She reached out, touching his chest over his heart.
"Still that," she whispered. "If you let us be."
He didn't move. But he didn't pull away, either.
Then, without warning, Lex's phone buzzed.
A voice message.
But not from any known number.
Rhea's blood ran cold when she hit play.
Because the voice—Lex's voice—spoke clearly:
> "Don't trust me, Rhea. Not yet. I'm not… fully me."
Lex and Rhea stared at each other.
"That's not me," Lex said, horrified. "But it's my voice."
Meanwhile…
In India, Sky stumbled