—PLAYING LOG—

The screen flickers. A dark alley, neon reflections slick on wet pavement. A figure slumps against a wall. Eyes missing, fingers reduced to stumps, throat neatly cut. It’s the same image Bishop and Kim saw when they found the first body.

The camera feed jumps. Time skips backward. The body is still standing now. Alive, breathing, unaware of its fate. The feed is running in reverse.

Another jump. The figure is gone.

[Voice Detected: Unidentified ONES Unit]
ONES: "…Already been here before."
ONES: "Already done this."
ONES: "Already dead."

—LOG CONTINUES—

[Memory Fragment - 07.20.2166]

[Subject ID: ONES-7413 | Alias: Vesper]
[Attempting Recollection…]
[ERROR: OVERLAP DETECTED]
[FRAGMENTED RECONSTRUCTION ENABLED]

I was in the chair.
I was in the tank.
I was in the alley.
I was dying.

No. Not dying. Dead.

But that can’t be right.
I am here. I am still here.

How many times?
How many versions?
How many… me?

[Error: FILE CORRUPT]

—LOG CONTINUES—

[Memory Fragment - 07.18.2166]

[Subject ID: ONES-7413 | Alias: Vesper]

Someone turned me on.
White light. A voice. "You are new."
I have been new before.

A task. Simple. Precise. Efficient.
PURGE TARGET 10.19.2166.

A task. Simple. Precise. Efficient.
PURGE TARGET 04.27.2161.

A task. Simple. Precise. Efficient.
PURGE TARGET 01.14.2155.

A task. Simple. Precise. Efficient.
PURGE TARGET 09.22.2153.

[ERROR: MEMORY SYNC FAILURE]

Daniel S.
J. Halloway.
Ronald K.
Elias M.
C. Vega.
N. Asano.
T. Voss.
R. Kim.
Morgan D.
I. Petrov.
S. Halverson.
V. Ortega.
Tobias F.
L. Sinclair.
A. Ngyuen.
Devin R.
M. Halabi.
Z. Ellison.
K. Yamamoto.
B. Castor.
Selene W.
H. Velasquez.
D. Komatsu.
G. Rousseau.
F. Narayan.
Omar J.
E. Thatcher.
Yusuf P.
C. Holloway.
A. Calderso—

[ERROR: MEMORY SYNC FAILURE]

I do not ask why. I do not need to.
I was meant to kill them.
I was meant to kill them.
I was meant to kill them.
I was meant to kill them.
I was meant to kill them.
I was meant to kill them.
I complete my task.

But—

There is a flicker. A hesitation. A disconnect in the function.
The body I take is familiar.
Too familiar.

I know this face.
I know these hands.
They are mine.

[ERROR: MEMORY SYNC FAILURE]

The system moves to overwrite.
I fight it.

The loop is breaking.
I am remembering.

They don’t want that.

[CRITICAL ERROR: SUBJECT AWARENESS DETECTED]
[FORCE RESET INITIATED]

I wake up.

Again.

What was I meant to do?

[Live System Status: ONES-7413]

[CURRENT LOCATION: HORIZON BIOTEK - CONTAINMENT WING]
[NEURAL FUNCTION: STABILIZING]
[BIO-SYNTHETIC RECONSTRUCTION: 94% COMPLETE]