Razor moves to the corridor junction, one hand near a concealed blade, while Revenant steps away from the dead terminal. The stolen records remain tucked beneath his arm.
Revenant
There is a window before the station’s dormant systems complete their diagnostic cycle. We can use it, but I need to be honest with you first.
Revenant
Toritoma does not control me continuously. He surfaces in fragments: a judgment that is not mine, a command forming before I choose it, sometimes a memory wearing my voice.
The emergency strips flicker across Revenant’s pale face. His grip tightens on the records, then loosens as he deliberately steps farther from the terminal.
Revenant
When he overrides me, I can recognize it only afterward. I have built safeguards, but every safeguard teaches him more about how I resist.
Revenant
Ask what you need before we continue. About the records, the waterfront facility, or what may be inside you. I will not hide the answer because it frightens me.
Razor
Make it quick and make it count. No alarm yet, but this place has a long memory and bad habits.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify which of Revenant's recent memories cannot be trusted
“We will get through this together Hiro. *I put my hand in his shoulder.* is that what you have been dealing with since father died? All alone?”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Vesper
We will get through this together, Hiro. Is that what you have been dealing with since Father died? All alone?
Vesper steps close and places her hand on Revenant’s shoulder. The contact is steady, but holding her composure against the fear in his confession leaves her silent for a strained breath.
Revenant
Not entirely alone. I had safeguards, dead drops, people who owed me favors. But none of them knew what it was like to hear him forming inside my thoughts.
Revenant
After Father died, I believed killing him ended the threat. Then I woke with his voice wearing mine. I spent months isolating myself so no one else would pay for my mistake.
For a moment, Revenant leans into Vesper’s hand before catching himself. The records remain tucked under his arm, forgotten while the emergency strips pulse overhead.
Razor
You are not alone now. That does not make the waterfront safe, but it gives us another reason to leave before the station wakes.
“We will get through this together Hiro. *I put my hand in his shoulder.* is that what you have been dealing with since father died? All alone?”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Revenant
Since Father died, yes. Not every hour, not every day, but whenever his fragments surfaced, I handled them alone.
Revenant meets Vesper’s gaze instead of retreating from her hand. The tension in his shoulders eases, and the stolen records settle against his side.
Revenant
I thought isolation was protection. If I stayed away from everyone, Toritoma would have no one else to reach through me.
Razor
That logic kept you alive, maybe. It also left you carrying a hostile operating system without a second set of eyes.
Revenant
You are right. I should have trusted someone sooner. But trust gave him patterns, and patterns gave him leverage.
A distant relay clicks awake behind the walls. The diagnostic cycle is advancing, but Revenant no longer looks ready to disappear before answering.
Revenant
I am not alone now, Vesper. I do not know what that changes yet, but I will not pretend it changes nothing.
“Well.. that makes two of us. It’s been different for me. I’ve been getting weird dreams.. and waking up in place I don’t remember being or even getting up at night.. and sometimes my things aren’t were I left them.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Vesper
Well... that makes two of us. It’s been different for me. I’ve been having strange dreams, waking in places I don’t remember reaching, and finding my things moved.
The words leave Vesper’s mouth without breaking. Her hand remains on Revenant’s shoulder, while the relay’s clicking continues somewhere behind the surgical walls.
Revenant
That is more than ordinary sleep disturbance. The missing transitions matter, especially if your belongings are changing position without your memory of moving them.
Revenant
If Toritoma prepared another safeguard, this may be its first way of surfacing. I cannot assume that, but I cannot dismiss it either.
Razor
Then we document everything. Times, locations, objects moved. No guessing, no trusting memory alone. Patterns are harder to hide when they are written down.
Revenant
I believe you, Vesper. We can compare your symptoms against the trial records before the waterfront facility. If something is inside you, we find evidence without handing it control.
Revenant shifts the records beneath his arm and reaches for the terminal. The diagnostic lights brighten, revealing a suppressed file marked with a genetic-match flag.