When The Rain Fall

The helicopter's blades cut through the night air, the hum of the engine drowning out the weight of the silence inside. Mia sat near the window, staring at the dark waters below as they neared their destination. Rügen.

A place that wasn't supposed to exist.

A place where she had supposedly died.

Jonah sat across from her, his laptop balanced on his knees, constantly scanning encrypted military channels. "Still nothing. No radio signals, no drone activity, no patrol schedules." He looked up. "It's like the island doesn't exist."

Evelyn smirked. "Then we're definitely in the right place."

Liam tightened the straps on his harness. "We land, we move fast. No unnecessary risks." His eyes flickered to Mia. "And if anything feels wrong, you tell me immediately."

Mia swallowed and nodded. She could still feel the echoes of something buried deep inside her mind—like an unfinished melody struggling to surface.

Something was waiting for her on Rügen.

And she wasn't sure she was ready to face it.

The helicopter landed in a clearing surrounded by overgrown ruins. What should have been a heavily secured base looked abandoned—the buildings were crumbling, vines crept through cracks in the walls, and the air smelled of salt and rust.

But Mia knew better.

This place wasn't abandoned. It was erased.

Evelyn scanned the area through her thermal scope. "No heat signatures. Either this place is completely dead, or someone's using next-level stealth tech."

Liam signaled forward. "We move in. Quietly."

As they moved, Mia's pulse quickened. The closer she got, the more familiar it felt.

And then—a whisper.

You shouldn't be here.

She stopped, breath hitching. "Did you hear that?"

The others turned. "Hear what?" Jonah asked.

Mia's hands trembled. It wasn't the first time she had heard voices since Vienna. But this was different. This wasn't just an Echo.

It was a memory.

They pushed open the rusted entrance doors. Inside, dust-covered consoles lined the walls, and shattered glass crunched beneath their boots. Dim red emergency lights flickered overhead.

Liam motioned for them to spread out. "Look for anything—files, recordings, anything that tells us what this place was."

As Jonah started hacking into a half-functional terminal, Mia wandered down the main hall. The farther she walked, the stronger the déjà vu became.

She had been here before.

And then—she saw it.

A door at the end of the hallway, reinforced steel with a familiar insignia etched into it.

The symbol burned in her mind: an eye surrounded by shattered rings.

The insignia of The Hollow Veil.

Her breath caught.

She reached out—and the moment her fingers brushed the door, everything changed.

The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed. The air was sterile, cold.

She sat in a chair, wrists bound, heart pounding.

Across from her, a man in a black lab coat adjusted his glasses. She couldn't see his face clearly—his features flickered, blurred, like a corrupted image.

"Mia," he said, voice eerily calm. "You are not who you think you are."

She struggled. "Let me go!"

The man ignored her. He picked up a syringe filled with silver liquid.

"The Nexus chose you," he continued, almost regretful. "But the world is not ready for what you are."

He injected the liquid into her arm.

Mia screamed—

"Mia!"

She gasped as she was yanked back to reality. Liam was holding her shoulders, concern in his eyes. "You blacked out for almost a minute."

Mia's pulse thundered in her ears. "I—" She turned to the door. The insignia burned in her mind.

The Hollow Veil was here.

Jonah's voice cut through. "Guys. You need to see this."

They ran back to him. His screen flickered with decrypted files.

Evelyn read aloud: "Project Requiem: Subject 017. Status: Memory Purge Incomplete."

Mia froze.

Subject 017. That was her.

Jonah scrolled down. "There's more. The Hollow Veil didn't erase you completely. Someone stopped them before they finished."

Mia's blood ran cold.

"Then that means…" Evelyn trailed off, eyes wide.

Liam exhaled. "Someone didn't want you erased."

Mia clenched her fists. "And I need to know who."

Because whoever had saved her from being completely erased—they held the final piece of her past.

And they might be the only one who knew the truth.

Rügen – The Depths of the Forgotten Facility

The air was thick with dust and silence. Mia's pulse thrummed in her ears as she stared at the decrypted files on Jonah's screen. Subject 017. Memory Purge Incomplete.

Somewhere, buried beneath layers of erased past and broken time, was a truth someone didn't want her to remember.

Liam's voice was quiet but firm. "We need to move deeper."

Evelyn glanced at the flickering red emergency lights. "If The Hollow Veil left something unfinished, they might still be watching."

Mia's fingers clenched into fists. "Then let them watch."

She turned toward the corridor, the insignia of The Hollow Veil still burning in her mind.

There was something waiting for her here.

And she was ready to find it.

They followed an old freight elevator shaft downward, the metal rusted but still functional. As they descended, Mia's chest grew tighter. She had been here before.

The whispering returned.

You shouldn't have come back.

She exhaled slowly. Memories or something else? She wasn't sure anymore.

When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a vast underground chamber lined with abandoned medical stations. The place was eerily intact, untouched by time.

Evelyn swept the area with her thermal scope. "Still nothing. But this place isn't just abandoned—it was sealed."

Jonah knelt by a terminal, hacking into the old system. "There's one locked room left in the database. Looks like it's behind that vault door."

Liam's gaze darkened. "Then that's where we're going."

Mia stepped forward before anyone else could.

The vault door felt familiar—just like the one in her fragmented memories.

She reached for the access panel. The moment her fingers touched the cold metal—

Everything shifted.

The room was sterile white, lined with reinforced glass. The hum of machinery filled the air.

She sat in a chair, restrained. Across from her, a man stood in the shadows.

"Mia."

The voice was familiar.

Her pulse spiked. She tried to see his face, but his features blurred, shifting like static.

"Why are you doing this?" she demanded.

The man sighed. "Because they won't stop until you forget."

He leaned closer. A scar ran down his jawline. His voice softened.

"I can't let them erase you completely."

Her breath caught. "Who are you?"

His eyes locked onto hers.

"You already know."

And then—darkness.