Page 137 of Fractured Devotion
“She was the test.”
Alec doesn’t say yes, but he doesn’t need to.
Because we both know now. Project Celestia wasn’t an experiment I walked into.
It was one where I was born inside.
We stand in silence for a long time after the screen goes black. Alec’s shoulders are rigid. I think he wants to say something—maybe apologize, or maybe offer some kind of moral compass—but there’s nothing left to moralize. Not here. Not with this.
I push the tablet away and lean back against the cool wall. The ache behind my eyes has moved lower into my throat. And it settles there like a swallowed stone.
“They logged her as C0-ZERO,” I murmur.
“The beginning of the chain,” Alec says softly.
“And everything since has just been iterations.”
He nods. “That’s what it looks like.”
“So every patient that’s come through Echo… they were trying to recreate this.” I tap my chest once. “Me.”
Alec glances away. His silence is answer enough.
I let the thought bloom fully for the first time. Not just that I was a subject, but that I was the blueprint. The system’s baseline. Every pain they studied, every pattern they logged, all of it started with me.
I feel cold. But not angry. Not yet. That may come later.
“What about the voice?” I ask. “Do you recognize it?”
Alec shakes his head. “It’s been filtered and masked through a modulator. It could be anyone. Rourke or someone we haven’t uncovered yet.”
I chew the inside of my cheek. “He said, ‘Your name is not your own.’”
“I heard it.”
“What if it’s true?” I voice.
“Celeste—”
“No. I’m serious. What if my name, my memories, my personality… what if all of it was planted?”
“You think they invented your entire identity?”
I don’t answer immediately.
Instead, I look at him and say, “You’ve seen how this system works. It doesn’t stop at observation. It programs.”
He doesn’t argue. He just breathes deeper, heavier. “What do you want to do now?” he asks.
“I want to find out what’s real.”
A beat passes.
“And if you don’t like what you find?”
I give him a flat look. “I haven’t liked anything I’ve found yet.”
Neither of us looks back at the tablet.
