Gemini City’s Police Spire is supposed to be sanctuary. Instead, it becomes another battlefield.

Michelle arrives with Maryanne, who is overwhelmed by the futuristic skyline and horrified by the world she has awakened into. When she learns about TMVid48 and AASID’s dominion, she breaks: “Why did you bring me back to this?” The grief in her voice is older than her memory.

Michelle is pulled into an interrogation room, alone. Detectives Wayne and Cambridge begin with questions about the patient, then pivot sharply to the disappearance of Dr. Jacob Wells. An anonymous tip. A blood‑spattered crime scene. Michelle realizes she’s being maneuvered.

They weaponize her past. Her juvenile records. Her street name, “Misha.” Her manslaughter trial. Her AASID imprisonment. The trauma nearly overwhelms her. “Her psychological descent is vivid,” the report notes, trembling, dissociation, flashbacks.

But Michelle does not break.

She denies, deflects, and provides verifiable alibis. The detectives relent, barely.

Then they show her a video log: Jacob speaking with Maryanne before the procedure. Maryanne sits up suddenly, terrified, uttering: “NanTech expedition… they’re dead… Adonite secret… I have to go back…”

Michelle holds steady. She denies knowing what the words mean.

When she is released, she learns Maryanne is gone, escorted by Dr. Ian Spears and a Mr. Robinson to the DSP Facility.

Michelle’s stomach drops.

She reroutes her transport.

She’s going there next.

Teaser question: How do you defend yourself when the truth you’re hiding is older than the world questioning you?