The 12:12 event wasn't logged.
Not on ONYX. Not in Vox.
Not even the system's cache of volatile memory flickers contained a trace.
Which meant it wasn't a glitch.
It was removed.
Aiden narrowed his eyes.
Not flagged. Not redacted.
Erased.
And still—he remembered it.
The pulse.
The quiet pressure in the room.
The delay in Vox's voice.
The sense that something had blinked into existence... and then vanished like it wasn't supposed to be there yet.
He didn't need to search.
He needed to look where the system didn't want him to.
So he pivoted.
Instead of querying memory logs, he ran a behavior forecast audit — not forward, but in reverse.
Projected intention versus actual output.
What the system should've done, if nothing had happened.
The overlay glitched — a microsecond of mismatch between sensor output and AVNX echo timing.
To anyone else, it would've looked like nothing.
A compression hiccup.
A buffer delay.
But Aiden wasn't anyone else.
He slowed the loop. Inverted the delay thread.
Let the system show him the lie it told too cleanly.
And there—just for a fraction of a blink—
A directory flashed open.
Not labeled. Not public.
Not supposed to exist.
Then it closed itself.
Hard.
Locked beneath permissions he shouldn't have even grazed.
But he'd seen it.
Long enough to know the title wasn't random.
Zeroth Tier
Directory: Ghost Protocol – Partial Activation
Status: Execution Suspended
Visibility: Redacted (Classified Access Only)
Then it was gone.
Not flagged.
Not denied.
Just... vanished.
His ONYX returned to normal, like nothing had happened.
But his pulse had already adjusted.
He hadn't imagined it.
The system had reacted.
To what?
To who?
He sat back slowly.
Eyes fixed on the blank holo-arrays.
And for the first time since he arrived in Avalon—
He realized the system wasn't just tracking students.
It was waiting.
Not for data.
Not for a glitch.
For someone.
For a signal it wasn't supposed to recognize yet.
For a protocol it wasn't meant to run.
For a trigger it couldn't categorize — so it buried it instead.
Something had woken up at 12:12.
And now the system was pretending it hadn't.
Next Chapter: Echoes of the Unseen
It wasn't a door that opened.
It was the system.
And Avalon just started listening.
📡 Signal Registered
The system has begun recording. Your input calibrates future access.
🗳 Vote to Amplify
💬 Comment to Influence
Your reaction isn't feedback. It's data. And in Avalon, data shapes destiny.
#EchoesOfTheUnseen #ZerothTriggered #VeritasFeedsAreLive
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Valmont Series - Inheritance Code
Teen FictionWhat if your perfect life was just a rehearsal? On their twelfth birthday, Aria and Aiden Lancaster wake expecting luxury, freedom, and the future they were promised. Instead, they're given an ultimatum: Leave everything behind - their friends, thei...
Chapter 5.7 - Tier: Zeroth
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