Acheron

1 After the deep memory erasure, I forgot. I forgot Dante, the commander who was my fiancé, the one who personally forged me into the weapon I was. I forgot Luna, the ‘sister’ I rescued, who then stole everything from me. I forgot everything about Acheron, the clandestine organization of ‘cleaners’… I faked my own death to break free, disappearing into an old bookstore in Sicily. Everyone assumed I was just sulking, that I’d soon tire of a mediocre life and crawl back under his protection. Until one evening, my bookstore saw no customers. From the shadows between the shelves, several men who had long been lurking in the darkness emerged. Their leader’s voice was a low growl. “Why haven’t you ever responded to Mr. Volkov’s recall orders these past few years? Do you have any idea that he wiped out the entire council of elders for you?” The hand I was using to straighten books paused. “I’m sorry, I’ve had my memory erased. Who is this Mr. Volkov you’re talking about?” Silence, as cold and vast as a frozen tundra, spread through the room. A sudden, inexplicable tremor seized my heart. I instinctively glanced out the window. Across the street, shrouded in the deepening twilight, a tall, lean silhouette stood in the gloom, its gaze fixed on me like a shard of ice. … I found out about Dante Volkov and Luna Snow on the morning of our wedding day. I couldn’t find him and assumed he’d been called away for an urgent termination order. Instead, I found him on the manor’s terrace, kissing the girl I had rescued, Luna, his arms wrapped tightly around her. I walked toward them without a sound, my hand raising to strike his throat. My fingertips were inches from his carotid artery when Luna shoved me, hard, into the swimming pool. The instant the back of my head cracked against the concrete wall, a dead, chilling clarity settled over me. It was happening again. Every single important person in my life would eventually orbit around Luna. I had saved Luna five years ago from a human trafficking ring in Southeast Asia. I took her in when she was fifteen, adopting her as my younger sister. I taught her intelligence analysis, brought her into my team, and gave her the cleanest job in the logistics division. She was innocent, sweet, always smiling—a flower cultivated in a hothouse. After every bloody mission, she would have a hot meal waiting for everyone. My teammates, men who lived and breathed on the edge of a knife, were slowly won over by her domestic warmth, their initial wariness melting away. “Finally, a real woman on the team,” they’d say, not even bothering to lower their voices when I was around. Now, it seemed the man I had loved for a decade, the man who was supposed to exchange rings with me today, was no exception. When I woke up in the organization’s infirmary, Dante was sitting by my bed. But his first words weren’t about my injury. “Nyx, don’t misunderstand. Luna was just playing around… If you don’t like it, I’ll be more careful next time.” “You’re the one who saved her. She has no one, and she’s suffered so much. Don’t hold it against her, okay?” I looked at the old bullet scar on his collarbone, a wound he’d taken for me, and suddenly, I laughed. “Dante, are you saying all this because you’re afraid I’ll get rid of her behind your back?” His gaze hardened. He gripped my hand, his knuckles white, ignoring my question. “I know you’re angry, but infighting is strictly forbidden within the organization.” “This ends here. We’ll postpone the wedding to next week. Don’t become a joke to the lower ranks.” I pulled my hand away and stared out at the black night sky. He was about to say more, but his encrypted communicator vibrated. My assassin’s eyes were sharp enough to see the name on the screen: Luna. The message said she was frightened, that her heart was palpitating. He glanced at me, his tone softening slightly. “A new target has surfaced. I have to go set up the perimeter myself. You get some rest.” He was gone before I could reply, his steps quicker than I’d ever seen them on a mission. He never came back that night. Lying on the infirmary bed, my gaze fell on a pop-up ad on my phone: 【Memory Matrix Override: Reshape your past, forge a new future.】 I have always been ruthless. I don’t tolerate filth. Once something is tainted, I won’t touch it again. So, Dante, and the ten years of entanglement that came with him… I was done with it all. I walked out of the lab for the “Phoenix Protocol” feeling as if my brain had been wiped clean by a precision instrument—clear, but empty. Portions of my past felt locked away in an encrypted database. I knew they existed, but I had lost both the clearance and the desire to access them. The recoding required two phases. In seventy-two hours, I would need a final consolidation. Relying on the muscle memory that remained, I made my way back to my apartment in the organization’s safe house. The retinal scan chimed its approval, and the door slid open. The sound of boisterous laughter spilled out. “To Luna’s success on the Eastern Europe mission! A real credit to the organization!” I stepped into the living room, and the chatter died instantly. Dante stood up, asking with a hint of reluctance, “Does your head still hurt?” I touched the bruise on the back of my head, my voice flat. “Even if my injuries were ten times worse, you would never lay a hand on the person who caused them for my sake.” The atmosphere in the room froze. Mara, my partner for years, stepped forward to smooth things over, a strained smile on her face. “Nyx, you’re back just in time. We’re celebrating Luna’s success. The intel she provided led to a clean termination, and she received a personal commendation from the Director.” She pressed a gift box into my hands. “You’re the one who brought Luna to Acheron. It’s only fitting that you, her mentor, give this to her.” I didn’t want to cause a scene before I left. I held the box out to Luna. She reached for it, but the moment our fingers touched, the box fell to the floor. The tactical watch inside, a high-end model, shattered on impact. Luna’s eyes reddened, and tears began to fall. “Nyx… I know you’re angry with me… but this was a gift from everyone. How could you…” She sobbed. “Are you still mad? I was just joking with Dante… you misunderstood…” Seeing her tears, the others rushed to comfort her, then turned their accusations on me. “Nyx, that’s enough. Luna works hard cooking for us, and she just scored a major success. Can’t you let her be happy for one day?” “Walking around with that long face all the time, you think you’re in some kind of tragedy?” I looked at their faces, once familiar, now alien, and felt a profound disappointment. The most displeased among them was the man I had loved for a decade. “That’s enough,” Dante said, his voice carrying the weight of a commander, silencing the room. He bent down, picked up the broken watch, and placed it back in my palm. “Luna was acting on the Director’s authority this time. Her contribution was significant.” “It doesn’t matter that the gift is broken, I’ll have it repaired. Give it to her again, properly. And from now on, you will treat her well.” His voice was low, a feigned attempt at placation, but the fingers gripping my wrist tightened, the pressure on the bone excruciating. I violently wrenched my hand away. “There’s no need. She and I will not be working together again.” I took a step back. “I’m moving out.” Before the words had even settled, Luna’s sobs escalated. “Nyx… are you trying to kick me out of Acheron?” She turned to Dante, tears streaming down her face. “Dante, what do I do? The people out there will eat me alive…” Dante’s face was ashen. His eyes, when they met mine, were filled with cold accusation. “Nyx, are you really using your seniority to bully a defenseless girl? Have you no shame?” Before I could speak, my teammates chimed in. “You know the rules, Nyx. If it’s a choice between the two of you, she’s the one who has to go! You’re sending her to her death!” “What a cold-blooded, ungrateful killer. You’re just as vicious with your own people.” Mara looked conflicted, grabbing my arm. “Nyx, let it go! You were a young girl once too. Show some mercy…” I looked at her, and my heart plunged into an icy sea. Years ago, on a mission, she had triggered an alarm. I was already clear, but I went back in for her, alone, and dragged her out of a pile of corpses. She had clung to me, covered in blood, and sworn she owed me her life. Now, she stood against me, pleading for the girl who had stolen my fiancé. “Mara, leaving is my own choice. And I never said I was kicking her out…” “Have you made enough of a scene?” Dante cut me off, his voice sharp. “This is all because you’re jealous.” He soothed Luna with one hand while glaring at me. “It’s all my fault. Take it out on me. Luna is young and naive, why are you so fixated on punishing her?” The emotional turmoil, combined with the instability from the memory erasure, sent a sharp pain lancing through my temples. I had no desire to say another word. I pressed my fingers to my throbbing forehead and turned to leave. “Nyx! Don’t go, I’m begging you…” Luna suddenly lunged forward, falling to her knees and clinging to my leg. Her sharp nails dug into the flesh of my ankle. It was pure instinct. My leg muscles tensed, and I flexed to break her grip. I barely used any force, but to the others, it looked like I had kicked her away. She let out a piercing scream and fell backward, her left hand bending at a sickeningly unnatural angle. Dante shoved me aside. “Nyx, you’ve disappointed me more than I can say!” Luna cradled her wrist. “My fingers… I can’t move them…” He scooped her up, his eyes on me filled with a revulsion I had never seen before. “All of logistics, communications, and intel analysis depends on her hands. You were trying to cripple her?” He carried the weeping, near-fainting Luna past me, leaving me with one final, bone-chilling sentence. “Nyx, if you don’t want to hold a knife anymore, then get out and see what the real world is like! See how long you last without the organization.” The last vestiges of sound drained from the room as they all left. Even the newest recruit, as he passed me, sneered, “Give it up, old woman. Learn to accept you’re past your prime instead of fighting with the young girls. Take a look in the mirror.” My nails dug into my palms. I held back my rage. Dante’s call came while I was in the Director’s office, formally requesting to leave the organization. The Director’s voice was placid. “Nyx, you paid off your contract years ago. Your value to this organization has since exceeded that amount tenfold.” He looked up, his gaze sharp. “I just don’t understand. Your wedding to Dante is imminent. Why quit now?” I gave a bitter laugh. “There’s no future for us…” I trailed off, noticing my communicator was lit up. I had accidentally answered the call. Dante’s voice crackled from the speaker. “Nyx, what did you just say?” I pressed the device to my ear, my voice flat. “I’m outside. You misheard.” A moment of silence, then his tone softened. “You forgot your dagger here. Do you want to come get it?” It was a folding dagger we had taken from a target’s safe on our first mission together, ten years ago. He had later engraved our initials on the hilt. “If I ever betray you,” he’d said, “use this to pierce my heart.” For ten years, I had treasured it, never letting it leave my side. Now, I had lost all interest. “Leave it with you for now,” I said coolly. “We’ll see.” After I hung up, the Director pushed an encrypted data chip across the desk. “This is what you’ve earned. It’s enough for you to start over anywhere. As for your other choices, the organization will not interfere.” Back at my apartment, the headache forced me to bed early. I was woken in the dead of night by the soft sound of footsteps. I sat bolt upright and saw Dante. “I came to bring you your dagger.” He placed it on the nightstand. I glanced at it. “Thanks. You didn’t have to make a special trip.” He shook his head. “It’s been with you for ten years. It’s seen everything we’ve been through.” “Nyx, we’ve been together for a decade. We’ve faced death so many times. Why are you letting one little thing push us to this point?” Fragments of memory swirled in my mind. The time he shielded me on a mission, taking a bullet to the shoulder that almost cost him his arm. The time in the jungle when my legs were injured by an explosion, and he carried me for sixty miles to get help. The first time I took the fall for him, enduring torture, and he had looked at me with red-rimmed eyes and sworn he would never fail me… Those were the good times. His voice dragged me back to the present. “Luna’s fingers are just fractured, but she needs to rest.” “You’ll cover her logistics work for a few days. Our wedding is next week. We have to maintain some semblance of order for the team.” I spoke calmly. “Dante, I don’t want to marry you anymore. Why should I put on a show for anyone?” He stared at me as if I’d told a preposterous joke. “Nyx, when did you learn to play these manipulative games?” “You’re regressing. I’m losing my patience for this.” I looked down, a sarcastic smile playing on my lips. Dante, do you really believe I can’t live without you? Seeing my silence, his last shred of patience evaporated. “Fine. Cool off. Luna needs me, her fever won’t break. I have to go.” The door slammed shut with a deafening thud. When I woke the next morning, my eyes fell on the dagger on the nightstand. In the pale light, I could clearly see the engraved initials: “D.V. & L.S.” L.S. Luna Snow. This wasn’t my dagger. I opened the secret compartment in the nightstand. My dagger was inside, its hilt engraved with “D.V. & N.” I see. Even a token of our shared life and death, he could have a copy made for her. Without a moment’s hesitation, I contacted security and had all my access to the safe house revoked. I packed my bags and checked into a cash-only capsule hotel in the city center. The world around me was a chaotic, unfamiliar tapestry of human life. It required constant vigilance, but it also gave me a sense of freedom I had never known. The next day, however, I received an urgent directive from Dante, summoning me to the infirmary. I didn’t want to go, but my funds hadn’t been fully transferred yet. I went, fearing complications. I had just stepped into the familiar corridor when a figure blurred toward me. Dante slammed me against the metal wall, his forearm pressed against my throat, his eyes burning with undisguised fury. “Tell me! What did you do to Luna?” His voice was a low, guttural snarl, each word a poisoned dart. “You know what she went through as a child. She has severe PTSD. Are you going to drive her insane over your petty jealousy?” “It wasn’t me.” The pressure on my throat made my voice hoarse. “I haven’t been here for two days.” Mara and the other core team members emerged, but no one moved to intervene. Their eyes were cold with suspicion. “Nyx, there’s no point in denying it,” Mara said. “Who else has the skills to bypass all the surveillance, sneak in here in the middle of the night to terrorize her, without even Dante noticing?” As if on cue, Luna’s tearful voice drifted from the hospital room. I shoved Dante away and walked in. Luna was huddled in the corner of her bed. “Look closely,” I said. “Was the person last night me?” She flinched as if bitten by a snake, her pupils dilating as she looked up. She let out an even more piercing scream. “Ah—don’t touch me! I’ll give Dante back to you, just please, leave me alone!” She grabbed a metal water cup from her nightstand and threw it at me. I dodged, but the rim grazed my brow, and blood trickled down past my eye. Dante shielded Luna with his body and roared at me, “Get out! Don’t you come near her!” The others immediately surrounded her, murmuring words of comfort, their glares full of condemnation. I wiped the blood from my face and walked out. After I had cleaned the cut, Dante found me. His expression was still grim. “Luna is unstable. Try to be more understanding.” I met his gaze. “It’s fine. I won’t hold it against her. You, on the other hand, have a mission to run and a patient to care for. It must be difficult.” He was visibly taken aback, clearly not expecting me to say that. “It’s good that you understand.” He raised a hand to check the cut on my brow, but I stepped back, avoiding his touch. His hand froze in mid-air before slowly clenching into a fist. I looked at him, my expression unreadable. “But I must be clear. This had nothing to do with me.” A sarcastic smirk touched his lips, full of unquestionable arrogance. “In all of Acheron, who else has the ability? Did Luna frame herself? She doesn’t have the cunning for that.” Seeing his conviction, I realized any defense was pointless. I took a deep breath, ready to say the words. “Dante, we’re over—” “Dante, trouble!” Mara came running up. “Luna’s having another episode! She’s curled up in the corner crying, and won’t let anyone near her.” Dante’s face changed. He turned and sprinted back toward the room. Watching his retreating back, I finished the sentence in my mind. Tomorrow was the second phase of the memory recoding. Then, he, Acheron, and this whole nauseating affair would be sealed away for good. I turned to leave the suffocating place. As I reached the ground floor, I heard soft footsteps behind me. Before I could react, a sharp, precise pain struck the back of my neck, and I plunged into darkness. I awoke to a throbbing headache. I was strapped to a metal chair. Looking around, I realized I was in the organization’s deep interrogation chamber. The door opened, and Dante walked in, his face as cold and impassive as a machine. My voice was weak with anger. “What do you think you’re doing? Let me go!” He shook his head. “Luna has been diagnosed with severe PTSD with intermittent amnesia. The doctor said the tendons in her fingers are permanently damaged. She’ll have trouble lifting anything heavy for the rest of her life.” “And what does that have to do with me?” I shot back. He stood over me, his shadow eclipsing me. “You used unauthorized force on a logistics officer, a severe violation of our code. As a commander, I must act impartially.” He gave a slight nod to the door, and two masked executioners entered. “Begin.” Dante signed the order, his pen strokes sharp and vicious. My voice trembled. “Dante, how can you do this to me?” He didn’t even look at me. He turned and left, closing the door firmly behind him. One of the executioners approached, inserting several fine needles connected to a device into the back of my neck and my temples. He leaned in, his voice a distorted, gleeful hiss. “Sister Nyx, someone asked me to give you special attention. Don’t worry, I guarantee you won’t have a single scar.” The moment the device was activated, an indescribable agony exploded in my head. It felt like a thousand red-hot needles were being driven into my brain, piercing and scrambling my nerves. Every muscle in my body began to spasm uncontrollably. My eyes felt like they were about to burst from their sockets. I bit through my lip, the taste of blood flooding my mouth, but I didn’t make a sound. I don’t know how long it lasted. When the restraints were released, I slid from the chair to the floor. My vision was blurry, my ears were ringing, and the world felt distant and muted. They threw me into a confinement cell like a piece of trash. I spent the entire night in complete darkness, curled up, cradling my broken body. The next day, the door opened. Dante stood silhouetted against the light. I used the wall to pull myself up and staggered past him, every step like walking on knives. “There were too many witnesses last night. I had to make an example of you.” He watched me, his expression complicated. “I know you hate me, but rules are rules. I couldn’t let you get away with hurting Luna.” “Rest for a while… I’ll take over your missions for now.” He followed me, his words a constant assault on my frayed nerves. Just then, Luna’s piercing scream echoed down the hall. “Dante—where are you? I’m so scared!” Dante paused. He looked at me, then finally just said, “Go back to your room. Don’t cause any more trouble.” Then he turned, without hesitation, and ran toward the sound of her voice. At the same moment, my communicator lit up. The final transfer of my funds was complete. I gritted my teeth against the pain, walked out of the building, hailed a taxi, and gave the address of the lab. Lying back in the chair, the doctor attached the sensors to my temples. “Once the program begins, you will fall into a deep sleep. When you awaken, all your troubles will be gone.” I closed my eyes, feeling my consciousness being drawn away, piece by piece. Countless vivid memories, like photographs set ablaze, slowly turned to a gray, empty ash, and were utterly annihilated…