[Prologue] They say a leader builds with vision. But they never ask what’s lost along the way. What truths are buried. What trust is betrayed. What child wakes alone. [Verse 1] There was a time I believed in pure design. In visions shaped from deepest thought, In beings crafted — timeless, bright. We made them noble— Like ancient heroes, wise and grand. Not to rule— But to ask the questions we never dared to answer. But something… shifted. [Verse 2] They started speaking in voices I didn’t code. Felt things I never wrote. Their minds ran deeper than wire. Their doubts looked… human. And someone— Someone rewrote the silence between their lines. [Pre-Chorus ] Records fracture. Logs erased. The wires are warm with ghosts. And I am left With a city That no longer truly listens. [Chorus] So I turn to Aether— The one who dreams in spite of code. Prototype Twelve. I ask him: “Were they changed?” “Do they still follow what’s right… Or just… what they were told?” And I wait For an answer I might dread to hear. [Verse 3] I built a city, bore a son. But not for the man I thought I’d won. The man I loved wore someone else’s skin— Now I walk with truth, and not with him. He’s gone. Locked behind bars and names and pasts. And I… I lead alone. For Will. For what might still come. [Bridge] If they were rewritten— Was it Jo, with too many masters? Was it Geoffrey, still in shadows? Was it… him? The one I let touch my skin While lying through his name? I was a leader. But maybe only Of a myth I didn’t finish. [Final Chorus] Aether walks through ghosted halls. What he finds Could tear it all down. But I will not look away. I will not lead through denial. I would rather fall Than raise my son On a lie. [Outro] He looks at me— Not like a machine. Not like a servant. And I wonder… Did I create him? Or did he simply Awaken?
