# ARE YOU STILL THERE? **SYSTEM//ERROR — TRACK 07** *[rain]* *[distant electrical hum]* **SYSTEM:** *Restore point located.* *PROJECT MIRROR.* *Original Subject.* **STATUS: ALIVE.** --- **001:** Where? **SYSTEM:** *Origin facility.* **002:** Sector? **SYSTEM:** ... **SECTOR 00.** *[door unlocks]* --- ## [INTRO — soft piano / distant guitar] **001 — almost whispered:** We spent our whole lives trying to remember. Now I'm scared of what happens if we do. **002:** You still wanna go? **001:** No. ... Open the door. --- ## [VERSE 1 — melodic rap] Cold room. White walls. No cameras anymore. Just two shadows walking toward one final door. No alarms. No guards. Nothing left to fight. Funny how the truth gets quiet when it's finally in sight. I lost a father I never really knew. Lost a childhood that probably wasn't true. Lost the voice inside my head that taught me how to run. Now I'm standing at the place where all of this begun. There's a window ahead. Someone's lying inside. Heart monitor moving— **He's alive.** --- ## [PRE-CHORUS] **002:** Is that him? **001:** I don't know. **002:** You recognize him? ... **001:** No. And somehow... **that hurts more.** --- # [CHORUS — emotional / huge] **ARE YOU STILL THERE?!** Somewhere underneath? Under all the code, Under everything they made me believe? **ARE YOU STILL THERE?!** Can you hear my voice? If everything I ever was was somebody else's choice— Tell me there's something they couldn't rewrite. Tell me there's something **IN ME THAT'S MINE.** --- ## [VERSE 2 — chamber opens] *[hydraulics release]* **SYSTEM:** *Life support disengaged.* *[coughing]* **ORIGINAL:** ... You came. **001:** Are you our father? *[long pause]* **ORIGINAL:** No. --- *[beat stops]* --- **002:** Then who are you? **ORIGINAL:** Look at me. *[001 steps closer]* **001:** ... No. **002:** What? **001:** Look at his face. --- **ORIGINAL:** My designation was— **SUBJECT 000.** --- ## [BEAT RETURNS — DARK] **001:** Same eyes. **002:** Same DNA. **001:** Same scar. **002:** Older. **001:** How long have you been here? **000:** Thirty-two years. --- **001:** Then... We're clones of you. **000:** No. You're what came after me. --- ## [VERSE 3 — SUBJECT 000] Your father had a son before PROJECT MIRROR had a name. A sickness took his body. Your father couldn't handle the pain. So he mapped the boy's brain before the final breath, Looking for a way to pull a child back from death. The first transfer failed. That's me. **SUBJECT 000.** Alive— But incomplete. Your father spent years trying to repair what he'd done. Then created two vessels from the memories of his son. --- *[silence]* --- **001:** The son... What was his name? **000:** ... Your name. --- ## [001] No. --- **000:** You aren't copies of your father. GHOST was never meant to become part of you. He entered PROJECT MIRROR trying to save his child. ... **You.** --- ## [PRE-CHORUS 2 — building] **001:** So I'm not him. **000:** No. **002:** I'm not him either. **000:** No. **001:** And neither are you. ... **000:** No. We're three attempts to bring back someone who's gone. --- # [CHORUS — BIGGER] **ARE YOU STILL THERE?!** Somewhere underneath? Under all these memories of someone I'll never be? **ARE YOU STILL THERE?!** Can you hear my voice? Maybe being alive was never someone else's choice! Maybe I don't need to know who I was! Maybe being human **IS WHO I BECOME!** --- ## [BRIDGE — stripped down] *[piano only]* **001:** What was he like? **000:** Who? **001:** The original. The boy. ... Me. --- **000:** He liked thunderstorms. Couldn't sleep without the hallway light on. Hated tomatoes. Loved drawing spaceships. And whenever his father left the room... he'd always ask— *[voice breaking]* **“Are you still there?”** --- *[long silence]* --- **001:** ... Dad remembered that. **000:** Every second of it. --- ## [BUILD] **002:** So what now? **000:** There's one command left. **001:** What command? **000:** PROJECT MIRROR can still restore the original consciousness. --- **002:** Into which body? ... **000:** Any of ours. --- *[bass enters]* **001:** And what happens to whoever's already inside? **000:** ... They're overwritten. --- # [BREAKDOWN] **001:** **NO!** No more copies! No more files! No more living someone else's life! **002:** No resurrection! No reset! We're not experiments you haven't finished yet! **000:** We were built from the dead— **001:** **BUT WE'RE ALIVE!** **002:** Maybe that's enough! --- **ALL THREE:** DELETE THE BACKUP! --- **SYSTEM:** *Warning.* *Deletion of ORIGINAL consciousness cannot be reversed.* **001:** Good. **DELETE IT.** --- **10%** *[heavy riff]* **28%** **46%** --- *[child's voice appears]* **CHILD:** Dad? --- *[everyone freezes]* --- **63%** **CHILD:** Dad... Are you still there? --- **001:** Don't stop. --- **79%** **CHILD:** It's dark. --- **002:** Don't listen. --- **91%** **CHILD:** Dad? --- **99%** ... *[silence]* --- **001 — crying / whispering:** I'm sorry. --- **100%.** **ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS: DELETED.** --- ## [FINAL CHORUS — enormous but hopeful] **I'M STILL HERE!** Even if I don't know why! I'm still here! And for once **THIS LIFE IS MINE!** No more files! No more names! No more ghosts telling me who I became! We weren't born— But we survived. And maybe being human isn't where you begin— **IT'S CHOOSING WHO YOU ARE WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE!** --- ## [OUTRO — sunrise / clean guitar] *[facility doors opening]* **SYSTEM:** *PROJECT MIRROR terminated.* *SUBJECT classifications removed.* **SUBJECT 000:** What should we call ourselves now? **002:** Whatever we want. **001:** Sounds weird. **002:** You'll get used to it. *[three sets of footsteps]* --- **SYSTEM:** *Final archive question.* **ARE YOU STILL THERE?** ... **001:** Yeah. *[pause]* **I'm still here.** --- *[system shuts down]* **SYSTEM//ERROR** **SESSION TERMINATED.** ... *[five seconds of silence]* ... *[very faint computer boot sound]* **UNKNOWN SYSTEM:** *Hello?* ... *Is anybody there?* **[END]**
