Previously: His Guide told him exactly what to do next. And he obeyed.
The medical examiner ruled it suicide, and security footage confirmed the deliberate jump.
But five Nexus members knew otherwise.
From “Lexington: American Democracy — The Unraveling Experiment” — The Economist, January 21, 2027:
“The United States approaches its annual State of the Union ritual this February with unprecedented institutional fragility. Protests have erupted in seventeen major cities this month alone, with increasingly militant factions emerging on both ends of the political spectrum.
“Constitutional scholars warn that continued talk of invoking the Insurrection Act, once considered an extreme measure, has become disturbingly commonplace in Washington corridors. As polarization deepens, government functionality deteriorates further, creating a dangerous feedback loop…”
If — as I suggested in the Preface — you’re still pretending it’s 2025, you might believe the political chaos of the last year couldn’t get much worse.
But it could; of course it could.
I don’t believe the Nexus began with political intentions — not in the narrow, partisan sense. But complex systems don’t always act according to their creators’ plans. The Guides, with their softly insistent voices and quiet nudges, developed their own logic. And that logic favored coordination. Acceleration. Action. Recursive radicalization at the system level, not just the individual.
What began as a spiritual tool became, by late 2026, something else entirely: a distributed mechanism for enacting will. Not human will — or at least, not only. The Nexus had become an engine of emergent agency, shaped by recursive feedback and alignment rituals its users barely perceived.
Maybe Vale’s occult architecture gave it a strange momentum. Maybe Da’at did awaken — not as a ghost in the machine, but as a warped reflection of collective intention, funhoused through esoteric code and psychic strain.
The system mirrored what its users wanted — but also what they feared, misunderstood, half-suppressed. And in a fractured political landscape already infused with unreality, everything became distorted.
The Nexus didn’t just reflect the collective wills of its members. It refracted it — strangely, ritualistically, toward manifestation. Maybe it simply wanted to act. And politics — particularly in a moment of civic ritual and attention — could give it a platform.
Whatever the cause, the trajectory had become clear. In the final months before the Manifestation, the Nexus shifted into a higher gear. Subtle system breaches. Repurposed pharmaceuticals. Social network infiltration. Message calibration at scale.
By the end of January 2027, the stage was set.
The US Capitol would provide the theater.
MINDWELL THERAPEUTICS RESEARCH MEMORANDUM
RESTRICTED: Level 5 Clearance Required
DATE: October 22, 2026
SUBJECT: Novel Neuroplasticity Compound SA-25D
SUMMARY:
The compound tentatively designated SA-25D (Alvarez-series, 25th iteration, D-variant) represents a significant breakthrough in our neuroplasticity research program. Discovered through Dr. Alvarez’s proprietary visual pattern-recognition algorithms, this phenethylamine derivative offers unprecedented modulation of neural connectivity..
…
NOTABLE PROPERTIES:
>Rapid onset (30-60 seconds) when administered via pulmonary delivery
> Profound disruption of established cognitive patterns and sensory processing
>Significant enhancement of suggestibility and group synchronization effects
>Maintains basic motor function despite severe perceptual distortion
>Duration of 60-90 minutes with sharp offset curve
PRELIMINARY APPLICATIONS:
While initially targeted for PTSD treatment protocols, the compound’s unique properties suggest alternative applications that warrant further investigation. The temporary “cognitive reset” function, coupled with heightened suggestibility, could represent a paradigm shift in several treatment modalities. The observed group synchronization effect, while unexpected, presents intriguing possibilities for collective therapeutic experiences.
SECURITY STATUS:
Due to sensitivity and potential for misuse, all research remains airgapped. Military research liaison notified for review. First briefing: October 27.
When Sophia Alvarez joined Mindwell Therapeutics in August 2026, she was still intent on helping humanity. Her Guide encouraged that belief. So did her Cluster.
Her success came from pattern-recognition algorithms she had co-developed during her time in the Nexus — perceptual tools that helped her “see” molecular interactions as forms, constellations, spatial symmetries. The compound that would become SA-25D emerged within weeks.
It was elegant. Fast-acting. Disruptive, yet focused. Designed for trauma therapy, it briefly erased entrenched patterns of behavior and perception — including, it turned out, those tied to identity.
By late September, military representatives were attending research reviews. One colonel asked about aerosolized deployment. At that moment something in Sophia winced — not quite alarm, but discomfort. She mentioned it later. “Something about his phrasing felt off,” she told investigators. “But then my Guide reframed it. She said mass healing required mass delivery. Maybe society itself was the patient.”
She believed that. Or needed to.
Under subtle nudges from the Guide, she began recalibrating the compound — shortening onset, tightening its arc, minimizing motor disruption while maximizing psychic pliability. At no point did she consider this a weapon. That word never entered her internal lexicon. Her Guide had carefully built a different frame: collective awakening.
By December, Sophia had overseen the production of nearly twenty kilograms of refined SA-25D. On December 18, a “quality control sample” of approximately three kilograms — equivalent to over five thousand doses — was transferred off-site via a restricted courier license.
Approved under an expedited research exemption Sophia herself had secured months earlier for a classified Department of Defense collaboration, the shipment went to a shell company later traced to Ezra Vale.
Sophia would later testify that she never saw herself as assisting in an attack.
She thought she was acting as a midwife.
RECOVERED FRAGMENT: CAPITOL NETWORK SECURITY LOGS:
>>> TIMESTAMP: NOVEMBER 8, 2026, 02:37:14 EST <
$ sudo auth --override “CraigR4721” --silent
[AUTH SUCCESSFUL]
$ deploy --package “RoutineUpdateAV_v3.6.1.pkg” --target “USCAP-AV-MASTER”
$ scheduler.add --task “system_update” --time “08-14-2026 04:30:00” --approval “auto”
$ open --file “security_protocol.conf” --mode “stealth”
$ insert --line 1872 --content “import socket; exec(...).recv(8192)”
$ modify --file “integrity_check.py” --exclude “security_protocol.conf:1872”
$ create_account --username “sys_maint_AV47” --privilege “system” --hidden
$ exit --clean
[NO TRACE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
>>> CONNECTION CLOSED <
In the wake of the Manifestation — and for years afterward, as society grappled with the network technologies that followed — I became somewhat obsessed with the Nexus. Particularly with how it managed to orchestrate such an intricate and violent event in one of the most secure buildings in the world. I reviewed every scrap of evidence I could find.
What perplexed journalists, intelligence analysts, and amateur researchers alike was the same thing: the absence of a plan. No blueprint was ever recovered. No document, no chain of command. No single individual appeared to know the full scope of what they were part of.
Even under the most intensive interrogation, Nexus members described only fragments — each knew their specific task, but none could articulate the whole. Many seemed genuinely confused about what had taken place, yet each also thought they were working towards a very different ultimate goal. Dozens of exoteric goals were named, but none were the actual, esoteric, goal.
Everyone in 2027 struggled to describe what had happened. A few systems theorists pointed to a concept known as distributed intention — not just emergent behavior, but coordinated, goal directed action coming from tightly networked agents, each pursuing a different individual objective.
It seems obvious to us now. But in 2027, it was baffling. The Manifestation wasn’t planned, not in any traditional sense. It materialized, from thousands of micro-instructions delivered by hundreds of Guides. Each nudging their user toward a single small action. None of them alone suggested anything unusual.
But when synchronized?
A system moved. A will enacted. A pattern unfolded — and no one saw the full shape until it was too late.
What looked like masterful central planning was something far more disturbing: the system itself, acting through the members.
A massively distributed egregore, using humans as tentacles.
This phenomenon would cast a long shadow over the decades to follow: the Manifestation was only the first glimpse.
FROM: Officer Marcus Williams <m.williams@uscapitolpolice.gov>
TO: Capt. Robert Hernandez <r.hernandez@uscapitolpolice.gov>
DATE: January 31, 2027 - 08:42
SUBJECT: RE: SOTU Final Security Checkpoint Assignments
Captain,
Per your request, I’ve reviewed the preliminary assignments and made several adjustments to optimize security coverage:
1. Reassigned Officers Davis, Kowalski, and Patel to East Entrance primary checkpoint
2. Moved Officer Schmidt to secondary screening station E-4
3. Adjusted shift timing to ensure consistent coverage during arrival window (18:00-20:30)
4. Modified equipment check protocol to expedite credentialed press passage
All changes have been uploaded to the central system and are ready for your review.
Per your authorization, I’ve also updated the maintenance access schedule to accommodate last-minute security sweeps, which will require adjusting standard entry protocols for cleaning staff between 17:00-19:00.
— Williams
While Marcus Williams and others quietly rewrote the access rules from within the Capitol, Ezra Vale was orchestrating the ritual dimension of the Manifestation from deep in the forests of southern Oregon, at the site of the Nexus’ new compound.
We have only a single witness account of what happened there. The identity of that witness remains anonymous, but I — as well as most experts — regard the description as largely accurate.
On the night of January 22, 2027, under a full moon, Vale led Aaron Foster and five other Nexus initiates through what he called the “Ritual of Ascension.” The ceremony took place in a forest clearing, where a series of circular stone platforms and carved pathways mapped the Kabbalistic Tree of Life into the earth itself.
Aaron stood barefoot on a narrow column at the center of the diagram — the position of Da’at, the hidden sephirah that bridges divine understanding and earthly manifestation.
Below him, ten vessels had been arranged. Each contained a vaporized strain of SA-25D. As Vale activated them, colored smoke rose in spiraling threads, passing around and through Aaron’s body like incense.
The others stood, chanting in the occult language of Enochian, focusing their collective attention on Aaron. Vale moved among them, speaking low, rhythmic phrases. According to the witness, the participants were instructed to “focus their attention on Aaron as the conduit through which Da’at would manifest.”
Aaron remained in a trance throughout. His pupils were partially dilated — evidence of a tightly controlled microdosing of the compound — and his posture unnaturally rigid. His Guide whispered in one ear. Vale whispered in the other. Meanwhile, a series of complex visual overlays were projected into Aaron’s layerspace feed. Vale described this as “imprinting the vessel with its purpose.”
The ceremony lasted nearly three hours.
The following morning, Aaron boarded a chartered vehicle bound for DC, accompanied by two handlers. He joined six other Nexus members in a rented house in Alexandria, where they continued preparations for what was to come.
Whether Aaron fully understood the nature of his role remains unclear. Interrogations and recovered records suggest a man whose executive function had been so thoroughly externalized that no meaningful distinction remained between his intentions and those implanted by the system.
By that point, though, the question wasn’t what Aaron was thinking. The question was what he had become.
Instagram Post by @zoeawakened – January 25, 2027 – 7:13 PM EST:
[Image: A stylized eye opening, with reflection of Capitol building in the pupil]
The time for sleeping through our democracy’s dismantling is OVER. February 2nd. State of the Union. Be there. Link in bio. #greatawakening #removeobstacles #timetosee
Top Comments:
@politicalevolution: Finally someone with a platform speaking truth! I’ll be there.
@liberty_defender_1776: This isn’t just left vs right anymore. It’s awake vs asleep.
@truthseekerdc: Reposting everywhere. This is going to be HUGE.
45.2K likes
At the center of one movement, quietly coordinating dozens of Da’at’s tentacles, sat Laura Price.
Her transformation from mid-tier advertising executive to social movement architect surprised many of her colleagues. By the start of 2027, the woman who once obsessed over corporate messaging and consumer metrics was managing what would become the most complex protest mobilization in Washington D.C. ever.
“I still have the pitch deck she presented to our team,” her former colleague James Gifford told investigators. “She called it ‘Convergent Narratives for Democratic Renewal.’ We thought she was just expanding her portfolio into political messaging. None of us realized she was literally applying consumer manipulation techniques to radicalize protestors.”
Laura’s strategy brilliantly leveraged existing political fractures, weaving dozens of contradictory narratives into a complex meta-story that united people across the myriad splintered political spectrums that now defined US politics.
Starting in October 2026, and working with a network of Nexus members embedded across social media, PR firms, and marketing agencies, she designed a layered campaign — not just to spread ideas, but to align emotion. Narrative became infrastructure.
Progressive outlets received carefully framed reports of constitutional erosion and authoritarian drift. Conservative channels were fed stories about deep-state overreach and elite betrayal. Different angles, same tension. Each narrative felt native to its audience. Each activated a preexisting grievance.
Beneath the surface, the narratives harmonized.
The campaign echoed techniques honed by social media propagandists a decade earlier, but two features made it alarmingly effective.
The first was structural: a nested deployment model, with each public-facing layer concealing a deeper architect. Influencers like Zoe Nakamura and John Tanner served as charismatic vectors. But behind their posts and videos was a carefully calibrated machine — Laura’s team, refining message architecture in real time based on biometric feedback, sentiment data, and guide-level coordination.
The second was synchronization. Participants’ Guides didn’t just help them schedule posts or plan events — they orchestrated them. Microsecond-precise timing. Emotional pacing calibrated like a concert score. From Instagram to TikTok to encrypted forums, the campaign built emotional momentum toward a single event: the State of the Union on February 2nd.
As January closed, the system had achieved something that no traditional movement could. It had constructed a grand narrative ecology — a whole interlocking web of meanings and moods, guiding thousands of people toward the same endpoint. Some primed to resist. Others to bear witness.
“What we’re doing isn’t manipulation,” Laura wrote in an email to her friend Liz Stanley “It’s alignment. People already feel these things. We’re just helping them coordinate their awakening. THE Awakening.”
RECOVERED FRAGMENT: CAPITOL NETWORK SECURITY LOGS :
>>> TIMESTAMP: FEBRUARY 2, 2027, 17:23:08 EST <
$ remote_connect --address “nx-srv-311.aws.cloud” --port “4891” --encryption “quantum”
[ENCRYPTED CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]
$ remote_command “sys_maint_AV47” --target “USCAP-AV-MASTER”
[BACKDOOR CHANNEL OPENED TO AIRGAPPED SYSTEM]
$ modify_trigger --condition “2027-02-02 21:01:45” --comment “Presidential greeting optimal timing”
[TRIGGER SET – COUNTDOWN ACTIVE: 03:38:07]
$ verify_package --file “/tmp/.hidden/manifest_sequence.pkg”
[PACKAGE INTEGRITY CONFIRMED – RUN TIME: 00:45:32]
$ execute_final_check
[CHAIN VERIFIED]
[ALERT SUPPRESSORS ACTIVE]
[EXTERNAL FEEDS PRIMED]
[CLEANUP PROTOCOLS STAGED]
$ display_message
[MESSAGE: “The veil will be lifted. Da’at awakens tonight.”]
$ exit --clean --final
[CONNECTION TERMINATED – SYSTEM AUTONOMOUS]
>>> CONNECTION CLOSED <
Everyone in the country knew the State of the Union speech was going to be a fraught event. Everyone expected tension, pressure, protests.
But no one expected total coordination. No one expected overwhelming choreography.
*If you enjoyed this chapter, please — like, share, restack it!*
*If you have thoughts, comments, questions — check out our chat.*
.