DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
Pain doesn't arrive all at once, it comes in layers.
First, there is pressure, like the inside of my skull is being gently, politely squeezed, then comes heat, not burning, just too much. Too many thoughts arriving at the same time, stacking on each other, refusing to line up.
Eden doesn't speak, it moves.
Images flood in: Syndicate corridors I haven't walked in years. Faces of men who shook my hand and planned my death an hour later. Blood on tile, blood on paper, codes collapsing into other codes, doors opening inside doors.
I grip the edge of the concrete platform where I've anchored myself, knuckles white, breath shallow.
Stay here, I tell myself... Stay Darian but Eden doesn't want Darian.
It wants access.
EDEN INTERNAL SEQUENCE
Anchor engaged.
Memory lattice opening.
"No," I whisper. "Not everything."
It ignores me.
I feel Adanna before I see her not physically, but as a constant variable Eden can't erase. Her laugh flickers through the chaos. Her hands on my chest. The way she says my name when she's angry, when she's tired, when she's trying not to forgive me.
I hold onto that. If I let go, I disappear.
The Syndicate built Eden to obey.
Her father rebuilt it to choose and now it's choosing through me.
My vision fractures.
I'm in a room.... no, many rooms. Board meetings layered over interrogation cells. The Syndicate arguing with itself across time. Names I buried claw back to the surface.
Azaan, the Eastern Bloc, the counterforce.
I see the killorder for Adanna.. red-stamped, cold, efficient.
I snarl, body convulsing. "You don't touch her."
EDEN RESPONSE
Emotional override acknowledged.
Protection priority reinforced.
Good, then Eden digs deeper.... past my training, past my conditioning, into the part of me I never showed anyone.
Fear.l, not of dying but of leaving her alone with the wreckage.
My chest tightens, breath stutters and for a second, I think my heart has given up.
And then..... a memory surfaces that isn't mine.....
Her father... not as a file, not as a name.
As a man sitting at a desk at three in the morning, eyes red, hands shaking as he rewrites Eden's core because he knows what the Syndicate will do if they finish it first.
"He'll come for her," the man whispers to no one. "If I die… he'll protect her."
The promise hits harder than the pain.
I scream.... not from agony, but from understanding.
ADANNA P.O.V( point of view)
They don't bring me in chains, they don't need to.
The room is white..... too white. No windows, no corners. A place designed to make you feel small without touching you.
Three people sit across from me. They are not soldiers but decision-makers.
"You're calmer than expected," the woman in the middle says, folding her hands. Her voice is pleasant, practiced.
"I've had practice," I reply.
She smiles thinly. "You know why you're here."
"Yes," I say. "Because you can't control Eden anymore."
The man on her right leans forward. "We can. We just need consent."
I laugh once, short and sharp. "From me?"
"From the only person Eden recognizes as ethical authority," the woman says. "Your father designed it that way."
My chest tightens at the mention of him, but I don't let it show.
"You killed him," I say quietly.
"No," she replies. "We underestimated him."
Same thing.
A screen lights up behind them. Drian.
Convulsing. Blood at the corner of his mouth. Eyes open but unfocused.
My breath leaves me.
"You're killing him," I whisper.
"We're letting him choose," the man says. "You can stop it."
I straighten. "By handing you Eden."
"By letting us stabilize the anchor," the woman says. "He survives. The Syndicate survives. Order remains."
"And the people you erase?" I ask. "The ones Eden would expose?"
Silence.
I stand.
"You're afraid," I say. "Not of chaos. Of truth."
The woman's smile fades. "Sit down."
"No."
I step closer to the glass, palm flat against it, staring at Darian like maybe he can feel me.
"You told him he was a weapon," I continue. "You were wrong. He's the proof you failed."
Her voice sharpens. "Your emotions are clouding your judgment."
"No," I say. "They're clarifying it."
I turn back to them, heart pounding but steady.
"You don't get Eden," I say. "And you don't get him."
"And what do you offer instead?" the man asks.
I swallow.
"Myself."
All three of them still.
"I'll enter the system," I continue. "Direct interface. Eden responds to me. You want stability? Fine. But Darian is released from the anchor."
"That could kill you," the woman says.
I meet her gaze. "Now you understand the stakes."
DARIAN P.O.V( point of view)
The pain spikes, then shifts.
Something soft presses through the noise.
Adanna...not her voice but her presence.
Eden recalibrates, the pressure easing just enough for me to breathe.
EDEN RESPONSE
Secondary authority engaged.
Load redistribution initiated.
"No," I gasp. "Don't pull her in."
But she already is and somehow impossibly.... the pain lessens.
I feel her fear, her resolve, her love... sharp and unyielding.
The anchor loosens.
I slump forward, gasping, vision clearing in brutal inches.
"Adanna," I whisper into the void.
She answers without sound.
I'm here which made me laugh weakly. Of course she is.
She always is.
ADANNA P.O.V(point of view)
The system opens like a door that's been waiting for me.
Data floods my senses....not numbers, but choices. Lives balanced on probability. Truth mapped against power.
Eden doesn't ask permission.
It recognizes me.
EDEN RESPONSE
Welcome home.
Tears burn my eyes.
I feel Darian.... dim, wounded, alive.
I hold onto that.
"You don't get to use him," I tell the Syndicate, my voice echoing through the system now. "You don't get to use either of us."
The woman steps back slowly. "Adanna....."
"You wanted a test," I interrupt. "Here's the result."
I let Eden do what my father built it to do.
Expose! Names spill, accounts crack, orders surface ...undeniable.
Men start shouting outside the room.
The woman stares at me, horror replacing control. "You'll burn everything."
I think of Darian's hands. His mouth on mine. The way he said I love you like it was a truth he'd die for.
"Yes," I say softly. "I will."
DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
The pain recedes.
I collapse to my knees, breath ragged, alive when I shouldn't be.
Eden quiets.....not gone, just watching.
I feel her withdraw, careful, protective.
Stay with me, I beg silently.
Her presence brushes mine one last time.
Always.
I press my forehead to the ground, shaking with relief and terror and love so fierce it hurts worse than the machine ever did.
Whatever comes next....
She chose me and that changes everything.
To be continued....