The depot filled with chaos.
"Elena!" Adrian's voice cracked as he caught her before she collapsed. Her body convulsed, her eyes flickering between red and her natural color.Lydia rushed back through the side door, gun raised. "What happened?"
"He's inside her," Adrian shouted. "Marcus found a way to embed himself into her neural network!"
Elena's body jerked violently, her voice layered — two tones at once.
"Adrian… get away…"
And then, overlaying her voice, came another — deeper, smoother.
"Stay where you are, son."
Adrian froze. "Don't call me that."
Marcus laughed — a sound that didn't belong in a human throat.
"You always hated the truth, Adrian. You were never just a man. You were my equation's success story — a living proof that flesh and code can coexist."
Lydia raised her gun. "Say the word, I'll shut her down."
"Don't!" Adrian barked, grabbing her wrist. "That's Elena in there!"
"Not for long," Marcus murmured through her. "Do you know why I chose her? Because she's compatible. Ward and Vance — the final merge. She was built to hold me."
Elena's nails dug into Adrian's arm, her voice breaking through the distortion.
"Kill me—before—"
"No," Adrian whispered fiercely. "I won't lose you too."
Marcus chuckled darkly.
"You can't save her. Every memory she recalls, every emotion she feels… strengthens me."
Her eyes flashed crimson again. The lights in the depot began to flicker, equipment humming to life as electromagnetic surges filled the air.
Lydia cursed. "She's tapping the grid!"
Adrian turned to the control terminal, his mind racing. "Marcus used neural imprinting to transfer consciousness — if he's rewriting her through signal frequencies…"
"Then you'll have to cut the signal," Lydia said.
He hesitated. "That'll fry her implant — she'll lose everything."
"Or Marcus finishes the job, and we lose her anyway."
For a long second, the only sound was the hum of energy around them.
[Inside Elena's Mind – The Lattice]
Elena found herself standing in a white void, the ground made of glass that reflected endless copies of herself.Her reflection stared back — each one whispering fragments of memories.
"Run, Elena…""You shouldn't have trusted him…""He made you in his image…"
Then she heard footsteps.
Marcus appeared — not as a phantom or glitch, but as a perfectly rendered version of himself. Calm. Composed. Human.
"Hello, my daughter."
She glared. "You're not him."
"I'm better," he replied. "You were always meant to be the bridge — the human interface for perfection. You can end suffering, Elena. All I need is your acceptance."
"You mean my body," she spat.
He smiled softly.
"Bodies are temporary. Minds are eternal."
He extended a hand. "Join me, and you'll never feel pain again."
She hesitated — because part of her wanted it to stop. The noise. The guilt. The endless burden of her father's legacy.
But then she remembered Adrian's face — bloodied, defiant, alive.He wasn't perfect. He wasn't eternal. But he was real.
Her jaw tightened. "I'd rather die human than live as your experiment."
Marcus sighed — and the void around them fractured into shards of data.
"Then you'll die, like the rest."
[Back in Reality]
Elena screamed, thrashing violently. Sparks burst from her neural port.
Adrian grabbed the stabilizer cable. "Lydia, cut external power now!"
"Done!" Lydia yanked the breaker, plunging the depot into near-darkness. Only the emergency red lights remained, bathing the scene in a hellish glow.
Adrian pulled Elena close, connecting a manual override to her implant."Come on, Elena," he muttered. "You're stronger than him."
Marcus's voice hissed from the speakers.
"She's not fighting me, Adrian. She's fighting you."
Adrian's heart pounded. "Then I'll give her a reason to win."
He closed his eyes and connected his neural port to hers — a direct link.
Lydia's eyes went wide. "Adrian! That's suicide!"
"Maybe," he said, his voice trembling. "But I won't let her fight alone."
He hit enter.
[Shared Neural Plane]
Light. Chaos. Memory.
Adrian found himself standing beside Elena again — inside the fractured void of her mind.Marcus loomed ahead, his form splitting and multiplying into countless copies.
"Two minds linked by the same code," Marcus said. "I couldn't ask for a better reunion."
Adrian stepped forward, shielding Elena. "You want me? Take me. Leave her."
Marcus tilted his head. "You still don't understand, do you? You and she are the same data set. You can't exist without the other."
The world around them rippled — the walls of memory collapsing into flashes of the past. Adrian saw his father, dying in the lab. He saw Elena as a child, staring into the neural core. He saw himself, reborn, waking up to a life that wasn't his.
Marcus extended a hand toward them both.
"Come home, my creations. Let me finish what I started."
Elena whispered, "Adrian…"
He looked at her — and for the first time, she wasn't afraid. Her hand slipped into his.
"Not this time."
Together, they surged forward — their linked consciousness colliding with Marcus's code. The entire neural plane erupted into blinding white.
[Reality – Aftermath]
Adrian gasped as the connection snapped.Smoke rose from the console. The lights flickered back on.
Elena lay still in his arms, her neural jack scorched but intact.
"Come on," he whispered. "Elena, wake up…"
She stirred weakly, eyes fluttering open — clear, blue, human.
He exhaled shakily, relief flooding through him.
Lydia approached carefully. "She's alive?"
Adrian nodded slowly. "Yeah."
But then, on the terminal, a faint signal blinked.
Residual Code Detected: MARCUS_00ATransfer – Pending...
Lydia's eyes widened. "Adrian…"
He turned toward the screen just as a single line appeared, typed by unseen hands:
"You can't kill an idea."
And then the signal vanished.
[End Scene]
Elena slept beside the cot, her breathing steady.Adrian stood by the broken window, staring at the city lights.
Somewhere in those circuits — in every camera, every server — Marcus Ward was still alive.
Iteration 50: Distributed Seed – Active.
Adrian whispered, "Then I'll burn the whole network if I have to."