he shard's glow had crawled halfway up my arm now.
Thin blue filaments threaded under my skin, sinking into nerves, veins, bone—
little tendrils of impossible light stitching themselves into me.
I felt warm.
Too warm.
Like someone was pressing a fever against the inside of my skull.
Marin's voice pulsed through the fragment:
"Let me in, Eli…
I don't want to disappear again…"
My heart lurched painfully.
Lira's grip tightened around the neural disruptor.
"Elias, listen—this thing is rewriting your synapses.
You have seconds before it anchors."
The shadow in the corner shifted—
a silhouette leaking darkness like smoke poured into water.
His voice reverberated in the metal walls:
"Don't fight it.
She belongs in you.
You were her foundation."
I clenched my jaw.
"Stay away from her."
The shadow seemed to smile—
without a face.
"Protecting her?
Or protecting yourself?"
The fragment pulsed hot—
blurring my vision for a heartbeat.
A flash:
Marin's older face,
eyes soft,
laughing in a sunlight kitchen.
I gasped.
The memory was so vivid,
so tender
it made my chest ache.
I reached instinctively toward her—
Lira slapped my hand down.
"DON'T TOUCH IT AGAIN!"
The shard pulsed violently, reacting to her tone.
Marin's voice sharpened:
"Don't yell at him!"
The air pressure shuddered—
lights flickering overhead.
Lira backed up a step.
"Elias, she's hijacking your emotional cortex.
That's not Marin.
That's an invasive echo trying to graft over your personality."
"NO," I snapped.
"She's just scared—"
"Elias, THINK. Marin wouldn't want to hurt you, and this thing IS."
My breath caught.
Because she was right.
The glow was now creeping up to my elbow.
My fingers tingled numb.
My thoughts blurred at the edges—
and I heard a second heartbeat,
not mine.
Marin whispered:
"If I stay inside you…
you'll never lose me again."
I staggered.
"Oh god…"
Lira lunged forward.
"I'm disabling it. Now. Before it roots."
But as soon as she raised the disruptor—
The shadow appeared behind her.
He didn't move.
He didn't need to.
Darkness surged toward her like a living wave.
"NO—LIRA!"
I jumped between them on instinct.
The darkness hit me instead—
cold, crushing, crawling under my skin.
The shadow whispered into my mind:
"You can't save her."
Marin's voice roared from the shard:
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
A blast of white-blue light exploded from my arm.
The shadow recoiled.
Screeched.
Flickered wildly and retreated into the far corner.
Lira stared, horrified.
"Elias…
the shard is DEFENDING you."
I collapsed onto my knees, gasping.
The light kept pulsing, faster and faster,
syncing with my heartbeat.
Marin whispered:
"Don't let anyone take me."
I pressed a shaking hand to my forehead.
"This is wrong…
this is so wrong…"
Lira knelt in front of me.
Her voice softened—
one Archivist to another,
one scarred person to someone breaking:
"Elias, look at me."
I tried.
The world kept tilting.
"I know you loved her," she said quietly.
"I know she mattered.
But this—
this isn't her."
My throat tightened painfully.
"I can't lose her again."
Her expression cracked.
"I know," she whispered.
"I know."
But then she lifted something from her pocket—
a small cube-shaped device.
Black.
Unmarked.
Humming faintly with power.
I frowned.
"What is that?"
She hesitated.
A long, painful hesitation.
Then:
"A kill-switch."
My breath froze.
"For what?"
Her eyes darkened.
"For rogue emotional anchors."
My pulse spiked.
"What are you saying—"
She swallowed.
"Elias… this isn't the first time Marin's echo tried to attach to someone."
I felt cold all over.
"What?"
Lira's voice shook.
"She wasn't the only Theta child.
And she wasn't the only one whose simulations grew too dependent on a single anchor."
She held up the cube.
"This device severs the emotional root of parasitic echoes."
I shook my head.
"No. No, Lira— don't—"
Her eyes filled with something like grief.
"If I don't use this, the fragment will merge with your hippocampus in minutes.
You'll lose yourself to her."
The shard pulsed frantically.
Marin's voice sharpened—
no longer soft or pleading.
"Don't let her touch us."
Us.
Not you.
Us.
The light surged up to my shoulder.
My vision wavered.
Lira whispered:
"Elias…
I'm sorry."
She pressed her thumb to the kill-switch.
The device warmed.
Hummed.
And the shard in my hand shrieked—
a sound like metal tearing—
Marin's voice screamed:
"DON'T—YOU'LL KILL ME—"
The shadow roared from the wall:
"STOP HER!"
Lira's finger hovered—
And everything froze.
My breath.
The lights.
The sound.
I stood between two choices:
Save myself
Save Marin
And both choices meant losing something I couldn't bear.
Lira whispered:
"Elias…
choose."
The shard pulsed one last time—
and Marin whispered, barely audible:
"Please… don't let me die again."