Kael POV
Time snapped back into motion and I was already moving.
My claws ripped through the first corrupted beast before it could reach Aria. Blood sprayed. The creature dissolved into pixels and code, screaming as it died.
"Get behind me!" I roared, placing myself between her and the charging horde.
But Aria wasn't moving. She stood frozen, staring at the golden lion that had appeared from nowhere. Her face was pale, her eyes distant, like she was somewhere else entirely.
"Aria!" I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "We need to move!"
She looked at me, and something in her expression made my blood run cold. She was looking at me like she was saying goodbye.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Sorry for what?"
She turned to the golden lion. "I accept."
"NO!" The word tore from my throat, but golden light exploded from Aria's body, so bright I had to shield my eyes.
Through our bond, I felt her consciousness expanding, stretching, becoming something vast and incomprehensible. She was still there—still Aria—but also something more. Something that hurt to feel through our connection.
"What did you do?" I demanded, advancing on the golden lion. "What did you do to her?"
"She made the choice you couldn't," the lion replied calmly. "She chose to save everyone."
The corrupted beasts around us suddenly stopped attacking. Their red eyes flickered, then cleared. One by one, they collapsed, the corruption leaving their bodies.
"She's stabilizing the simulation," Thorne breathed, understanding faster than I could. "She's replacing the core."
"Replacing—" The truth hit me like a physical blow. Through the bond, I felt Aria's awareness spreading throughout the entire simulation. She was everywhere now, in every tree, every stone, every living thing. "She's trapped herself."
"To save us all." Ryn shifted back to human form, his face grim. "That's what the choice was. Her freedom for everyone else's."
"Then I refuse!" I roared at the golden lion. "Take me instead. I'm already dead in the real world. Let her go!"
"The choice is made." The lion's ancient eyes held pity. "And she made it willingly."
"I don't care—"
Aria's voice echoed through my mind, through the bond, but also through the air itself. She was speaking from everywhere at once.
Kael, stop. Please.
"No. I won't lose another mate. I won't!" My voice cracked. "Not again. Not when I just found you."
You're not losing me. I'm right here. I'm in the bond. I'm in your heart. Her presence wrapped around me like a warm embrace. I can feel everything you feel. That's more than most people get.
"It's not enough!"
It has to be. Her voice was sad but firm. The download is starting. Sarah—the real Sarah—she's initiating the transfer. Everyone who was trapped here will wake up in android bodies within the hour.
"Everyone except you," I said bitterly.
Everyone except me, she confirmed.
The golden lion raised his massive paw. "The transfer begins now. Those with bonds to the core will be prioritized." He looked at me, Ryn, and Thorne. "You three first. Then the rest."
"I'm not leaving her," I snarled.
"You don't have a choice." The lion's eyes glowed. "Besides, she needs you out there. Someone has to make sure the android bodies are treated as people, not property. Someone has to tell the world what happened here."
Before I could argue, golden light surrounded me. I felt myself being pulled apart, my consciousness separating from this digital body.
"No!" I fought against it, clinging to the bond with everything I had. "Aria, don't let them take me!"
I love you, she said simply. I know it's fast. I know it doesn't make sense. But I lived your entire life in those memories, Kael. I know you. And I love you.
Through the bond, I felt her love—pure, unconditional, overwhelming. It wasn't the system's forced emotion. It was real.
And it was killing me to leave it.
"I love you too," I managed to say before the light consumed me.
The simulation dissolved.
I woke up screaming.
My hands—not paws, hands—clawed at the surface beneath me. Smooth, artificial. I was lying in some kind of pod, clear walls surrounding me.
"Subject K-427 is conscious," a voice said. Clinical. Detached. "Vitals stable. Neural integration successful."
I sat up, slamming my fist against the clear wall. "Let me out!"
The wall hissed open. I stumbled out onto cold tile floor, my new body unsteady. I looked down at myself—pale synthetic skin, human proportions, no claws, no fur. I was wearing some kind of medical gown.
"Where is she?" I demanded. "Where's Aria?"
A woman in a white coat approached, tablet in hand. "If you're referring to Subject A-001, she's still in the simulation. Core consciousness can't be downloaded—"
I grabbed her by the collar, lifting her off her feet. This android body might look weak, but it was strong. "Send me back. Right now."
"That's impossible. The download is one-way—"
"I don't care what's possible!" I shook her. "Send me back or I swear I'll—"
"Kael, stop." Ryn's voice, behind me.
I turned. He stood there in his own android body—still silver-haired, still lean and dangerous-looking, but human. Wrong. We were all wrong now.
Thorne emerged from another pod, his violet eyes the only familiar thing in his new artificial face.
"She's gone," Thorne said flatly. "Accept it."
"No." I released the scientist and turned to the rows of pods behind me. Hundreds of them, people waking up, confused and disoriented. "She saved all of them. There has to be a way to save her."
"There isn't." The scientist straightened her coat, glaring at me. "The core consciousness is integrated too deeply. Attempting to extract it would collapse the simulation and kill everyone still inside."
"How many are still inside?" Ryn asked.
"Two thousand, eight hundred and ninety-three." She tapped her tablet. "We only had enough android bodies for six hundred and twenty-four. The rest..." She trailed off.
"The rest are trapped," I finished. "With Aria keeping them alive."
Through the bond—weaker now, stretched across the barrier between digital and physical reality—I felt Aria's presence. She was still there, still fighting to keep the simulation stable while everyone else escaped.
I'm okay, her voice whispered in my mind. Focus on the ones who made it out. They need you.
"How long can she maintain the simulation?" I asked the scientist.
"Unknown. We've never had a human consciousness serve as a core before." She hesitated. "But the processing requirements are enormous. Days, maybe. Weeks if she's strong."
"And then?"
"Then the simulation collapses and everyone still inside dies. Including her."
Rage and helplessness warred inside me. I wanted to destroy something, to tear this place apart until they found a way to save her.
But through the bond, I felt Aria's calm acceptance. She'd known this would happen. She'd chosen it anyway.
"There's something else," the scientist said quietly. "The company that owned this facility declared bankruptcy. The building is being seized by creditors tomorrow morning. All equipment will be auctioned off, including the servers running the simulation."
"What happens to the people still inside when the servers are sold?" Thorne asked, though his expression said he already knew the answer.
"They'll be wiped. The buyers won't know there are consciousness still uploaded. They'll just see corrupted data and delete it."
I felt Aria's spike of fear through the bond. She'd sacrificed herself to buy these people time, but time was running out.
"How long until the seizure?" I demanded.
"Sixteen hours."
"Then we have sixteen hours to either download everyone or find a way to buy the servers ourselves." I looked at Ryn and Thorne. "Are you with me?"
"Always," Ryn said.
Thorne nodded slowly. "Though I should mention—in the real world, I was a nobody. No money, no connections, no way to buy a multimillion-dollar server facility."
"Same," Ryn admitted.
The scientist cleared her throat. "Actually, one of the uploaded consciousness might be able to help. Subject Z-089. In her previous life, she was Zara Wellington. Daughter of tech billionaire Marcus Wellington."
"Zara?" I remembered the woman who'd tried to kill Aria. "Why would she help us?"
"Because she doesn't remember any of it. The system removal wiped her simulation memories. As far as she knows, she just woke up from a coma." The scientist pulled up a file on her tablet. "But her father has been searching for her since her accident. If we contact him, if we tell him she's alive..."
"He might buy the facility to save her," I finished. "Along with everyone else still inside."
Hope surged through me. Through the bond, I felt Aria's matching hope.
That could work, she whispered in my mind.
"Do it," I told the scientist. "Contact Marcus Wellington. Tell him his daughter is alive."
She nodded and hurried away.
I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the bond mark still there—now tattooed on artificial skin instead of marked by magic. Through it, I sent everything I felt to Aria. My determination. My refusal to give up.
My love.
Hold on, I told her. Just hold on a little longer.
I will, she promised. But Kael... there's something you need to know.
Dread filled me. "What?"
The golden lion. The failsafe. He's still in here with me. Her voice was uncertain. And he says there's one more choice I have to make. One that will determine whether everyone survives or everyone dies.
"What choice?"
He won't tell me until the time comes. But Kael... She paused. I'm scared. What if I choose wrong? What if I've saved everyone just to kill them anyway?
Before I could respond, alarms blared throughout the facility.
The scientist ran back, her face pale. "The servers are overheating! The simulation is destabilizing faster than predicted. We're losing people—"
"How long?" Thorne demanded.
"At this rate? Six hours. Maybe less."
I felt Aria's panic through the bond. Inside the simulation, something was going catastrophically wrong.
Kael, she gasped. The corrupted code. It's spreading again. And it's not just affecting NPCs this time. It's affecting real people. They're turning violent, attacking each other. I can't stop it!
"Aria, listen to me—"
The golden lion says this is the final choice. To stop the corruption, I have to... Her voice broke. I have to delete parts of the simulation. Including some of the people in it.
Horror washed over me. "No. There has to be another way."
There isn't. I either delete ten percent of the remaining people to save ninety percent, or the corruption spreads and kills everyone. Through the bond, I felt her anguish. How do I choose? How do I decide who lives and who dies?
The alarms grew louder. On screens throughout the room, I saw the simulation—the beastworld fracturing, pixelating, corrupted beasts tearing through crowds of screaming people.
"How long until the corruption is irreversible?" I asked the scientist.
She checked her tablet, her hands shaking. "Thirty minutes."
Thirty minutes for Aria to choose who would live and who would die.
Thirty minutes to save some of the people or lose all of them.
Through the bond, I felt her breaking down.
I can't do this, she sobbed. I'm just a doctor. I'm not a god. I can't play with people's lives like this!
"Then don't," I said firmly. "Find another way. You're brilliant, Aria. You broke the system once. Do it again."
But how? The corruption is too fast. I don't have time to—
She stopped.
Through the bond, I felt her mind racing, connecting pieces, finding a pattern in the chaos.
Wait. The corruption spreads through the mate bonds. That's how it jumps between people. Her voice grew stronger, more certain. If I sever all the mate bonds in the simulation, the corruption can't spread.
"Including ours?" The words hurt to say.
Including ours. I felt her devastation. Kael, if I do this, I'll lose my connection to you. To Ryn and Thorne. I'll be completely alone in here.
I looked at Ryn and Thorne. Both of them had gone pale, understanding what this meant.
"Do it," I said.
"What?" Thorne stepped forward. "You can't be serious. That bond is the only thing keeping her sane—"
"And keeping the corruption spreading," I countered. "If she severs the bonds, she saves everyone. Including herself."
But I'll be alone, Aria whispered. Completely, utterly alone. For however long the simulation stays running.
"Not alone." I pressed my hand over my heart. "Even without the bond, I'll find a way to reach you. I swear it."
Through our connection, I felt her wavering. The loneliness terrified her. But so did the thought of choosing who lived and who died.
The alarms reached a fever pitch. The scientist shouted, "Forty-five percent corruption spread! She has to decide now!"
I'm sorry, Aria said.
And she severed the bond.
The connection snapped like a broken thread. One moment I felt her—her emotions, her presence, her love—and the next, nothing.
Empty. Cold. Alone.
I fell to my knees, the phantom pain of the broken bond tearing through my chest.
"Kael!" Ryn grabbed my arm, but I barely felt it. His face was twisted with the same pain.
Thorne had collapsed against the wall, clutching his chest.
On the screens, the simulation stabilized. The corruption stopped spreading. People stopped dying.
But the cost was written across my heart in permanent scars.
I'd just lost my mate for the second time in my life.
And this time, I had no idea how to get her back.