Chapter 195 Victor takes over

Chapter 195 Victor takes over
Anya's POV

We were at a facility I didn't recognize, it was smaller than Victor's other facilities, but it looked considerably older. More worn. The kind of place that had been abandoned for a long time and then repurposed for something terrible.
"Move," one of the soldiers said, pushing me forward.
I moved because I didn't have a choice, the facility's interior was cold and sterile, filled with the smell of chemicals and an organic smell that made my stomach turn. The consciousness transfer chamber was waiting somewhere below, I knew. Waiting to consume me.
We descended through corridors that got progressively older, progressively more abandoned. At the lowest level, I could see evidence of equipment being hastily set up. A consciousness transfer chamber, smaller than the one I'd seen before, but unmistakably the same technology, was being assembled by teams of technicians in white coats.
Victor was already there, or rather, Helson was there, standing beside the consciousness transfer chamber, watching the technicians work with an expression that was equal parts Victor's cold analysis and Helson's underlying anguish.
"Anya," Helson said, and his voice was split between both consciousnesses, neither one fully in control. "Welcome."
"Please," I said, my voice was barely a whisper. "Please, if any part of you is still Helson, please don't do this."
"I don't have a choice," he said, and it sounded like he was crying even though his eyes were dry. "I've never had a choice. From the moment Victor found me, I was always going to end up here. I was always going to lose."
"That's not true," I said, moving toward him despite the soldiers holding my arms. "You fought and resisted. You chose to sacrifice yourself rather than—"
"I'm not sacrificed," Helson interrupted, and his voice was entirely Victor's now, carrying that terrible certainty. "I'm still here. Still conscious and aware of every moment of my existence. That's the true horror of what I am, I can't escape and I can't die. I can only endure."
He turned away from me, looking at the consciousness transfer chamber.
"And now you get to endure it too," Victor said through Helson's mouth. "You get to know what it's like to be consumed by someone else's will. To be present in your own mind but unable to control your own body."
"Helson, no," I pleaded. "Fight him. Please. I know you're in there. I know you can fight."
For a moment, Helson's shoulders went rigid and his hands clenched into fists.
"Anya," he gasped, and it was entirely his voice now. Entirely him. "I need you to understand something. I need you to know that I love you. And because I love you, I'm going to ask you to do something."
"Anything," I said immediately. "Anything. Just tell me."
"When the transfer is complete," Helson said, his voice breaking, "when you're merged with Victor and trapped like I am, I want you to find the self-destruct sequence. It's buried in the consciousness transfer chamber's code. It's designed to destroy both consciousnesses simultaneously if one of them activates it. I want you to find it. And I want you to activate it."
"No," I said. "No, I won't. Because that means losing you completely. That means—"
"It means setting us free," Helson interrupted. "It means ending this. It means making sure Victor never hurts anyone ever again."
Victor surged forward then, and Helson's voice became layered again.
"Enough sentiment," Victor snarled. "Strap her to the chamber and begin the transfer sequence."
The soldiers dragged me toward the consciousness transfer chamber. I was fighting, screaming, begging, but my body was broken and exhausted, and they easily overpowered me easily.
They strapped me into the chamber's neural interface harness, placing the crown-like device on my head. Through the opening of the chamber, I could see Helson being positioned in the transfer pod beside mine. Our consciousnesses would merge through the machine, combining into a single entity that would inhabit Helson's reconstructed body.
"No," I said, trying to pull free from the restraints. "No, please. Helson, I love you. I love you so much, please don't let him do this."
"I love you too," Helson whispered, and his eyes met mine across the space between the chambers. "And that's why I have to do this. That's why I'm going to make sure this ends."
The technicians were already activating the chamber, I could feel the neural interface beginning to engage, beginning to read my consciousness, and beginning to prepare for the merger.
"Helson!" I screamed. "Helson, please! Tell me you'll fight! Tell me you won't let him take me!"
For just a moment, the machines powered down and everything was still.
Helson's body jerked like he was fighting an invisible force. His face contorted, muscles pulling in directions that shouldn't have been possible. He was fighting Victor, fighting with every ounce of his consciousness, trying to gain even a moment of control.
"I'm... sorry," he gasped, tears finally streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry. I can't... he's too strong... I can't..."
Then the machines powered back up, and Helson's moment of control was gone.
"Transfer initiating," Victor said through Helson's mouth, and he was smiling.
The neural interface crown activated, and I felt my consciousness being pulled apart.
It was like drowning and burning simultaneously, like every thought I had was being deconstructed, analyzed, and integrated into an organism larger than myself. I could feel Victor's consciousness approaching mine like a predator circling prey, ready to consume.
But underneath the pain and horror, I could feel Helson. He was there in the consciousness transfer chamber with me, using his connection to Victor to reach me across the neural bridge.
Anya, his voice said in my mind. I'm here. I'm with you. You're not alone.
Don't let him take me, I begged. Please don't let him take me.
I can't stop him, Helson replied, and his voice was anguished. But I can show you. I can show you where the self-destruct sequence is. I can show you how to activate it.
Pain exploded through my consciousness as Victor's presence began to merge with mine. He was immense and overwhelming, years of experience and cruelty concentrated into a single will determined to absorb me completely.
But Helson was holding onto me even as Victor was consuming him, and his consciousness was being pushed further and further back, Helson was still holding on. He was showing me the architecture of the consciousness transfer chamber. He was showing me the self-destruct sequence buried in its code. He was giving me the only thing he could give me — knowledge and the option to choose death over existence as Victor's prisoner.
I love you, Helson said as Victor's consciousness overwhelmed mine. I love you. Remember that. Remember who I was. Remember who we could have been.
And then there was nothing but darkness and Victor's presence, vast and eternal and utterly inescapable, I was no longer Anya.