Chapter 67: “When the Real and the Copy Collide”
Chapter 67: “When the Real and the Copy Collide”
The floor trembled beneath us — a deep, rolling vibration that crawled up my spine and settled in my teeth. Sparks rained from the ceiling as the broken node flared to life, flooding the chamber with a violent red pulse.
Sebastian pulled me back. “Eve—move!”
But I couldn’t.
Because Gabriel — flickering, glitching, struggling to stay whole — was still reaching for me.
His outline wavered, splitting for a moment into two overlapping shapes — one desperate and human, the other cold and empty.
Richard’s voice bled through the distortion like a knife sliding into soft tissue.
“Step away from the projection. It’s unstable.”
Sebastian raised his weapon toward the suspended servers overhead. “If you touch this node again, I’ll bring the whole damn system down.”
Richard chuckled.
“And risk erasing what’s left of him?”
My stomach twisted.
“Gabriel,” I whispered, stepping forward despite Sebastian’s grip. “Look at me. Stay with me.”
His fractured outline flickered violently, pixels tearing apart and pulling back together like a body caught between two realities.
For a heartbeat—
just one—
The static cleared.
His eyes were fully his.
“Eve… it's really me.”
A sob tore from my throat. “Then hold on. Hold on, Gabriel—”
But the glitch hit him again — hard.
His body jerked as the red light carved through him, pulling him backward toward the central column. His voice warped, stretched, and layered with Richard’s.
“He… wants… inside…”
“…she is the anchor…”
“…remove her.”
Sebastian yanked me behind a steel pillar. “Eve, listen to me — you are the anchor. That means you are the one thing keeping him from collapsing completely.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Richard needs to sever your emotional link to take control of the copy. If Gabriel stabilises, he becomes a threat to the entire system.”
The ground split open along the node’s wiring track — and the red light surged upward, crawling toward Gabriel like digital fire.
He screamed.
Not in pain.
In sheer terror.
“Don’t let him—!”
Static drowned his voice.
I stepped toward him — I don’t know how — instinct, adrenaline, love, fear, something primal.
Sebastian grabbed my arm. “Eve! You touch that light, and it will pull you in too!”
“I don’t care!” My voice cracked, breath trembling. “I’m not leaving him again.”
The red glow intensified, swallowing half the chamber. Panels burst open. Cables writhed like veins in a dying heart.
Richard’s voice boomed from every speaker, every wire, every wall:
“Phase Three: Reintegration.”
Gabriel convulsed — dropping to one knee as his body fractured into flickering geometric shards.
My heart stopped.
No.
No.
Not like this.
“GABRIEL!” I screamed.
His head snapped up — eyes blazing with something raw and familiar.
Not Richard.
Not the copy.
Him.
“Eve… run… before he… takes me…”
And then—
The chamber lights went white-hot.
A shockwave tore through the node.
Gabriel’s figure exploded into a cascade of fragments.
I lunged forward—
—but Sebastian tackled me to the ground just as the entire system overloaded.
White light.
A sound like a heartbeat shattering.
And then—
Darkness.
\---
When the world cracked back open, everything was silent.
Dust drifted through the air like ash. The node was dark — a dead, burnt-out husk.
I pushed myself up, coughing. “Gabriel…?”
No answer.
“Gabriel!”
My voice echoed through the chamber, swallowed by emptiness.
Sebastian grabbed my shoulders. “Eve—stop. He’s not here. The node collapsed.”
“No,” I whispered. “No, he was right there. He—he was—”
“He was caught in the overload,” Sebastian said softly. “The system vanished. Everything in it vanished with it.”
I shook my head violently. “No. He’s not gone. I felt him—I heard him—he was fighting—”
“Yes,” Sebastian said. “But if he survived, he’s somewhere else in the system. Hidden. Fragmented. We have to find the next access point.”
I froze.
A soft click echoed from the ruined console.
Then—
A single word appeared on the cracked screen.
Eve
My breath hitched.
He was alive.
Somewhere inside the grid.
Fighting.
Sebastian exhaled sharply. “Then we move. The system still has him—and Richard won’t let him stay himself for long.”
I wiped my face, stood, and nodded.
“Then we find him,” I said, voice steadying. “Before Richard does.”
And for the first time since the darkness swallowed Gabriel—
I didn’t feel hopeless.
I felt ready.
The storm had passed, but the air outside felt colder than before — as if something in the night had changed, quietly, permanently.
Sebastian and I moved through the alley behind the relay station, boots crunching over shattered glass. The city around us was waking up — distant sirens, a bus rumbling down a faraway street, and the low hum of morning generators kicking on.
Normal life.
A world that didn’t know it was standing on the edge of something engineered in the dark.
Sebastian kept checking the handheld device, the cracked screen flickering every few seconds. “The signal’s unstable,” he muttered. “Keeps splintering — like someone’s dragging it through multiple nodes at once.”
My heart tightened. “Someone, or something?”
He hesitated. “Both.”
We reached the street. The pale morning light made everything feel unreal: the empty crosswalks, the neon signs buzzing back to life, and the thin fog hanging low over the pavement.
Gabriel should’ve been standing beside me.
His presence had always been a shadow I could feel without looking — the quiet warmth, the subtle electricity of knowing he was near.
Now that space felt hollow. Like the world was missing a sound I’d grown used to hearing.
Sebastian slowed. “You okay?”
“No,” I admitted. “But I’m moving.”
He nodded. “Good. Because the next node is close.”
As we walked, the device crackled again. A sharp pulse.
The same word appeared for a split second on the tiny screen.
Eve
I stopped breathing.
“Sebastian—”
“I saw it.” His voice sharpened. “He’s trying to reach us.”
I swallowed the ache rising in my throat. “Then he’s still fighting Richard.”
“No,” Sebastian said quietly, “he’s fighting himself.”
That terrified me more than anything.