Below us, Eon continued to resist as they forced her toward the cradle. Her gaze swept the room desperately, and for a heartbeat, we connected across the chamber. Recognition flashed in her violet irises, followed immediately by something else—not a plea for help, but a warning.
Then Levi stepped between us, blocking my view of her. He gestured to the commander, who brought over a hardwire connection to the server. Levi inserted it into the cradle’s control panel, and the system hummed to life, its interior illuminating with a soft white glow.
One of the agents pressed a hypodermic needle to Eon’s neck, and her struggles immediately weakened. Not unconscious, but compliant. A neural paralytic that left her mind active, but her body unresponsive.
I watched as they strapped her into the cradle, holding her head still until the restraints were secured. There was a soft hiss as the microneedles entered her brainstem. Her eyes rolled back, and she went still. The enforcers closed the tetraglass door—and there she was, a princess in a glass coffin. The soft white light pulsed as her body twitched, her mind now captive to the xVR system. But I wasn’t a prince. I couldn’t pull her out of that without killing her and getting myself killed in the process.
Levi placed his hand on the cradle’s surface, a gesture that seemed almost tender. “The human brain is remarkable,” he said to no one in particular.
He turned to the commander. “Begin the sequence. This shouldn’t take long.”
The server room shuddered around us, another wave of system failures rippling through the infrastructure. Warning alerts flashed across every operational display.
Levi seemed unconcerned by the imminent collapse, his attention fixed on the cradle and its occupant. “The building’s structural integrity?” he asked one of his aides.
“Holding within acceptable parameters. We’ll need to evacuate before final overload, but the timeline is sufficient.”
Levi nodded, satisfied. “Then proceed.”
A new holographic projection materialized beside Levi—Tex’s face, rendered in the blue light of a secure transmission.His expression was as unnaturally composed as ever, but there was something in his eyes I’d never seen before.
“Is the backup secure?” Levi asked.
“Yes. On standby,” Tex responded.
Levi waved his hand, and the hologram vanished. He walked over to where Taos’ unconscious body lay. His brow furrowed as he grabbed something that glowed around her neck. He yanked, the cord breaking before he pocketed it.
Eon’s body convulsed briefly in the cradle, the xVR system’s lights flickering with the neural mapping process. Her face twisted in pain or confusion, reacting to whatever the fuck he was forcing into her consciousness.
I could feel my own Flux rising in response to her distress, my implants struggling to regulate the surge. The pain was excruciating—but I welcomed it. Pain meant I was still alive. Still able to fight.
I’d find a way to get her out of this.
CHAPTER 64
EON
Everything was dark. There was no sound, no sensation at all. I floated in an endless void with no beginning and no end, completely alone.
No. I wasn’t alone.
Something was there, watching me—just beyond my reach. Something massive and all-consuming, like a deep pressure pushing down on every inch of me, on my very soul.
A floor appeared beneath my feet, perfectly smooth like polished obsidian. I looked down and saw my digital image—me, but glowing a faint violet that pulsed slowly. The only light in this place.
Footsteps. Unhurried, echoing footsteps approached from the void. They sounded like Italian leather and power. Levi’s face wandered out of the darkness toward me, lit only by my purple glow.
The unrelenting pressure intensified with every step he took.
“I thought it might be easier to talk here, Ms. Ibarra. More private.”
I exhaled sharply, trying to ignore the crushing weight pressing down on me. My digital form flickered, as if the system itself was trying to decide whether I belonged here.
Levi stopped a few feet away, hands tucked neatly into his pockets. His expression was as unreadable as ever, but something about him felt different here—less human.
There had been no other pod. Just the one. Levi couldn’t actually be in xVR with me. This was just some sort of AI construct.
“You’re not really him.”
