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Eden felt genuinely bad about fighting Loir’s former partner. She now understood why she had felt somewhat familiar with Circé: they were the same. Dive Hackers and survivors. They both hated the Core and had tried not to play by its rules, but Circé had been caught in the wrong trap and was now caged by a system she obviously hated.
If she kept fighting back until one of them died, even if she won, Eden would have felt like she was trapped in that cage too, murdering another tool for the Core. Circé wasn’t her enemy, she was wearing invisible chains. Whatever deal she had made with the Core, if they could get her on their side, it would be even better...
“If I deactivate the bomb,” she continued, “Dante can get you a new SIN, put you back in the System with a clean slate.”
“You’re insane, little one,” hissed Circé. “You don’t know what the Core is capable of. You don’t know how much control they have. I won’t risk my head for the sake of...”
Eden slowly stood up before she could end her sentence, making it clear she had no intention to attack.
“I can help you,” she muttered. “I really can. I... am Ghost.”
“Even if you’re Ghost,” said Circé, “there’s no way.”
Eden took a deep breath.
“Loir,” she muttered, “get ready to deactivate it.”
“You sure, Kitty? I mean, it’s your business, but it’s also a lot of trouble coming right up with it. Not that you aren’t already in a lot of trouble with Tiger Sugar Daddy and the Pipsqueak Lady fighting the Punk Snakey and Men in Black downstairs, and also my once charming but deadly angry ex-partner lady facing you...”
“Loir, just do it. Quick.”
“Alright, alright...”
Eden grimaced, as she felt a sharp pain in her neck. She was out of the system, her SIN deactivated. Now, no one else could contact her aside from Circé, who was physically in the room. She was completely offline.
The hacker frowned and tilted her head, confused.
“What are you playing at...”
Eden reached for her neck and touched her SIN to reactivate it.
Her appearance suddenly changed. Her long blonde hair turned a lighter color, a very pale shade between platinum and white, with shades of rosy pink, and shortened itself by several inches, as if it was growing back in. Not only that, but Eden’s eye color changed to a darker shade, and her face changed slightly, showing fuller lips, skinnier cheeks. Even her body seemed to change slightly, as she grew an extra inch with another grimace. Circé was dumbfounded.
“Genetic re-writing... I thought it was a myth...”
“It’s not a myth,” said Eden, walking toward her.
She put her hand on the woman’s neck, and Circé didn’t dare move. After a second, she felt a sharp pain, like a small burn, but she could tell her SIN and the bomb had been destroyed. Or more like overrun from the outside. She couldn’t hear the voices in her ears anymore, and she could smell her own burnt flesh...
Eden took a step back, staring at that woman very seriously.
“I’m not just Ghost because it’s a hacking nickname. It’s because I don’t exist. I have a completely blank SIN; my real birth SIN was never entered into the System, nor was my birth name or genetic coding. There’s literally nothing for them, I’m as untouchable as a ghost virtually, and I can destroy all their coding. I’m the only Ghost in the Core’s System.”
“That can’t be,” muttered Circé. “Every single child is entered into the System, the parents have no choice...”
“My dad had it. And he took it away from them.”
Eden stepped back and turned off her Ghost SIN, turning the usual one back on again. She was always careful never to activate the other one for more than a few seconds, and rarely in public like this... The number of people who had seen her with that appearance could be counted on one hand, including deceased ones.
“You’re... the Architect’s daughter?” gasped Circé.
“You knew?” frowned Eden, surprised.
The goth woman sighed, brushing her purple hair back. She grabbed her hairpins and rearranged them, showing she had no intention to fight anymore. With her hair up, Eden could see the new burn on her neck, where she had just fried her SIN and the bomb to free her.
“We knew he had a child... When he was trying to recruit us, he did mention a couple of times he had a family. Moreover, when they caught us, the Core’s people tried to have us spill all of his secrets. They were bitter about the old man dumping them, so they wanted to attack him wherever they could... including his family.”
She massaged her neck with a sour expression, still staring at Eden with a doubtful look. After a few seconds, she sighed.
