“Do not let him stabilize further.” The system’s voice wasn’t coming from one place anymore.
It came from everywhere at once.
Aiden turned sharply.
The screens were no longer there.
They were fragments of collapsing code layered over shifting memory.
And inside it. Adrian was still there, Standing, watching, not broken, not lost, but present in a way no system approved.
Aiden stepped forward. “Adrian, respond.” No answer, not at first.
Then, a flicker.
A pause in the system’s resistance.
“I hear you,” Adrian’s voice came back. It wasn’t clean.
It carried strain, like something inside him was being stretched across too many realities.
Aiden exhaled once. “Where are you?” A beat, then Adrian replied, “Inside her.” Silence snapped the room tight. Aiden’s hand froze in mid-air.
Beh
