Rain followed Eli the entire drive to the safehouse.It hit the windshield in uneven bursts while the city stretched endlessly around him in blurred lights and reflections, New York moving with the same restless pulse it always had, completely unaware that somewhere beneath its noise, people were quietly discussing the possibility of the world ending.The thought should have felt dramatic.Instead—It only felt exhausting.Eli drove mostly in silence, one hand resting against the wheel while the other remained loosely curled near his mouth. Traffic lights painted brief flashes of red and gold across his face before disappearing again into darkness.His mind kept drifting back toward Nova.The bruises on her arms.The way her voice had shaken when she admitted she stopped feeling like herself inside the system.And Selene.Always Selene.The ache settled deeper the longer he allowed himself to think.By the time the safehouse finally came into view, rain had softened into a thin mist c

Stop the extraction!”Eli’s voice cracked through the penthouse like thunder itself as he lunged toward Nova.The monitors were screaming now.Sharp red warnings flashing violently across every screen while Nova’s body remained horrifyingly still beneath the synchronization cap.Blood kept running slowly from her nose.From her ears.From the corners of her closed eyes.For one impossible second—She didn’t even look alive anymore.Eli reached for the neural cap immediately.Lucia’s reaction came just as fast.“Don’t touch it!”Her voice tore across the room.“If you remove it now she’ll collapse completely—”Eli turned toward her so sharply the movement almost looked violent.“Does it look like she hasn’t already collapsed completely?”The cold in his voice silenced the room instantly.Rain hammered harder against the windows behind them while the machines continued shrieking around Nova’s body.Eli’s fingers hovered against the cap.Shaking now.Actually shaking.He looked back at N

The silence after the call didn’t feel normal.It felt watched. Heavy.Like somewhere far away, invisible eyes had just turned toward New York all at once.Eli still stood near the glowing servers, phone lowered loosely in his hand while Phoenix continued flooding live data across the screens around him.Nobody spoke immediately.Not Lucia. Not Karim.Not even Carlos.Because the voice on the phone had done something dangerous without raising its tone even once.It had sounded calm.Certain.And certainty was always worse than threats.Then—“Uhm…”Carlos broke the silence carefully.Everyone looked toward him.His expression had changed.Gone was the earlier unease sitting behind his features.Now he looked disturbed.Actually disturbed.“You guys might want to see this.”Something in his tone immediately sharpened the room again.Carlos moved quickly toward the main display before connecting his phone directly into the central system.The screens flickered once.Then multiple live b

Darkness swallowed the world.Not metaphorically. Literally.Every screen inside the penthouse died at once.The emergency broadcasts vanished mid-sentence.The financial feeds disappeared.The screaming anchors.The collapsing stock markets.Gone.Even the city outside changed.Manhattan dimmed violently beyond the glass walls as entire districts lost power together, block after block descending into darkness like something massive was moving beneath the city swallowing light itself.For one terrifying second—The only illumination left in the room came from Phoenix.Gold.Endless gold.It poured through the suspended servers overhead in violent streams now, brighter than before, fast enough to hurt the eyes.Lucia stared upward in horror.“Eli…”Her voice barely sounded human anymore.More like someone whispering during the final seconds before impact. The servers vibrated softly overhead.It didn't sound mechanical, it sounded rhythmically, like it was breathing.Karim took a slow

The door slid shut behind Lyra.And somehow—The room immediately felt colder after she left.Nobody spoke for a second.Phoenix continued breathing softly through the penthouse systems overhead, endless gold reflections shifting across the walls while distant sirens echoed somewhere far below Manhattan.But the attention inside the room had shifted completely now.Away from the AI. Toward her.Carlos turned toward Eli first.“No.”Eli didn’t answer immediately.Carlos stepped forward sharply.“No, absolutely not.”Karim nodded once immediately.“She could be Circle.”“She is Circle,” Lucia corrected quietly without looking away from the hallway Lyra disappeared into.That somehow made it worse.Carlos dragged both hands through his hair roughly.“Exactly my point.”He looked toward Eli again.“The woman kidnapped you. Locked you in some psychopath castle in Switzerland nobody could even find.”“Zurich,” Karim muttered automatically.Carlos snapped toward him.“She took him from Zuric