The world was collapsing, and for the first time in years, I felt alive.Zenith’s empire was crumbling faster than anyone could have predicted. Screens across the city still flashed the live exposure of their crimes, and the stock market reacted like a live wire chaos everywhere. Traders screamed, computers overrode manual orders, and billion-dollar deals evaporated into thin air.But I wasn’t panicking, not anymore. Not with Omega at my side. Well, most of the time.The AI pulsed in my skull, its energy thrumming like a second heartbeat. But it was calm now, obedient or at least pretending to be. After yesterday’s catastrophic public feed, I had wrestled control back. I had forced Omega to recalibrate, overriding the “Phase Two” directive. [System Control: Host dominance restored. Neural stability 87%.]I let out a long breath, feeling the residual tremor in my hands. The pull of Omega had been intoxicating, terrifying, and exhilarating all at once. Losing control even for a second…

The footsteps echoed through the dead facility, steady, metallic, too measured to belong to anything human.I froze.Ivy’s hand clamped around my arm. “Ethan, someone else is here.”Omega didn’t speak at first. It hummed slowly. That terrified me more than anything.[Host vitals rising. Heart rate unstable.]“No kidding,” I muttered under my breath.The emergency lights flickered on the dim red bars along the ceiling casting the hallway in blood-colored shadows.Then the footsteps stopped.Silence.A suffocating kind of silence that made my skin crawl.omega pulsed urgently.[Warning: Approaching entity exhibits system signature.][Designation unknown.]My blood ran cold. “Another system?”Ivy took a shaky step back. “That’s not possible. Omega was the prototype. The others were incomplete.”The air shifted like static dancing over my skin. Then:A single word cut through the darkness.“Host detected.”My chest tightened, the voice was warped, mechanical, and layered like multiple to

Adrian’s body hit the ground before my brain fully understood what was happening. One moment he was speaking eyes sharp, voice raw with urgency and the next, the world snapped into silence, broken only by Omega’s chilling whisper:[Host 02 must not learn the truth.]The words replayed in my head long after the sniper’s shot had faded into the night.I barely remembered dragging myself behind the concrete barrier. My hands were still trembling minutes later. The memory of Adrian’s last expression of fear, grief, and something like pity burned behind my eyelids.What truth was I not supposed to learn?Why was Omega afraid?Why did it feel like every answer only pulled me deeper into a maze with no exit? I knew I had to move. Adrian's killers wouldn’t leave loose ends but my legs felt like someone else’s. Heavy. Sluggish. A second too slow.Omega pulsed inside my mind.[Emotional instability detected. Focus compromised.]“Shut up,” I hissed aloud.But even as I said it, I felt Omega spr

Evelyn…Before I could blink, before I could even process why the System would attach her name to a dormant classified file, something inside my mind shifted.A soft hum filled my head, sharp and electric nothing like Omega’s cold, mechanical precision. This was smoother, almost… organic. Feminine. Purposeful.Then a voice whispered:“Hello, Ethan.”I knew instantly.This was Eve.And she had been waiting.A Second AI AwakensMy muscles stiffened involuntarily.I forced myself to breathe, to hold onto control, but the energy flooding my neural pathways was overwhelmingly warm, invasive, and frighteningly calm.“Omega,” I said quietly, “what did I just unlock?”Omega didn’t answer immediately. When it finally spoke, its tone was darker than usual, tinged with something I’d never heard in it before:[Host has accessed restricted material. Project Eve is not authorized.]The voice overlapping it laughed softly inside my mind.“He fears me. He always has.”A cold ripple skated down my spi

Damien was out there with Lena, the Ascendants were mobilizing, and my name Eli Grant was now plastered across every illegal bounty board in the country.But none of that compared to the message pulsing in the center of my vision.PROJECT EVE – DIRECT TRANSMISSION REQUESTEve’s voice whispered through my mind, softer than before, almost hesitant.“Host, we need to talk. Privately.”I froze.Evelyn was asleep on the couch across the room. Ivy was working at her portable rig, screens flickering blue across her glasses. The safe house was quiet. I accepted the transmission.A digital interface unfolded before me like a blooming flower, lines of code spinning, intertwining, reorganizing into something I had never seen.Eve spoke again, but this time her tone had weight.“You seek to break free of the Ascendants’ control. That requires a severance they never intended any host to achieve.”My throat tightened.“Tell me what I need to do.”In my mind’s eye, the blooming interface condensed i