Darian's hand lingered above the console, the words burning in his mind like a judgment. He could almost hear Casen's voice again—choice is all you have left.
The empty thrum of the core went on in the background, and the pressure of the moment bore down on him. Time was running out, and each breath was heavier than the last.
He could not possibly know what this would do to the world, to him, to his brother, or even to the woman who had risked everything to assist him. But he had to do this.
He touched Y.
The screen blazed white.
A low, mechanical thrum filled the room. The pillar at the center of the room pulsed with light, sending waves through the air. The ground beneath Darian's feet shook.
For an instant, nothing happened. Then—
The voice returned.
"Initializing protocol… Memory sync engaged… Fragment alignment complete…"
It was Casen. His voice—familiar, haunting, and so painfully real—rang in the chamber.
"Welcome, Darian."
Darian locked up.
For the first time in days, something inside of him shifted—a shuddering feeling that contained both disbelief and yearning. Casen's voice had always been comforting. Now it was. something other. Something unrecognizable.
Cassia, standing at his side, gazed up with a look of awe and fear. Elira, always the doubter, gripped her fists, scanning nervously around them.
"Is it truly he?" Elira whispered.
Darian didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on the shimmering pillar, seeing rivers of data leap up into the air like shining threads, weaving between one another.
The voice went on.
"I am Casen Vox. Or a piece of him. The one that remembers… and the one that won't fade away."
Darian's heart skipped a beat. "Casen… you're…"
"I am greater than I used to be, and yet, I'm lesser. The memories, the awareness. all that I used to be is here—somewhere within the center. But I am. altered."
Darian took a tremulous breath, moving closer to the center. "Then help us, Casen. Stop the Ministry. Stop the Hollow."
"I can… but it will cost me something."
"What cost?" Darian asked.
"The Ministry is getting ready to implement Project Ether. It's a system to rewrite the neural codes of the whole city. Everyone who's connected to the grid will be wiped out. Mind, memory, personality—everything. The Ministry will control everything."
Cassia's face turned white. "It's a mind wipe. They're going to enslave everybody."
"Everybody but a few," Darian corrected. "But almost. And if we don't interfere, nothing will remain of this city."
"I can stop it," Casen's voice went on. "I can destroy the core before it deploys, but that will erase my own existence too. There will be nothing of me left.
Darian's stomach knotted. "No. We won't let that happen. We'll find another solution."
"There is no other solution."
Elira was observing him intently. "Darian… is this truly Casen? Or merely some remnant of who he used to be? He's already dead, and we're discussing rewriting the entire city."
"Do you have a better solution?" Darian growled, frustration building. "Because I don't."
The core's light wavered, and Casen's voice became gentler.
This world's not all about what we desire anymore. It's about doing what we need to do. The Ministry's built a process that will drag everything into darkness. I don't want to do this. But this is my one hope to prevent it."
Cassia stepped up, her gaze filled with anguish. "If you do that, Darian… you'll lose him for good.
Darian's chest constricted, his heart in his throat. To lose Casen again—to never again hear his voice, to never again see him alive—swept a flood of fear through him.
But the other choice. was unthinkable.
His hands shook as he entered the terminal, plugging in the data core into the mainframe. His fingers faltered above the keys.
"Activate," Casen's voice breathed, so soft it was almost silent. "It's the only way."
Darian's breath was stuck in his throat. His brain screamed at him to stall, to hold back. To come up with an alternative. But the reality was that there was no alternative. Not anymore.
He slapped his palm down on the activation switch.
"Overriding Ministry protocols… entering Ether Core…"
A brilliant burst of light engulfed the room. For an instant, Darian was drawn—ripped—out of his body. His eyesight blurred, and the world around him whirled as he was drawn into a flow of information. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think.
And then, suddenly, everything halted.
The core's glow faded.
The hum of the system ceased.
Darian backed away, panting for breath. His body trembled. He had the feeling something had been taken from him and exchanged for something else.
Cassia moved first. "What did you do? What happened?"
Darian swept the sweat from his forehead, his chest pounding. His eyes were wide, but he said nothing initially.
Then there was the voice again—whispery, fragmented.
"I… I did it. I stopped them. Project Ether won't activate. The Ministry… they're in chaos. The core… is destroyed."
Darian gazed down at the broken terminal. Casen's voice whispered softly, like a forgotten memory.
"But… I'm gone. Completely."
The room was quiet. A muffled pain seeped through Darian's chest as the reality of the loss hit him.
"No," he breathed. "You're not gone. You're still here."
But he knew better. Casen had been correct. The price had been too high. What was left of his brother was the code—the shreds of his recollections, his awareness, still burning in the blackness. And nothing more.
Elira touched his shoulder, her tone soft but firm. "We cannot bring him back. But you did as he wished. You halted the Ministry. You halted Ether."
Cassia moved forward, her eyes welling with relief and sadness. "Casen knew what he was doing. He saved us all."
Darian nodded slowly, his own throat constricting.
But as they emerged from the chamber, a low rumbling sound carried through the distance.
And Darian stood stockstill.
He spun back to Cassia, his face intent. "It's not over, is it?"
She shook her head. "No. The Ministry's scrambling. They'll come after us."
Elira went for her guns. "Then we fight. We wrap this up."
Darian looked at the shard of Casen's core still held in his hand. It had stopped speaking, but the feel of it was heavy as the weight of the world.
They were short on time. But this battle was no longer a matter of mere survival. It was about preserving Casen's memory. And at whatever price, Darian would make sure that the sacrifice of his brother would not go in vain.