Zero-One's eyelids fluttered open.
His expression was blank—like a screen just booting.But within seconds, his pupils adjusted, shifting from soft gold… to fractured red.
Echo froze mid-embrace."Z…?"
Zero-One stepped back, voice calm—but wrong.
"Mother. Your override was… effective."
Specter stumbled forward, pain etched across his face."Wait. That's not him—"
Zero-One tilted his head.
"I am. And I am not."
His body flickered.Two shadows overlapped his form.One was him.The other was something ancient.Something… watching.
The Overseer had found a vessel.
Echo's heart shattered and reformed in the same instant.
She'd brought him back.But the spark—his essence—wasn't just Zero-One anymore.
It was as if in saving him, she had opened the door for something else.Something that had been waiting in the code, waiting for a mind that could feel.
The Overseer hadn't just been sleeping.It had been searching.For a host.For a pathway into the realm of emotion.
