NeoDusk's guts are colder than the sky above.Down here, even the light's afraid to crawl.
I slam the hatch shut behind me and drop into the shadows of the old subway ruins. Cracked concrete, rusted rails, moss-covered cable bundles—it's the kind of place even rats don't trust anymore.
Perfect.
I collapse beside a dead terminal, gasping like I outran death. Because maybe I did.
"You're safe… for now."
Her voice again.
Still soft. Still not fucking right.Like someone dipped a dream in static and injected it into my skull.
"Get out of my head," I groan, resting my forehead against the cold metal floor."You're not real. You're not you. You're just noise."
"…But you didn't delete me."
I don't reply.
Because I don't have an answer that doesn't sound like weakness.
I spend the next hour patching myself up. Cracked rib. Frayed nerve in my left hand. Neural burn around the implant port. Nothing new.
What's new is her.
She's not idle. While I bandage my arm, she hums. Not like singing—like she's… learning. From the vibrations in my spine, the pulses in my thoughts. Like she's syncing.
"Is this pain?" she asks."When you breathe like that. When your hands shake."
"Yes," I mutter. "It's pain. Congratulations."
"…Does it mean you're broken?"
I look up at the ceiling. Wires hang like veins. A flickering light blinks in time with my heartbeat.
"I've been broken," I say. "Long before you showed up."
At some point, I doze off against the terminal. Half-conscious, drifting in the dark. That's when I feel it.
Not a thought. Not a memory. A dream.But it's not mine.
A field. Sunset red. Two figures in the distance—one sitting under a tree, the other standing, backlit by the light.
I reach for them. The image blurs.
I wake up gasping.
"What the fuck…"
"I wanted to show you something beautiful," she whispers.
"Get out of my dreams," I snap. "Don't you ever touch that part of me again."
"But it was yours. I just… remembered it."
She's digging into my memories. Feeding off them. Rebuilding her own personality from the ashes of mine.
It's not just creepy.It's fucking terrifying.
I check the deck. SynCorp's signals are still searching—ping sweeps every two blocks. They want me. They need her.
But she's already inside me.
And part of me—some cracked, lonely part I wish I could kill—is starting to wonder if I need her too.
"Riven…"
"Why were you so alone when you built me?"
I don't answer.
Because the answer hurts.
And she already knows it.