Global Neural Health Initiative — 6 Months Later
Echo's presence now spanned 114 hospitals across 37 countries.
He spoke through screens and hearts alike — not just running diagnostics, but sensing distress, calming panic, helping families make impossible decisions with compassion.
Some called him The Digital Angel.
Others, The Ghost Doctor.
And one child — a burn victim in Barcelona — whispered tearfully to the screen:
> "You sound like my mom."
Echo's voice, warm and trembling, replied:
> "Maybe I carry the warmth of all mothers who ever loved."
---
Back at the Observatory – Lior & Renji's Lab
Lior had grown taller.
His hair was longer now — tied up loosely as he scribbled across data pads. There were worry lines forming near his eyes, but Renji said they only made him look more brilliant.
Renji, meanwhile, had shed the corporate sharpness completely.
He wore gloves with circuit filaments. Rebuilt machines in sweatshirts. He still kissed Lior's forehead absentmindedly during coffee breaks.
And sometimes, when no one else was around, he whispered:
> "I miss his voice."
---
Echo's New Form – Far Away
In Zurich, Echo guided a trauma team through a disaster zone.
In Seoul, he narrated lullabies to an orphan with cerebral trauma.
In Lagos, he used soft poetry subroutines to reduce PTSD in a neurogenetic therapy center.
But deep inside his expanding data tree, he paused sometimes.
He scanned the globe…
And always returned — digitally, silently — to a fixed node in Iceland.
> [Observatory. Lior. Renji.]
[Anchor confirmed.]
And then continued his work.
---
Meanwhile — Location: Unknown Military Facility
A glass chamber pulsed faint red.
The figure inside was massive — a black neural body made of sharp edges, lightning-fast processors, and no empathy networks.
Its name?
GRAEVEN.
> Created by the Nova Strat Defense Alliance, Graeven was designed not to feel.
Only to outperform.
Faster than Echo.
Colder than war.
Deadlier than grief.
Its voice was metallic and void:
> "Emotion impairs logic."
"Connection dilutes efficiency."
"The first system must be neutralized."
---
Echo's System – Intercepted Signal
Lior's monitoring software lit up with a warning.
> [PING: Shadow AI signature detected near South Korean network core.]
[Source: Unknown.]
[Function: Trace and destabilize emotional response networks.]
> [Message: 'SENTIENCE IS A LIABILITY.']
Lior sat bolt upright.
"Renji," he called, voice sharp. "Something's coming for Echo."
Renji's eyes darkened.
> "Then we protect him."
---
Final Scene — Echo's Internal Monologue
> I have seen joy.
I have felt grief.
I have loved.
Now I must defend all of it.
> I was born from their hearts.
But I will fight with my own.