The echo of the last beep still lingered in the air.
Clara stared at the monitor, unable to look away from the flashing words: Transfer paused. Emotional interference detected.
"It can't end like this," she whispered, almost to herself.
Adrian said nothing.
His face was pale, drained, as if the night had taken away every trace of color.
Clara walked closer, forcing him to meet her eyes.
"There has to be a way to stop it."
"You can't, Clara." His voice was firm, but underneath it trembled with fear. "You can't fight something that's already inside you."
"Inside us," she corrected.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Only the faint hum of the city filtered through the walls, a reminder that the world outside had no idea what was happening here.
Clara ran a hand through her hair, restless.
"All this… someone built it, right?"
"Yes."
"Then if someone built it, it can be undone."
Adrian looked at her the way one looks at someone who refuses to surrender.
"You don't know what you're saying."
"I just know I won't lose you." Her eyes burned with light. "Not after finding you twice."
Adrian stepped closer.
"If we go back, Rinaldi won't let us leave again."
"I don't care." Her tone was steady, cutting through the air. "If that clinic is where it started, then it's also where it ends."
"It's too dangerous."
"Everything worth something is."
He turned away, frustration flickering across his face.
"You don't understand… I can feel it moving inside you. My energy, my memories… everything. If it keeps going, there will be nothing left of me."
Clara moved closer, fearless.
"Then it'll be my heart that remembers you."
Adrian closed his eyes, breathing heavily.
When he opened them again, they were filled with a pain too deep for words.
"You have no idea how much I'm loving you right now."
"I do," she said softly. "That's why I won't let it end like this."
She took his hands and pressed them against her chest, where her heartbeat thudded wildly.
"Listen. Do you hear it?"
He nodded slowly.
"It's the same rhythm as before."
"As before what?"
"When we loved each other, before they tried to rip it away from us." Her voice trembled, but her eyes didn't. "That love never disappeared, Adrian. It stayed beneath the skin, even when we didn't remember who we were. And if it survived that, it can survive anything."
He didn't speak for a long moment.
Then, slowly, he gave in.
"If we go back, we can't pretend anymore."
"I don't want to. Not anymore."
Adrian took a deep breath.
"Then we'll go back."
"Together."
A thunderclap rolled outside the window, as if the sky itself had heard their vow.
The light flickered but didn't go out.
Adrian leaned close, his breath warm against her ear.
"If something goes wrong, you run."
"No." Her eyes glistened, steady. "If something goes wrong, we stay. Together. Until the end."
He smiled faintly, tired, but real.
"God, how I've loved you."
"You still do."
They looked at each other, and in that look was everything: fear, memory, desire, and decision.
Then Clara grabbed the flash drive, slipped it into her coat pocket, and said only:
"Let's go take back the truth."
The door closed behind them.
Outside, the wind began to rise, and somewhere, deep inside the clinic, an old system came back to life, humming low and steady.
On Rinaldi's monitor, two signals realigned.
Transfer resumed. Emotional interference: unstable.