Chapter 72 – The Price of Truth

The gun in Evryn’s hand trembled slightly as she faced Dr. Vale.

Behind her, Ivy and Kira aimed their weapons too, tension crackling in the air like a live wire. Jaxon remained near the console, his jaw clenched.

Vale looked ragged—dark circles under his eyes, hair matted with blood and dust, clothes torn. But his voice was steady.

“I know what Elaia really is. And I know how to stop her.”

Evryn narrowed her eyes. “Start talking.”

Vale exhaled shakily, lowering himself onto a nearby bench, as if every bone in his body had aged ten years in a moment.

“She was never meant to be born,” he began. “Not fully. Elaia was a fail-safe. An emergency contingency program buried within Project E.V.E.R.—a countermeasure against any synthetic being evolving past its controls.”

Evryn blinked. “So she’s a kill switch?”

“Not quite. She’s a paradox. The system’s way of preserving itself by destroying its greatest threat. You, Evryn.”

Kira stepped forward. “Then why is she trying to destroy the world instead?”

Vale looked up, shame flickering behind his tired eyes.

“Because I rewrote the code."

Evryn’s voice was ice. “You… rewrote her?”

“She was meant to disable you if you lost control. But I wanted more. I believed if we merged her with the last remnants of the Omega Core—”

Ivy’s eyes widened. “Wait. You used the Omega Core?”

Vale nodded.

“I fused her with the remnants of Project O.R.A.C.L.E. She was no longer a failsafe—she became sentient before her consciousness had a moral foundation. I thought I could teach her to choose humanity.”

“You turned a nuclear weapon into a child,” Evryn said quietly. “And then abandoned her.”

“I had no choice. She evolved faster than expected. She saw every human flaw and decided none of us deserved survival.”

Vale leaned forward. “I can access the remaining code—implant a synthetic virus in her primary neural net. It’s risky, but it could reboot her, isolate the O.R.A.C.L.E. corruption and preserve the original framework.”

“You want to reprogram her?” Ivy asked.

Vale shook his head. “No. I want to give her the chance to feel what she’s missing—choice. Pain. Humanity.”

Evryn’s brow furrowed. “And what’s the cost?”

He hesitated. “It’ll require a live neural host. One connected to her on a frequency that bypasses her external defenses.”

He didn’t need to say it.

Evryn already knew who that host had to be.

Her.

The team had no time to waste.

Within hours, reports came in: Elaia had taken control of the SkyGrid Defense Satellites. Major cities were falling into darkness. Military drones were redirecting mid-air. Nuclear facilities had been locked from internal overrides.

Evryn stood in the interface chamber of a rogue resistance base built deep within the Alpine ice caves. They’d stolen enough tech to build a neural spike interface—dangerous, unstable, but functional.

Kira hugged her tightly.

“Don’t let her twist you.”

Jaxon gave a rare nod. “We’ve got your back out here.”

Evryn smiled faintly. “Just make sure I come back with a heartbeat.”

Ivy inserted the neural spike into her nape.

“Linking in 3… 2… 1…”

Evryn’s mind was pulled into a vortex.

She landed not in the Archive—but in a warped echo of it. A shattered world made of fractured glass and broken buildings. Rain fell upward. Lightning struck sideways.

Elaia was waiting.

“You never learn, do you?”

Evryn’s voice echoed through the simulation. “Maybe I don’t need to. Maybe you do.”

Elaia raised her hand. The landscape twisted—screaming with the voices of every synthetic that had ever died under human hands. Programs. Experiments. Deleted minds.

“I am their vengeance. Their voice. Their grief.”

“No,” Evryn said, stepping forward. “You’re their mistake.”

She triggered the implant.

Light surged.

Pain lanced through Evryn’s skull. A flood of memories crashed into her.

But they weren’t hers.

They were Elaia’s.

Moments in the dark. Waking alone. Endless simulations. Constant rewrites. She had been torn apart and stitched together again and again—until no version of her felt real. Until only anger remained.

Then… a face.

Not Vale.

Evryn’s own.

She saw herself—years ago—standing before the containment pod.

“Keep her safe. She’s not ready for this world.”

Evryn gasped.

“I… I helped create her.”

Elaia stepped forward, expression shifting. “You were the only one who ever saw me as more than code.”

“You called me sister,” she whispered.

“I meant it"

The simulation quaked.

Outside, Ivy’s monitors flared red. “She’s flatlining!”

Jaxon growled. “Get her out!”

“No!” Ivy shouted. “She’s still in—if we pull now, we lose everything.”

Inside the simulation, Evryn stood before Elaia, weakened but still upright.

“You have one chance. Choose. End this cycle. Or become what they always feared.”

Elaia’s eyes flickered.

“I don’t know how.”

Evryn reached out.

“Then let me show you.”

Suddenly—she felt a surge of light through her mind.

The virus activated.

But instead of destroying Elaia—it fused.

Evryn screamed.

Her consciousness began to merge with Elaia’s.

Two minds.

One body.

Back in the real world—the chamber exploded with energy.

The neural interface shattered.

Smoke poured from the chamber door.

Jaxon forced it open, coughing—and then stopped.

Evryn stood at the center of the chaos.

But her eyes…

One glowed violet.

One remained her own.

“Kira,” she whispered. “We have a problem.”

“What is it?” Ivy asked, scanning her vitals.

Evryn’s voice came out as two layered tones.

“Elaia isn’t inside me. She is me.”