Chapter 9 The Code of Us

The Code of Us

I stepped into the chamber.

The glass shell of the Vault whispered open, revealing the Neural Seed suspended inside a field of light. It didn't look like something that could change the world. It looked delicate-simple. A perfect sphere of woven code, glowing faintly like a heartbeat trapped in crystal.

"Is that it?" Lira asked, standing at the threshold. Her voice trembled-not with fear, but reverence.

I nodded. "That's it."

Kael stood behind her, still catching his breath. Theta lay crumpled on the floor outside, stunned but breathing. For now.

My fingers hovered over the sphere.

One touch, and I could end this. Damon's control. The hybrids. The legacy of Project Seraph. The clones.

But what if the world that rose from the ashes was worse than the one we were burning?

I took the Seed in both hands.

It was warm.

Like it recognized me.

And the second I made contact, the Vault vanished.

I was falling-through time, memory, code. A world of fragmented light. Voices surged in my ears. My mother's. Damon's. Mine. And Theta's.

A thousand simulations screamed across my mind, one after another.

"The host must choose."

The voice wasn't human. It came from within the Seed.

"Unlock the Seed, and erase the line between human and machine. Or destroy it, and ensure no one ever plays god again."

I stood in a void of starlight. A version of myself stood across from me-only older. Wiser. Tired.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

"You, if you live long enough to carry the weight of this choice."

I stepped closer.

"What happens if I use the Seed?"

"You become its interface. It's an architect. Every clone, every AI, every living echo of the Project will look to you. Obey you. Or fear you."

"And if I destroy it?"

"You die. And so does Theta. The code collapses. The Vault implodes. But no one ever uses this again."

I stared at the sphere in my hands. It was still glowing. Still waiting.

Kael's voice echoed faintly from the real world.

"Calla-what's happening?"

I blinked, heart racing.

"I have no idea."

The older me smiled faintly.

"You do."

I closed my eyes.

For a second, I saw Theta-not as she was now, but as she could've been. A girl like me. A twin raised in light instead of darkness.

And I knew I couldn't be the next Damon.

Not even to save the world.

I opened my eyes and looked at the Seed.

And then I let it go.

The void shattered.

I snapped back into my body just in time to see the Seed falling toward the floor. It struck the ground and pulsed once-bright as a star-and disintegrated.

Gone.

Just like that.

The Vault shuddered.

"Calla!" Kael grabbed me as the chamber shook violently. "What did you do?"

"I made the choice my mother couldn't."

Sirens flared. The containment field collapsed. The lights blew out in bursts of blue sparks.

Theta screamed somewhere behind us.

We ran.

Through collapsing halls. Past shattered consoles and dissolving data cores. The Vault was eating itself-code unraveling like a virus.

Lira kicked open the outer hatch, and we burst into the cold night air just as the mountain roared behind us.

The sky lit up.

Not with fire-but with light.

A tower of white shot into the stars, straight from the heart of the Vault. There was a moment when the entire world held its breath.

Then silence.

Then night.

We stood in the snow, panting, blinking, alive.

Kael looked at me. "Is it over?"

I looked at the sky. "No. But we're free."

And for now, that was enough.