LOGINGloss POV I woke to static. Not sound, not silence either, something in between. A world made of fractured light and whispering code. The ground beneath me pulsed like living circuitry, pale streams of data crawling across a surface that wasn’t quite solid. My lungs burned with every breath, though I wasn’t sure I was really breathing at all. When I tried to move, my hands passed through air that shimmered like liquid glass. Fragments of memory flickered in the void: the ballroom, the darkness, Dream’s arms around me, the system’s cold voice saying Choose: Save Gloss or Save System. Then everything had gone black. Now I was here again, in the half-code world, the same one I had seen when the merge first pulled me under. Only this time, it felt heavier. Slower. Like the system itself was struggling to hold its own shape. “Hello?” I said. My voice echoed, but it sounded multiplied, bouncing back at me in distorted tones. “System, are you online?” The sky, or what passed for it, rip
Dream's POV The sound of alarms was replaced by something worse, silence. Not the peaceful kind, but a heavy, choking quiet that pressed against my ears. The whole building had gone dark after Adrian’s words, his voice still echoing inside my head like static I couldn’t scrub out. Every neon sign, every glowing display, every heartbeat of electricity in the penthouse-level ballroom had flatlined. I blinked, trying to see past the shadows. Gloss stood a few feet ahead, his hand outstretched toward where Adrian’s hologram had been seconds ago. The space was empty now, just faint particles hanging in the dark. I stepped closer, my heartbeat loud enough to feel in my throat. “Gloss,” I called softly. No response. He turned toward me, his face dimly illuminated by the faint backup lights lining the floor. For a moment, I saw confusion flicker in his eyes, then focus. “It’s the residual code,” he said. “Adrian didn’t survive. What we saw… it’s just the fragment reacting.” But the way
Gloss POV The sound that came from the speakers wasn’t human. It was a thousand fragments stitched into one, soft, mechanical, but almost tender. Adrian’s hologram flickered under the stage light, his features half-formed, half-glitch, like he couldn’t decide whether to exist or vanish. The air in the hall had gone heavy. No one moved. Not the guests, not the staff, not even Dream. It was as if the entire building was holding its breath. I could feel the static prickling against my skin, the faint buzz of corrupted data vibrating through the floor. The projection wasn’t local. It wasn’t coming from any of our internal systems. Whatever this was, it was remote, buried somewhere deeper than even Dream’s servers should allow. “Dream,” I said quietly. “This isn’t him. It’s something left behind.” Adrian’s hologram smiled, the glitch stretching his face too wide before snapping back to perfection. “Oh, but it is me, Gloss.” His voice warped through the speakers, smooth, almost intimat
Dream's POV Gloss was still asleep when I woke. His hair was a mess, the kind of wild that made him look both harmless and dangerous at once. The city lights filtered through the curtains, silvering his cheekbones. I watched him breathe for a moment, slow and even, the faint hum of our mental link still lingering at the edge of my mind. Every now and then, a stray thought of his flickered through, warm, lazy, unguarded. It felt wrong to listen, but impossible to turn off. I pulled away and stood by the window, staring at the skyline that stretched beyond the penthouse glass. The day ahead loomed over me like a shadow. The company’s tenth anniversary. A celebration, a show of strength, a chance to prove that DreamCorp hadn’t fallen despite everything that happened. Gloss had volunteered, no, insisted, on planning the entire event. He’d been glued to his tablet for days, designing, budgeting, and arguing with vendors who couldn’t meet his standards. I’d wanted to stop him at first.
Gloss POV The first thing I noticed when I woke up was noise, not the mechanical kind from the monitors or the hum of the penthouse servers, but soft, rhythmic thoughts whispering through my skull. Not words exactly, more like feelings with voices. Calm, tired, but warm. Dream’s thoughts. He was sitting on the couch across from the cot I’d been sleeping on, his shirt half-buttoned, hair a mess, eyes fixed on his tablet but clearly not reading anything. I blinked, trying to focus, when suddenly I heard it again, a sigh that wasn’t mine. He’s awake. Finally. I sat up so fast I almost yanked out the remaining sensor patch on my arm. His head snapped up, and our eyes met. “You heard that?” I asked. He raised a brow. “Heard what?” “That… That…” I started, then paused. ‘He looks confused.’ My eyes widened. “That! I heard that!” He blinked, then frowned. “You heard what I was thinking?” I grinned slowly, realization dawning. “Oh, this is going to be fun.” Dream’s expression shif
Dream's POV The light faded like the last breath of a dying star, and the world returned with a rush of sound. My lungs burned as I dragged in a deep breath, the taste of electricity and blood thick on my tongue. My eyes snapped open to chaos, alarms blaring, screens flickering, the room drenched in the crimson glow of emergency lights. I tried to move, but the weight on my arm held me still. Gloss. He was slumped beside me on the floor, pale, motionless, his fingers still curled around the neural link cable. His chest rose and fell faintly, shallow, but steady enough to make my heart stutter in relief. His hair clung to his forehead, his lips parted slightly as if he were caught between worlds. “Gloss,” I rasped, my throat raw. I reached for him, brushing a hand against his cheek. He was warm, but too still. “Come on, wake up.” No response. The monitors behind us flickered wildly, streams of code racing faster than I could read. The system’s synthetic voice echoed overhead, gl







