Chapter 73

Chapter 73

“And that… is why I hated you all.”

Cassian’s voice broke at the edges of the sentence.

Not from weakness.

From exhaustion.

Years of it.

Silence swallowed the chamber afterward.

The neural core pulsed violently behind them, flooding the room with blinding white light while alarms screamed through the underground facility.

“Synchronization complete in twenty-four seconds.”

Luca stared at Cassian like he was seeing him clearly for the first time.

Not a rival.

Not a monster.

A boy designed to die.

Cassian leaned heavily against the console, blood dripping slowly from his nose onto the floor.

“You were supposed to survive,” he said quietly to Luca.

Luca’s chest tightened painfully.

“No.”

Cassian looked at him with tired eyes.

“You still don’t understand.”

Fragments of memory slammed violently into Luca again.

Young Cassian convulsing during overload testing.

Vale recording neural response rates.

Hale watching silently while technicians increased voltage levels again and again.

And every time

The reports said the same thing.

Subject Two remains viable.

Luca physically recoiled.

“Oh my God.”

Cassian gave a faint humorless smile.

“Yeah.”

Damon looked sick.

Actually sick.

Because suddenly he understood why Cassian felt so empty.

He wasn’t raised to live.

He was engineered to absorb damage until someone else survived.

Vale’s cold voice echoed through the chamber again.

“His emotional deterioration was an acceptable trade-off.”

Seraphine snapped instantly.

“He’s a person!”

Vale sounded genuinely puzzled.

“And yet he fulfilled his purpose exceptionally well.”

Cassian laughed weakly at that.

A terrible sound.

“See?”

He looked toward Damon.

“That’s all we ever were to them.”

Damon’s jaw tightened violently.

“No.”

Cassian blinked slowly.

Damon stepped closer.

Eyes sharp.

Certain.

“That’s all they were.”

A pause.

“You’re what survived them.”

Cassian went completely still.

Because nobody had ever separated him from the system before.

Nobody.

The core pulsed harder.

The entire chamber shaking now.

“Synchronization complete in eighteen seconds.”

Hale suddenly stepped toward Cassian.

“You cannot survive the overload.”

Cassian looked at him calmly.

“I know.”

“No,” Hale said sharply.

For the first time

Actual emotion cracked through his control.

“Your nervous system is already unstable.”

Cassian stared at him for a long moment.

Then quietly asked:

“Are you pretending to care now?”

That landed.

Hard.

Because Hale didn’t answer immediately.

And somehow

That silence hurt more than denial.

Luca stepped toward Cassian quickly.

“We’ll find another way.”

Cassian smiled faintly.

“You really never stopped doing that.”

Luca frowned.

“Doing what?”

“Trying to save everyone.”

Another memory surfaced instantly.

Young Luca secretly helping injured subjects after training sessions.

Young Cassian watching silently from the corner.

Because even before Damon

Luca had still fought against cruelty in small hidden ways.

Cassian looked toward the synchronization chair again.

“This is what I was built for.”

“No,” Damon snapped immediately.

Cassian’s eyes shifted toward him.

Damon stepped closer.

“You don’t owe them your life.”

Cassian laughed softly through the blood at his lips.

“I’m not doing it for them.”

Silence.

Then slowly

Cassian looked toward Luca.

“I’m doing it because somebody should survive this place.”

Luca’s eyes burned instantly.

“No.”

Cassian ignored him.

“You loved him enough to become human again.”

He glanced toward Damon briefly.

“So maybe there’s still something worth saving after all.”

The room trembled violently.

Sparks bursting from overhead wiring now.

“Synchronization complete in twelve seconds.”

Mira cried out sharply again.

Her body shaking harder in Luca’s arms.

“It hurts!”

That broke whatever hesitation remained.

Cassian pushed himself toward the synchronization chair.

Staggering slightly.

Luca grabbed him immediately.

“Cassian, stop.”

Cassian looked at him quietly.

And suddenly

For the first time

He looked young.

Not like a killer.

Not like division two.

Just tired.

“You once asked me what freedom would feel like.”

Luca froze.

Because he remembered.

Two boys sitting silently outside the training wing after another brutal procedure.

Young Luca whispering:

“Do you think people like us could ever be free?”

Cassian smiled faintly through the pain.

“I think this is the closest I’ll get.”

Then he shoved Luca backward.

Hard.

Everything exploded into motion afterward.

Cassian dropped into the synchronization chair instantly.

Neural restraints snapping around his wrists and throat automatically.

“NO!” Luca lunged forward.

Too late.

The system activated immediately.

Massive cables descended from the ceiling and connected violently into the ports behind Cassian’s neck.

His body arched sharply in pain.

A raw scream tearing from his throat.

The neural core blazed white.

“Absorption point recognized.”

Vale’s voice finally cracked with panic.

“Disconnect him immediately!”

Interesting.

Cassian smiled weakly despite the agony.

“You sound scared.”

The core began destabilizing violently.

Energy surging through the chamber in blinding waves.

Hale moved toward the console rapidly.

Trying to override the system.

“It’s too much overload,” he snapped.

“He’ll die before transfer completion.”

Cassian’s body convulsed hard against the restraints.

Blood running freely now.

Luca tried reaching him again.

Seraphine held him back desperately.

“You can’t stop it!”

“Yes I can!”

Luca struggled violently against her grip.

Panic finally consuming him completely.

Because not Cassian.

Not him too.

Cassian forced his eyes open through the pain.

Finding Luca immediately.

And softly

Barely audible

He whispered:

“Stop looking at me like I’m already dead.”