Chapter 74

Chapter 74

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

Cassian’s voice barely made it through the chaos.

But Luca heard it.

Every word.

The chamber had become a nightmare of blinding light and screaming machinery.

The neural core surged violently overhead while warning alarms wailed through the underground facility.

“Overload transfer initiated.”

Electricity burst across the synchronization chair in violent blue arcs.

Cassian’s body jerked hard against the restraints.

Another scream ripped from his throat.

Luca broke free from Seraphine instantly.

“Cassian!”

He reached the chair just as another surge slammed through the system.

The force nearly knocked him backward.

“Do not touch the chair!” Hale barked sharply from the console.

Luca ignored him completely.

Cassian’s breathing had become ragged.

Unstable.

Blood streamed down his neck from the neural ports connected behind his ears.

And still

He looked at Luca instead of the pain.

“You always…” Cassian gasped weakly.

“…panic when it matters most.”

Luca nearly choked on the emotion rising in his throat.

“You idiot.”

Cassian laughed.

Or tried to.

It came out broken.

“Yeah.”

The neural core pulsed again.

Harder.

The chamber lights exploding overhead in showers of sparks.

“Synchronization destabilization detected.”

Mira cried out sharply from Damon’s arms nearby.

Her body trembling violently now as the system tried ripping itself apart.

Damon held her tightly.

Protectively.

“It’s okay,” he whispered desperately.

But it wasn’t okay.

Nothing about this was okay.

Seraphine rushed toward Hale at the console.

“How long until shutdown?”

Hale’s fingers moved rapidly across corrupted system controls.

“The overload transfer is incomplete.”

“What does that mean?”

Hale’s jaw tightened.

“It means Cassian is absorbing the synchronization faster than his nervous system can process it.”

Translation:

He was dying too quickly.

Vale’s voice cut sharply through the chamber speakers.

Gone was the calm detachment from before.

Now she sounded furious.

“You’re destroying decades of work.”

Cassian’s blood-covered lips twitched weakly.

“Good.”

The core surged again.

Cassian screamed.

Luca grabbed the sides of the chair helplessly.

Watching the other man convulse against the restraints while warning symbols flashed across nearby monitors.

And suddenly

More memories surfaced.

Young Cassian sitting beside him after another failed procedure.

Silent.

Bleeding.

Young Luca whispering:

“Why do you keep surviving?”

And Cassian answering quietly:

“Because you do.”

Luca physically staggered from the memory.

Because even then

Cassian’s entire existence had revolved around protecting him.

“Luca.”

Cassian’s weak voice dragged him back instantly.

Luca looked at him desperately.

Cassian’s eyes were unfocused now.

Fading.

“You need to listen carefully.”

“No.”

“Luca.”

More firmly this time.

Luca froze.

Because Cassian rarely used his name like that.

Only when something truly mattered.

“The core still recognizes your neural imprint.”

Cassian coughed painfully.

“If I absorb enough overload…”

Another strained breath.

“…you can sever the system manually.”

Damon looked sharply toward Hale.

“Will it work?”

Hale hesitated.

Again.

And Damon was beginning to hate those hesitations.

“Possibly.”

“Possibly?!” Seraphine snapped.

“It was never tested under these conditions!”

“Meaning you don’t know,” Damon growled.

The facility trembled violently again.

Chunks of concrete crashing from the ceiling now.

“Critical structural failure detected.”

Time was collapsing.

Literally.

Mira whimpered weakly in Damon’s arms.

“Luca…”

He looked toward her immediately.

She smiled faintly despite the pain.

“You came back.”

God.

Luca felt like his heart was being torn apart from every direction.

Cassian dying in front of him.

Mira breaking apart in Damon’s arms.

The entire facility collapsing.

And somehow

Damon still watching him like he was worth saving.

Cassian’s voice weakened further.

“You know…”

A rough breath.

“…I used to hate you.”

Luca’s eyes snapped back toward him.

Cassian smiled faintly through the blood.

“Not because of what you did.”

Another painful breath.

“Because Hale looked at you like you mattered.”

Silence.

Hale stopped moving at the console for just a second.

Cassian noticed.

And laughed weakly again.

“You never looked at the rest of us that way.”

Hale’s expression hardened.

But beneath it

Something fractured.

Because Cassian was right.

Luca had always been different to him.

Not loved.

Not exactly.

But important.

And the others knew it.

Even as children.

Cassian looked back toward Luca.

“But then Damon happened.”

Luca blinked slightly through tears.

“What?”

Cassian’s exhausted eyes shifted briefly toward Damon.

“You became unbearable after him.”

Damon almost laughed despite everything.

Almost.

Cassian continued weakly:

“You smiled more.”

A pause.

“You hesitated before killing.”

Another pause.

“You started looking at sunsets like they meant something.”

Luca broke completely then.

Tears finally falling freely down his face.

Because Cassian noticed.

All this time

He noticed.

Cassian smiled faintly at the sight.

“There you are.”

The overload surged violently again.

Cassian screamed harder this time.

His body arching so sharply Luca thought his spine might snap.

Warning lights flashed blood red across the chamber.

“Absorption capacity reaching failure threshold.”

Hale turned sharply from the console.

“Luca!”

Luca looked up instantly.

“The overload transfer is creating a severance window.”

His pulse dropped cold.

This was it.

“One chance,” Hale said tightly.

“If you disconnect the core now, the system dies.”

“And Cassian?”

Silence.

Hale didn’t answer.

Because he couldn’t.

Cassian already knew anyway.

He looked at Luca quietly through the pain.

And for the first time in his life

He looked peaceful.

“Hey,” he whispered weakly.

Luca moved closer instantly.

Cassian’s eyes stayed locked on his.

“Stay alive this time.”