Chapter 84

Chapter 84

“I should’ve.”

Cassian’s voice faded softly into the chaos around them.

The confession barely audible beneath the screaming alarms and collapsing concrete.

But Luca heard it.

Of course he did.

Because somehow

Even dying

Cassian still sounded like someone discovering warmth for the first time and not quite knowing what to do with it.

The synchronization chair sparked violently again.

Electricity snapped across Cassian’s skin hard enough to burn.

He jerked sharply against the restraints, breath catching painfully in his throat.

Luca immediately tightened his grip on him.

“Hey.”

Cassian forced his eyes open weakly.

“You keep saying that like it’s medically helpful.”

“It’s emotionally helpful.”

Cassian stared at him for half a second.

Then weakly whispered:

“That’s somehow worse.”

Despite everything

Luca almost smiled again.

Almost.

The neural core pulsed violently behind them.

Not aggressive now.

Restless.

The archived projections surrounding the chamber had grown clearer with every passing minute.

Children standing silently across the walls in flickering white light.

Watching.

Listening.

Waiting.

And Luca realized something unsettling.

The system wasn’t malfunctioning anymore.

It was changing.

Mira still stood near the neural core, small hands trembling slightly at her sides while white light wrapped softly around her silhouette.

Not hurting her.

Listening to her.

Damon stayed close enough to catch her if she fell again.

Protective without suffocating.

Gentle without pity.

Luca noticed the way Mira leaned toward him instinctively whenever the chamber shook.

Like her body trusted Damon before her mind fully understood why.

And something inside Luca softened painfully at the sight.

Because Damon protected people naturally.

Not because he was trained to.

Not because he was ordered to.

Because compassion lived inside him like breathing.

Cassian noticed where Luca was looking.

“…he’s good for you.”

Luca blinked toward him immediately.

“What?”

Cassian’s breathing had become dangerously shallow now.

But his eyes remained oddly clear.

Focused.

“You stopped looking dead after you met him.”

The sentence landed quietly.

But Luca felt it everywhere.

Because Cassian was right.

Before Damon

Luca survived.

That was all.

Mission after mission.

Violence after violence.

Breathing without really living.

Then Damon arrived like a disaster Luca never saw coming.

Angry.

Stubborn.

Warm.

And suddenly Luca started noticing things again.

Sunsets.

Music.

The taste of coffee.

The sound of someone laughing in another room.

Human things.

Luca looked away slightly.

“He almost died because of me.”

Cassian smiled faintly despite the pain tearing through him.

“And he still stayed.”

That was the part Luca still couldn’t fully understand.

Why Damon stayed.

Even after learning the truth.

Even after the blood.

Even after the trauma.

Damon looked toward them suddenly.

Like he sensed Luca spiraling again.

“You okay?”

The question came instantly.

Naturally.

Luca stared at him for a moment.

Then quietly answered:

“No.”

Damon moved toward him immediately.

No hesitation.

“Okay.”

Just that.

No judgment.

No pressure to pretend.

And somehow that nearly destroyed Luca more than comfort would have.

Because Damon always made space for the ugly emotions too.

Not just the easy ones.

The chamber shook violently again.

A massive crack split across the ceiling overhead as smoke poured deeper into the room.

“REACTOR FAILURE IN NINETY SECONDS.”

Seraphine looked ready to lose her mind.

“We are literally going to explode while discussing feelings.”

Cassian weakly raised one finger.

“To be fair…”

A rough breath.

“This is very on brand for us.”

Another overload wave slammed through him before anyone could respond.

Cassian screamed.

The neural core pulsed violently in response.

Like the entire network reacted to his pain.

Mira gasped sharply and clutched her chest again.

“It hurts.”

Damon crouched beside her immediately.

“What hurts?”

Mira’s eyes filled with tears.

“He’s hurting too much.”

The projections around the chamber flickered violently.

Several of the archived children appeared distressed now.

Some covering their ears.

Others reaching toward Cassian helplessly.

Seraphine stared at them in disbelief.

“The system is emotionally mirroring him.”

Hale looked toward the core carefully.

“No.”

Everyone looked at him sharply.

“The system is empathizing.”

Silence detonated through the room.

Because that should’ve been impossible.

Vale’s voice exploded through the speakers instantly.

“THAT IS NOT EMPATHY.”

Hale finally looked upward toward the hidden speakers.

And for the first time

There was visible anger in his expression.

“Yes,” he said quietly.

“It is.”

Vale’s voice sharpened dangerously.

“You are allowing irrational emotional contamination to compromise decades of advancement.”

Hale stared at the archived children surrounding the chamber.

At Cassian bleeding in the chair.

At Mira shaking beside the core.

And softly

Almost like he was speaking to himself

He answered:

“Then perhaps the advancement was flawed from the beginning.”

The silence afterward felt enormous.

Because Hale had never admitted that before.

Not once.

Luca stared at him in disbelief.

Years.

Years of torture.

Years of conditioning.

Years of stolen childhoods.

And now

Now he finally understood.

Too late.

Far too late.

But still

He understood.

Cassian noticed Luca watching Hale.

“Careful.”

A weak breath.

“You might accidentally forgive him.”

Luca’s expression hardened instantly.

“Never.”

Hale accepted the answer without reaction.

Maybe because he expected it.

Maybe because he deserved it.

The synchronization chair sparked harder.

Cassian’s body trembling uncontrollably now from neurological overload.

SECONDARY ANCHOR FAILURE: 12%

Damon looked sharply toward Hale.

“How do we stop this?”

Hale’s eyes remained fixed on the console.

“The system needs a stable emotional synchronization pattern.”

Seraphine blinked.

“I’m sorry, are we healing the haunted AI with friendship?”

Cassian coughed weakly.

“That sentence physically damaged me.”

Mira suddenly looked toward Luca.

Then Damon.

And softly whispered:

“It listens when you stay together.”

Silence.

Luca frowned slightly.

“What does that mean?”

Mira struggled to explain.

Small fingers twisting nervously together.

“When you stop being scared…”

A pause.

“It gets quieter.”

The neural core pulsed softly.

Almost agreeing with her.

Luca’s pulse dropped cold.

Because he understood before anyone else did.

The network had been built entirely from fear.

Conditioning.

Pain.

Isolation.

And now

For the first time

It was reacting to connection instead.

Cassian slowly looked between Luca and Damon.

Then weakly muttered:

“Oh my God.”

Damon frowned.

“What?”

Cassian looked genuinely offended.

“The torture machine ships you two.”