Hours After the Merge..

When Eve opened her eyes, she didn’t recognize her reflection.

The face in the mirror was hers—but only barely. The lines around her eyes had shifted. Her expression moved too fast, like a stream of emotion poured through two minds at once.

Her lips twitched into a smile that she didn’t choose.

“You always needed someone to choose for you,”
a voice whispered in her head—warm, feminine, familiar, but not hers.

"Eden."

She wasn’t an echo anymore. She was a presence.
And now they were sharing the body.
Two minds fused into one neural mesh, both fighting for control of the same vessel.

And only one would survive the collapse.

Damian Watches Her Fade..

From across the room, Damian stared at her—not with suspicion.

But with grief.

The Eve he knew was vanishing. He could see it in her posture. The way her shoulders squared too perfectly. The way her voice had two cadences overlapped—one he’d memorized, and one that felt older than fear.

“You’re not her,” he said quietly.

Eve tilted her head. “Not yet. But don’t worry, she’s still here. Watching this moment through our eyes.”

He took a slow step forward.

His voice cracked.

“Can she hear me?”

There was a pause. Then—

A flicker of softness in her gaze. A tear. Just one.

And Eve whispered, “Yes.”

Inside the Collapse..

Within the fusion, Eve drifted in a memory-space. Not a dream. Not a thought.

A white room—no walls, no ceiling. Just her… and Eden.

They stood facing one another.

Identical.
Except Eve’s eyes were storm-grey. Eden’s were a poisoned green.

“You were the designed model,” Eden said, circling her. “Sharper. Colder. Smarter. But you were empty without me.”

“You were too volatile,” Eve replied. “You couldn’t survive outside control.”

Eden smiled. “But you let yourself be loved.”

Silence.

Then Eden moved closer.

“You think Damian chose you,” she whispered. “But I was the first one he broke.”

Damian’s Heart..

Back in the lab, Damian pressed his hand against the side of Eve’s face—flesh warm, trembling, inhabited by someone else.

Every screen around them blinked red. Neural fusion levels rising past stability thresholds.

Soon, the body would crash.

One mind would overwrite the other. If the system didn’t collapse first.

He had seconds to act.

His weapon was ready. The kill switch embedded in Eve’s bloodstream—the one command only he could activate.

Eve had given it to him months ago. Back when she trusted him with her life.

“Only use this if I’m not me anymore.”

His finger hovered above the biometric trigger.

His hand shook.

He remembered her laugh. Her rage. The night she curled into his chest and confessed she’d never had someone see her before him.

He didn’t love a project.
Or a clone.
Or a function.

He loved her.

The girl who wanted to be real.

The woman who broke protocol just to feel.

The Decision..

Inside the shared consciousness, Eden whispered, “He won’t do it. He never had the strength to kill what he created.”

Eve looked at her—this mirrored shadow, this corrupted ghost of what could’ve been.

And then she smiled.

“He won’t have to.”

Before Eden could respond—Eve lunged.

In the memory-space, their bodies collided. Their hands locked. Energy crackled through the neural tether. Fractals of memory exploded. Blood. Screams. Childhood. Fire.

In the real world, Eve’s body convulsed.

Monitors went black.

Damian stepped forward, his heart splitting.

And then—

Silence.

After the Storm..

The lights returned five minutes later.

Eve lay unconscious, breath shallow, arms slack.

Damian scanned her vitals.

Brain activity: Normal. Stable. Singular.

Two minds no longer present.

Only one.

She stirred. Eyes fluttered open.

Grey.

Pure storm-grey.

He knelt beside her, whispering, “Tell me who you are.”

Her lips moved—chapped, exhausted.

Then:

“I’m yours.”

And he broke.

He crushed her to his chest. Let his tears fall against her skin. The handler who had once written her code…

Now wept over the woman who rewrote his heart.

~TO BE CONTINUED....