46. EnemyWithin
EnemyWithin
Playlist: Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
Lyra
Darkness.
Not the velvet dark of a night sky, but the cold, sterile black of a machine that’s powered down. No texture, no temperature. Nothing but a flat line, like a dial tone running through my bones.
She obeyed.
But I’m still trapped in between a space that’s not quite the void but also not part of the grid.
I open my mouth, but the sound dissolves before it comes out.
I don’t know if I’m still holographic or if I’ve slipped fully back inside the grid.
There’s no floor beneath me, no walls I can trust, only layers of half-light and drifting code.
I have no idea where Jett went. No echo of Ash’s presence, no drone of his familiar energy calling to me in the background.
But Kael—I can feel him.
Not as an image standing beside me, more like a pressure, thick and all-consuming like gravity.
It’s like standing on my beach when the storm front rolls in, the air charged and tight, my skin tingling as it approaches. I feel his focus, his fear, his fury. Control strained to the breaking point.
How is this possible?
It’s stronger now. A powerful thread pulling at me, insistent, so steady I could sync my breathing to it. Every time the grid swallows me, I feel his reaction before my own. I press a hand to my chest, half-expecting to feel his heartbeat there along with mine.
It makes no sense. Whatever this is, this connection, this awareness, it isn’t code. It isn’t DreamNet or something I’ve built or broken with my magic.
I know this...
It feels human, and it feels mutual.
Has it been hours or seconds since we attempted to rescue my brother? I can’t tell. No DreamNet doors, no neon corridors, nothing of Kael’s living code is left. Only this void again. I know something’s faulty; I’m flickering like a ghost.
I can’t do this again. My fingers curl into fists. They don’t even feel like mine. The warmth is gone. My magic is a dull hum barely sparking at my core. I’m becoming numb.
I feel my body flicker. Ash was sort of right. I’m fighting the void, but still half in my holo-form. I can’t seem to let go of the holo-thread, and I’m not sure I want to. If I can remain in the thread, then at least I don’t have to sit with myself in this darkness.
Across the black, I notice a flicker, then a shape takes form.
“Eli?” My voice comes out mechanical, nothing like my own.
I can feel him. He manifests like a digital specter, one frame at a time, pieces out of order. Eyes first, hands, then a mouth trying to form words, but only spilling distorted static. He looks terrified, like the younger version of himself.
“I didn’t know, Lyra. I had no idea.” His voice warps as it escapes into the ether.
I stumble forward, reaching for him, but my hand stops against an invisible wall. “Eli, I’m begging you. Stop voiding. You’re tearing everything apart. You’re tearing me apart. You’re destroying me.”
His eyes flare, black liquid swirling like star-filled galaxies. “No, Lyra, Kael’s system did this to you. He works for Vikktor. He’s just like him. He builds prisons.”
“No!” My voice echoes, cracking against the walls of the void. “Kael isn’t Vikktor. He’s...” The words hitch in my throat. I’m not sure how to answer. No. He’s not a ruthless, cold-blooded killer like Vikktor.
But he may have killed anomalies. He might still.
The silence between us pulses. Eli stares angrily. “You hesitated.” It’s a sinister laugh. “That’s all I need to know. He’s already inside your head, Lyra. That’s what he does. He’s a corporate manipulator.”
I clench my fists, nails digging into my palms. A dozen images flood my mind at once. Kael’s hand hovers near my cheek gently, his voice low and commanding, the way his network bends around me like it wants me here.
A prison? No. A tether, pulling me closer, reining me in.
“I don’t know what he is yet.” I breathe in forcefully. “But he’s not Vikktor. I know this.”
Eli’s void lashes out, like a storm preparing to break. “You’re defending him? He’s the reason we’re here!”
“He may be part of the reason I’m here”—I lift my chin, eyes filling with tears—“but so are you.” The words are like an inferno, burning down to my very core.
“I’m not doing this intentionally, Lyra! This is the hand I’ve been dealt, thanks to StarFell. Kael chooses his own fate, and when he turns on you, remember this moment. I warned you.” The darkness quivers like a force field around him. Another flicker as he speaks. “Together forever, remember?”
I challenge him, but as I start to push, I feel it. A cold wave sliding deeper into me. My heartbeat is a faint mechanical blip now. I’m losing warmth. Losing self.
I feel sick about what’s happening: LINK is protecting him. Drawing Eli in, becoming more human with every pulse of his power. And me? I’m sliding the other way, losing my humanity, fusing with the machine. Destined to be a rogue piece of AI.
FIREWALL RECOVERY SUCCESSFUL
I hear LINK in the distance.
A digital barrier appears in front of him. I slam my fists against it, but they leave no dent. My hands aren’t even hands anymore, just flickers of code. “Call off your dog, Eli. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Kael’s voice crackles from somewhere. I hear it faintly in my head, distant and panicked. “Lyra! Hold on. Come back to me. Reach for the holo-thread. Hurry.”
But all I can do is stand there, numb, watching my brother disappear into LINK’s sterile digital world. And I’m left sliding one step closer to becoming the very thing I hate.
“Lyra. My sister, the one person I thought I could count on.” Eli’s voice breaks and glitches one last time. “You’re a liar.”
The void collapses around me, black walls rushing in like water down a drain. My body trembles with static, every nerve screaming to escape. His words strike like a bullet on target.
No, I’m not.
I slam my palms together and push—hard. My magic detonates, full of anger.
No, it’s not just anger anymore. Now it’s an uncontrollable, volatile state of wrath.
Sharp, neon bright and splintering the dark grid into shards as it leaves my fingertips.
The sound booms like fireworks being let loose in the night sky.
“Holo-form. Now!” I shout to myself. I will not be bullied by a glorified chatbot with a psychosis. The code whirs by, and I grab it with both hands. Light tears open, blinding me with its brutality. I hurl myself through it.
When the world snaps back, I’m no longer in the void. I’m standing on the lab’s holo-platform, breath dragging in and out of my chest. Kael’s lab stretches out before me in white pulsing panels of light.
Except, something’s very wrong.
I look down at my hands. They’re not light and code, not pixels, not anything I’ve seen before. They’re me. A perfect rendering of me. Skin, hair, clothes. Holographic light, but whole. My limbs feel heavy my senses amplified.
“Lyra!” Kael runs to me. “Are you okay?” He circles me like a bear assessing its cub. His hands are all over me, touching me, checking that I’m fully intact.
I ignore him.
“Fuck her, Kael! I’m done waiting!” I snarl. Rage has always been the fuel for my power. I reach for that extra spark igniting deep inside me, despite being so weak. “I’m going to tear your system down and LINK with it!” My lips purse.
I focus inward and try to reach for the grid the way I always have. It’s now instinctive. I open myself to the threads of code.
Nothing.
I blink, surprised, and try again, harder this time. I dig my fingers into the sensation of code, into the hum that used to answer me immediately. My magic only sparks, a flare without a flame. It crackles under my skin, frustrated. No ignition, no doors, no response.
“What?!” My voice stutters. “No! Kael!”
I push again, more reckless now, shoving power where it shouldn’t go. The grid doesn’t bend. It’s like punching into fog. Panic climbs up my throat. Kael backs up, his expression halfway between confusion and shock.
This has never happened. Even trapped, even hunted, even broken, I’ve always been able to move.
Eli’s void surges have caged me in the murk, but I’ve always been able to rebuild.
DreamNet has to be there, my sanctuary, the one place I can slip into when the world comes crashing down around me.
It’s where I fight, where I run to for solace, where I survive.
I try to find the door for the ocean, my beach, anything. But nothing answers.
I look around frantically. My heightened emotions are still bleeding into every single system in the lab, but my magic is a flicker in my veins, even weaker this time. I feel it recoil, as if someone or something wrapped around the grid and sealed it shut from the inside.
“I’m stuck!” Panic floods my veins. “Kael! I can’t see any code. I can’t pull any threads. I’m fucking stuck!”
“No,” he whispers, his forehead crumpling. “Eli can’t lock you out.” He walks to the console, surveying the screen. “It must be her. It has to be LINK.” Shame washes over his features, the boldness of his creation humbling him.
I slam my palm against empty air, expecting resistance, or backlash, anything really. Instead, there’s only a dull ache that reverberates up my arm, like the system itself is absorbing me without letting me in.
That’s when it hits me. “Kael, I’m not being blocked. I’m being held. Held in place in my holo-form, outside the grid.” I shake my head in desperation.
I’ve forced myself out of LINK’s reach, but have I also locked myself into this form?
I walked through the door to escape, but she slammed it shut behind me.
I’m not invisible data anymore. I’m standing here, in Kael’s lab, like a real person again.
Not a full human, and not a hologram, but some sort of synthetic mutation.
The air shifts beside me, pulling at my senses. I can feel him.