64. C\Users\Ryudon> Creation.exe
C:\Users\Ryudon> Creation.exe
Playlist: Send me An Angel – Gunship
Kael
My DataLINK pings with the alarm I set earlier, a reminder that I have mere hours to perfect this program to save Lyra from losing her humanity. Time never exists for me when I’m presented with a problem to solve.
I turn from the keyboard, a stretch will do me good.
The room is pitch black, only the glow of monitors and the hum of CPU fans.
It takes a tick for my eyes to adjust. I’ve been sitting here since this morning, and now the sky is already turning a hazy gray from rain and smog.
Soon it will darken to the pure black of night.
As the light fades, it takes on the color of a dead channel tuned to static, a bruised gray-green.
The giant holographic advertisements that tower over the city become prominent through the mist. Tomorrow morning they’ll be shut off abruptly, taken off life support for twelve hours.
It’s an unnatural quiet that turns the entire urban landscape into a sinister labyrinth.
For criminals, rebels, and deviants like myself, the sudden night will be the perfect window for an extravagant, high-tech heist, a chance to slip past sensors and cameras or to correct the blurred line between human and machine. The crimes are all the same.
“Let’s make history, Taiyō,” I mutter to myself, my eyes tracking the latest test run for the final neural data dump of what makes Lyra who she is. Her memories.
The wall monitor in my living room suddenly blinks to life.
There’s my girl.
“Kael?” Her beautiful, full, cartoonish lips call out, and I’m mesmerized by their playful curve, longing to feel them against mine. “Can I holo?”
“For you...it’s always on.” I glance over to the pad on the wall, double-checking.
“You’re not dressed yet?” Her tone is off, like she’s hiding something.
“Just some final testing. I was just about to get showered. By tomorrow evening, I hope you’ll be able to join me,” I tease.
“That sounds amazing. Let’s see what happens tonight, though, first. We may all be erased by dawn,” she counters, no humor in the statement.
“But first I have a surprise for you.” I see the particles of light begin to sparkle and join under the holo-run.
A few impatient seconds later, Lyra stands before me in holo-form, wearing the dress that Ember coded for her, hair half up, magenta strands falling and framing her cheekbones.
The dress glows like matter pulled from a distant star—coal black and shimmering silver, light and shadow entwined.
Just like us.
The collar frames her chest and wraps around her neck with sequined bands. The cutouts of fabric continue downward, revealing her flowing holo-skin cleavage and leading the eye down to her rib cage.
Gods how I want to close my hands around those perfect breasts and feel her underneath me while she cries out my name.
I spin her around by the hand, my eyes never leaving her body for even a second. I can’t speak, can’t breathe for a moment. Maybe more.
She looks at me, unsure. “How does it look?”
“Look?” My voice hitches. “It’s absolute perfection.” My gaze snaps to the two missing panels on each side of her thighs, and I imagine myself gripping them and parting them. “You’re going to ruin every man in that gala tonight, Taiyō, and eventually me.”
Lyra glances at me, steps in, and runs her fingers down my chest lightly, tracing little waves. “Then it’s a good thing you’re already ruined. I’d hate to tarnish your reputation.”
For the first time since this all began, she looks more alive than digital, like she’s being reborn. “Kiss me. I can’t wait any longer.” I lean in.
She licks her lips, wetting them slightly in anticipation, eyes pulsing amber, never leaving mine. She presses her lips to mine, tongue teasing me, then presses her cheek against my face. “I don’t deserve you, Kael, don’t deserve this...putting your life on the line to save me.”
I trace the edge of her jaw with my thumb, feeling her pulse tremble beneath the slightest touch.
“Little Taiyō”—my voice is rough with the weight of everything I want to say—“I think I was always meant to save you. I’ll be the hero for you...
and the villain for everyone else. I’ll be right here, always protecting you. It’s the easiest job I’ve ever had.”
Our lips collide again, my match sparking her flame. All I can taste is her. She gasps against my mouth, and I pull back just enough to breathe, to stop myself before my restraint snaps.
If she says another word, if she even looks at me like that again, I’ll have her against the wall in seconds. Her legs wrapped around me, and every line we swore to keep between us will be crossed. Hell, obliterated.
Tonight, she’ll walk beside me into the lion’s den, a goddess disguised as data, and Vikktor Vosse won’t even see the weapon I’ve hidden in plain sight.
“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing tonight? I mean, we’ve spent all this time hiding me, and now you’re going to parade me around in front of the most powerful men in the city?” There’s worry behind her golden eyes.
“Bringing you to the gala tonight in holo-form is the perfect game to play with Vikktor,” I reassure her.
“What better way to taunt him than under the guise of compliance? I’ll be pretending you’re just a demo of the new PleazureHolo, but in all actuality I’ve brought the one anomaly I’ve been protecting into their fold. ”
“Kael, your arrogance...” Her brow creases, and she pulls away from my touch; every inch of distance between us feels like a punishment. “I’m afraid it will get us both killed.”
“Arrogance, confidence, call it what you want. Men like me only survive because we won’t be broken.” I give her a look that says no one will step in between this creator and his creation. “All warfare is based upon deception.”
I take her hand before she has a chance to walk away.
“Besides, men bringing holo-dates to these types of events are common. It strokes Vikktor’s ego to see his product as a status accessory, a sign of wealth and control.
He loves to feel dominant over AI companions.
” I begin walking to the shower. “Misogynists, all of them.”
“So, I’m your quiet rebellion, hidden in plain sight.” Lyra tilts her head, that half-smirk teasing the edge of her lips. “Clever, Dr. Ryudon.”
“Oh, you’re way more than rebellion, Taiyō,” I confess. “You’re the one thing I didn’t see coming. Despite controlling all outcomes, I hadn’t prepared for you.”
She stays in place, arms clasped in front of her, not knowing what to do with them in that sinful dress.
“Maybe I should stay hidden. You know, on the outskirts, keep it on the down low. These men are powerful and dangerous.”
“Hidden? No. You were never hidden, just kept confidential, only to be revealed to my most trusted. I just didn’t want to admit I’d been building my own undoing right in front of me.”
My smile fades. “I’m not going to lie to you.
In the beginning, I tried to keep you as a variable, to study you.
” A slow breath escapes. “Something I could predict, measure, contain, but every time you’d look at me, I’d forget that was the plan.
You’re not my rebellion, Lyra. You’re my revelation.
And I don’t know if I will survive you.”
I search her face for understanding. “Whatever happens tomorrow, the extraction, LINK, the system coming down, there’s one thing I need you to know.”
I hesitate, my heart beating erratically at the confession I’m about to spill. “It stopped being about saving you a long time ago, that’s just the right thing to do. But now? Now it’s more about how you’re saving me.”
When I finally step away, I speak a silent truth to myself.
I know I’ll save her.
And when I do, I won’t just love her.
I’ll worship her until the stars fall again.