21. Sienna
Sienna
O RACLE stops trying to overpower me.
That’s what finally terrifies me.
The system changes tactics completely.
No pressure.
No forced commands.
No violent resistance.
Instead, the world around me softens into memory again.
Warm light.
Soft carpet beneath my feet.
Elizabeth sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the couch, crying quietly into her sleeves.
Younger this time.
Small enough her feet barely touch the ground.
“Sienna…”
Her voice shakes.
“I’m scared.”
Pain cuts through my chest so fast I physically stagger inside the neural space.
“I know,” I whisper.
God, I know.
Elizabeth looks up at me with tear-filled eyes.
“I don’t want to stay here.”
Every instinct in me fractures instantly.
“You won’t.”
I kneel in front of her automatically.
“I’ll come get you.”
The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.
A promise.
The same promise.
Again.
Elizabeth’s expression shifts slowly.
“You said that before.”
The room darkens around the edges instantly.
My breath catches hard.
Because she’s right.
I did say it before.
Over and over and over.
And years later I still haven’t found her.
Still haven’t saved her.
Still don’t even know if she’s alive.
The guilt hits so violently it almost drags me under with it.
No.
Focus.
I force myself upright and step backward from the illusion.
“This is manipulation.”
My voice shakes once before I steady it.
“You don’t have her.”
The room flickers slightly around me.
Not enough most people would notice.
Enough for me.
Good.
I hit something.
“You’re projecting probability,” I continue, louder now. “You’re using emotional response mapping to simulate leverage.”
Silence.
Then text bleeds faintly across the fractured walls around me.
Uncertainty acknowledged.
There.
A crack.
My pulse jumps sharply.
“You don’t know where she is,” I say again.
The fake Elizabeth stays perfectly still now.
Watching.
Waiting.
The system responds slowly this time.
Control is not required. Influence is sufficient.
My jaw tightens.
“Not this time.”
I step toward Elizabeth.
Toward the illusion.
Toward the thing trying to break me open from the inside.
And instead of retreating—
I reach for her.
My hand passes straight through her body in a burst of scattered light and data fragments.
Not real.
Never real.
The fake Elizabeth flickers violently.
The room around us trembles.
“I see you now,” I whisper.
The entire architecture shudders hard enough to distort the neural space around me.
Resistance increasing.
A sharp smile almost pulls at my mouth despite the fear clawing through me.
“Yeah,” I whisper back. “Get used to it.”
The retaliation hits instantly.
Pain detonates through my skull so violently I scream.
The world fractures into blinding white static while ORACLE slams against my consciousness like it’s trying to force me deeper into itself.
Lock me down.
Trap me the way it did before.
My knees hit the ground hard.
I can’t breathe.
Can’t think.
Code tears through the space around me in violent streams while warning messages flash faster than I can process.
Integration destabilizing.
Neural resistance detected.
Containment required.
“I’m not staying,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
The response hits from every direction at once.
You are required.
“No.”
The word comes broken.
Weak.
Reality starts slipping sideways around me.
The floor beneath me dissolves into darkness while the system presses harder against my mind.
Memories.
Pain.
Fear.
Everything folding inward.
Control starts slipping through my fingers.
And somewhere deep down—
I feel myself losing.
Then suddenly—
A voice cuts through the chaos.
Real.
Raw.
Desperate.
“Sienna!”
Everything stops.
My breath catches violently in my chest.
Jonah.
Not memory.
Not simulation.
Him.
The sound of his voice tears straight through ORACLE’s grip like a blade.
The architecture around me glitches violently.
For the first time since entering the system—
ORACLE loses focus.
And I realize something terrifying.
It’s afraid of him too.