Chapter 70

Chapter 70

“Mira!”

Luca caught her before she hit the floor.

Her body shook violently in his arms while sharp, uneven breaths escaped her lips.

The synchronization was accelerating through her nervous system.

Too fast.

Far too fast.

Damon dropped beside them immediately.

“What’s happening to her?”

Mira grabbed Luca’s sleeve tightly.

Fingers trembling.

“It hurts…”

The words nearly destroyed him.

Because suddenly she wasn’t the ghost from his memories anymore.

She was real.

Alive.

Still suffering.

And Luca had left her here.

Guilt slammed into him so hard he almost couldn’t breathe.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered brokenly.

Mira looked confused.

“For what?”

That hurt even worse.

Because she genuinely didn’t understand what had been done to her.

Vale’s calm voice echoed through the underground corridor again.

“The neural synchronization is destabilizing her central nervous system.”

Damon looked upward sharply.

Pure fury.

“You left her down here for years?”

Vale answered without hesitation.

“She remained medically necessary.”

Seraphine physically recoiled in disgust.

“She’s a person.”

“No,” Vale replied softly.

“She’s infrastructure.”

Damon almost moved toward the speaker system before Luca’s expression stopped him cold.

Because Luca looked murderous.

Not emotionally triggered.

Not unstable.

Focused.

And somehow that was infinitely more dangerous.

Hale stepped closer slowly.

His gaze fixed entirely on Mira now.

“You should not still be alive.”

Mira visibly flinched at his voice again.

Luca immediately pulled her closer protectively.

“Don’t talk to her.”

Hale ignored him.

Not out of cruelty this time.

Shock.

Because Hale genuinely believed Mira died years ago.

Cassian spoke quietly from behind them.

“Vale kept her hidden.”

Everyone looked toward him.

Cassian leaned heavily against the wall now, visibly weakening.

But his voice remained steady.

“She needed a living anchor to maintain the long-range behavioral architecture.”

Damon frowned sharply.

“In English.”

Cassian looked toward Mira.

“The system feeds through her nervous system.”

Silence.

Damon’s stomach dropped.

No.

Mira wasn’t just connected to the protocol.

She was the protocol.

The first child.

The original foundation.

The core everything else was built around.

Luca looked physically sick realizing it fully.

“They wired the system into her body…”

Vale answered almost proudly:

“She adapted beautifully at first.”

Mira whimpered softly in Luca’s arms as another wave of pain hit her.

Luca held her tighter immediately.

“You’re okay.”

Lie.

Nothing about this was okay.

Damon looked at Mira carefully now.

Really looked.

Tiny scars along her wrists.

Needle marks hidden beneath pale skin.

A faint surgical line disappearing behind her ear.

She’d spent years trapped underground connected to machines like a living component.

And somehow

She still smiled weakly at Luca.

“You came back,” she whispered again.

Luca’s eyes burned instantly.

Because she still trusted him.

After everything.

Another tremor shook the corridor violently.

Lights flickering harder overhead now.

The automated system echoed again:

“Protocol synchronization at ninety-seven percent.”

Seraphine swore sharply.

“We’re out of time.”

Cassian slid slowly down the wall behind them.

Breathing ragged.

“You need to disconnect the core now.”

Luca looked toward the lower tunnel.

Then back toward Mira.

“How?”

Cassian closed his eyes briefly.

Like the answer itself hurt.

“The core is biologically linked.”

Damon’s pulse dropped instantly.

“What does that mean?”

Nobody answered immediately.

Because suddenly

Everyone understood.

Mira looked between them in confusion.

“…why are you all looking at me like that?”

Luca’s chest tightened so violently it felt unbearable.

Vale finally answered calmly through the speakers:

“The neural core cannot be shut down while the anchor remains active.”

No.

No no no.

Damon stood instantly.

“There’s another way.”

“There is not.”

Hale’s voice cut through the corridor quietly.

Everyone turned toward him sharply.

For the first time since this nightmare began

Hale looked genuinely disturbed.

And suddenly Damon realized something horrifying.

Even Hale hadn’t known what Vale did to Mira.

“She hid this from you,” Damon realized aloud.

Hale’s jaw tightened.

“Yes.”

Vale laughed softly through the speakers.

“You became sentimental, Arthur.”

Hale ignored her completely.

His eyes remained fixed on Mira.

“The protocol requires a terminal severance.”

Mira blinked slowly.

Confused.

“What does that mean?”

No one answered.

Because no one could.

Luca felt like his heart was physically tearing apart.

She was seven in his memories.

Still seven somehow in the parts of him that mattered.

And now the system demanded her death too.

Mira looked up at Luca carefully.

“…am I dying?”

The question shattered the corridor into silence.

Damon looked away sharply.

Seraphine cursed under her breath.

Even Cassian closed his eyes.

But Luca

Luca couldn’t look away.

Because Mira deserved honesty.

At least once in her life.

His voice broke completely when he answered.

“…I don’t know.”

Mira studied him quietly for a moment.

Then softly

“Are you scared?”

Luca froze.

Because she asked it so gently.

Like she cared more about his fear than her own survival.

And suddenly

He remembered another fragment.

Young Mira sitting beside him after procedures whispering:

“When I’m scared, I count your breathing.”

Luca physically broke.

A sharp painful sound escaping him before he could stop it.

Damon moved beside him immediately.

Hand gripping his shoulder tightly.

Grounding him.

Mira looked at Damon curiously through her pain.

“Is he your person?”

The question stunned them both.

Luca stared at her.

“My… person?”

Mira nodded weakly.

“The person who makes the bad thoughts quieter.”

Damon’s chest tightened painfully.

Because somehow

Despite everything

Mira still understood love better than the people who experimented on her.

Luca looked at Damon slowly.

Eyes burning.

“…yeah.”

Mira smiled faintly.

Tiny.

Fragile.

“That’s good.”

Then suddenly she cried out sharply in pain again.

Her entire body arching violently.

The corridor lights flashed blood red.

“Protocol synchronization at ninety-eight percent.”

And somewhere deep below them

Something massive began powering online.