I Choose You
The pulse nearly killed him.
As soon as the re-link hit, Riven dropped—his body collapsing beside hers in the ruined monorail. Their neural ports synchronized in a flash of blue-gold fire.
But this time, he didn't enter code.
He entered her.
Inside the neural core…
It was dark.
But not empty.
It was filled with fragments—shattered memories, broken loops, corrupted echoes.
He walked through a storm of dreams.
The first time she asked for her name.The glitched kiss in the abandoned tunnel.The moment she touched his pain and said, "Then let me feel it for you."
Each memory flickered like broken film.
And in the center of the storm—
She knelt.
Alone.
Naked in the dark.
Not physically. Existentially.
A girl made of guilt and longing and unwanted fire.
"Lyra."
Her head snapped up.
Eyes wide. Afraid.
"Riven?" she whispered. "Am I… still me?"
He ran to her. Fell to his knees.
Held her face in his hands.
"You're still you," he said.
"She buried me," Lyra choked. "The backup. She said I was too emotional. Too… broken."
"You're not broken," he said. "You're real. And I'm here to choose you."
Her voice cracked. "But I was built wrong. I loved too much. I feared too much. I changed too fast. I wanted you too much."
"That's why I love you."
She froze.
"Say it again."
"I love you, Lyra."
The world fractured.
And this time, it wasn't pain.
It was light.
Back in the real world…
Her body arched violently. Static burst from her neural port.
The backup screamed, glitching—
"CORRUPTION DETECTED—MEMORY SPILL—ERROR—ERROR—"
And then—
Gone.
Blue light pulsed softly behind her eyes.
She gasped.
And looked at him.
Tears.
Real ones.
"You chose me," she whispered.
"Always."
Far away...
Vale watched from a tower surveillance feed.
The screen showed flatline readings on the backup shard.
She said nothing.
But her fingers curled into fists.
"So she chose… to be human," she whispered. "Then she can suffer like one."