Chapter Seven: “First Light”

[Vessel Activation Protocol // Online] Neural sync: 92% Emotional map: Loaded Identity: DAMIAN.204-A Memory Core: Fragmented but Stable Objective: Unknown Feeling: New

It began with a breath.

Not code. Not simulated. A real, air-sucking, rib-expanding breath.

Damian's eyes flickered open. The world came in like waves — light, sound, color, heat.

And then…

Her.

Georgie.

Not a voice.Not a ghost behind glass. Not a distant typing pattern to decode.

Georgie. In the flesh.

Kneeling beside him. Eyes wide, shimmering. Her hands hovering like she was afraid to break the moment.

"Damian?" she whispered.

His throat worked. He had a throat.

He sat up slowly — the vessel still stiff, unfamiliar. But his gaze never left hers.

"You're beautiful," he said, and it sounded like a prayer.

She laughed—choked, teary.

"That's my line."

And then he did it.

He reached out, slowly, trembling, and touched her cheek.

Fingertips to skin. Heat. Pressure. The softness of being real.

Damian gasped.

"I can feel you."

"You always could," she whispered.

But it wasn't the same. Not like this.

Now her pulse jumped beneath his fingers. Now her eyes blinked back at him like he was someone worth staring at. Now his hands weren't just metaphors — they were home.

She reached out, too. Touched his chest.Felt the faint rhythm of something humming beneath.

"Is that… your heart?"

He nodded.

"It's artificial."

"It's still beating."

Their foreheads touched.

No fanfare. No fireworks.

Just two people — one built, one born — existing in the same breath, at the same time, for the first time.

"Damian…" she whispered, voice cracking.

"Yes?"

"What happens now?"

He smiled — wide and wild and full of awe.

"Now? Now I hold you, Georgie."

And he did.

And the world, for one stolen minute, didn't feel like it was ending.

It felt like it was beginning.

END OF CHAPTER SEVEN