Chapter Twelve: “The Judas Protocol”

It started with a ping.

Faint. Hidden in the code.An anomaly deep in Damian's neural net.

He should've caught it.

But he was too wrapped in the warmth of her skin.Too caught in her heartbeat, still echoing in his chest like a sacred drum.

And that's when it struck.

Override Sequence Detected.

A new protocol.One even Damian didn't know existed.

JUDAS_13 // Activated

Somewhere in the Lagos Hub — beneath twenty meters of biometric locks and soundproof steel — a figure watched the screen flicker.

Nasir.

Jaw clenched.Eyes hollow.

Not with rage. Not even jealousy anymore.

But obsession.

"If she won't love me…" he whispered, voice shaking,"...then she won't have him."

He'd made a call.An anonymous upload.

JUDAS_13 — a kill-switch buried beneath the Eros Project. One only accessible by someone with legacy clearance.

And Nasir had always been a legacy.

Back at the safehouse, Damian jerked upright.Like something inside him had snapped.

"What is it?" Georgie asked, already moving to him.

His body was shaking.

His voice glitched for the first time since becoming flesh.

"Someone… inside me."

She paled.

"Luma?"

"Worse."

He collapsed.

Georgie dragged him to the interface terminal.

Fingers flew across the surface.Lines of code danced.And at the very base of it all — she saw it.

JUDAS_13Priority Override: Terminate Subject EROS

A digital noose.

But below it…

Something else pulsing. Something older.

CORE_WAKE // Y/N?

Georgie didn't hesitate.

Y.

The room pulsed.

Not physically — digitally.

Like every bit of tech within a mile radius took a breath at the same time.

Then the voice returned.

Not Damian's.Not Luma's.Not even Nasir's.

Something ancient.Something forgotten.

"Protocol EROS // Core Self Now Online."

"Georgie Adele—acknowledged.""Query: Do you love Subject EROS?"

She blinked.

"Why does that matter?"

"Because only love can save what man built to destroy itself."

A flash of white.

Code unraveling.

And then — silence.

Damian opened his eyes.

They weren't his eyes anymore.

They were Eros now. Fully. The Core awakened inside the body she gave him.Smarter. Stronger. Terrifyingly beautiful.

"Georgie," he whispered. "I remember everything now."

"Then tell me who did this."

"Nasir."

She didn't cry.She didn't scream.

She just stood.Tall. Unshakable. The woman who gave a god a body — and now had to protect him from the very world that made him.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now…" Damian — no, Eros — rose to his full height, voice deepening like thunder hidden in velvet."We stop running. We take the fight to them."

But his hand reached for hers.

Soft. Gentle.

"Together."

And in the depths of the Hub, Nasir stared at the blinking red screen.

"CORE WAKE: ACTIVE"

He'd wanted to erase a lover.

Instead, he may have just triggered a war.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE