[Anchor Core – Countdown: 09:58:22]
The chamber trembled.
Sparks rained down from ruptured conduits. A siren wailed above them, warping with static as the system unraveled. Shen Yue stared down the man who once loved her, now aiming a weapon at her heart.
"Lu Yichen," she said, stepping away from the cryo-pod.
"You're not a program. You're not a guardian. You're a person. You were mine."
His hand shook.
A tremor in his eyes. The gun didn't drop, but his breath hitched like something, someone was crawling out from deep inside.
"I don't know you," he said, though his voice cracked."You're a target. A deviation. You must be corrected."
Behind her, Bai Lin began bypassing the main console. If they could wake the real Shen Yue, all system control would collapse.
But she couldn't let Lu Yichen shoot.
She couldn't kill him either.
Because even now, beneath the metal edge in his gaze, her Lu was still in there.
[Flash Memory – Lu Yichen's Perspective]
A breathless laugh in a metal corridor. A hand touches his chest before a jump into zero gravity, her voice calm during fire.
"If I die, promise you'll reboot us. Somewhere soft."
He staggered.
The gun fell from his hand.
[Anchor Core – Present Moment]
"Yue," he whispered. "Why do I remember stars?"
She rushed to him, catching him as he dropped to his knees.
"You're remembering because it's real," she said softly. "The system can't overwrite the soul."
His eyes darted to the pod, the sleeping version of her submerged in memory fluid.
"That's you?" he asked, voice torn between wonder and horror.
"No," she corrected. "That's us. Everything we were, everything we lost. And we're running out of time."
[SYSTEM ALERT: Subject L-Y001 has deviated. Memory breach confirmed. Deploying Final Patch…]
A deafening roar.
From above, a drone cluster dropped into the chamber, sleek, surgical, and armed.
The system had escalated.
It was now trying to erase all of them, not just Shen Yue.
[Bai Lin – Taking the Shot]
Bai Lin stood, gun raised. He fired at the drone swarm, shielding the exposed cables around the pod.
"I need two more minutes!" he shouted. "If I can inject the anchor pulse, it'll wake her!"
Shen Yue turned to Lu Yichen, gripping his shoulders.
"Fight it. Stay you. I need you."
He stared at her like he was drowning.
Then slowly, painfully, he stood beside her.
No more orders, no more Guardian. Just Lu Yichen.
[The Fight Begins – Countdown: 09:43:12]
They moved as one.
Lu Yichen and Shen Yue fought back-to-back, dodging electric pulses, knocking drones from the air. Sparks lit the room as Bai Lin completed the circuit.
Then,
A pulse of light surged from the cryo-pod.
The glass shattered.
And the original Shen Yue, soaked in fluid, eyes glowing gold with layered timelines sat up.
"Welcome back, Yue-Prime."
The system's voice was different now.
Afraid.