Liam hadn't slept in two days.
Not because of the heat, or the pursuit teams scouring the outer districts of Blackreach for his DNA trail, or even the fact that the air itself occasionally hummed with the sound of the Crown whispering back into his bones.
No, he hadn't slept because every time he closed his eyes, he saw the face of the girl in the pod.
The one with his eyes.
The one with Nova's heartbeat encoded in her veins.
He stood at the edge of a rooftop now, shirtless again because subtlety had long since evacuated his entire life, watching the broken skyline flicker with red as drones passed overhead. The city didn't care about the things crawling inside it. It was too big to care. Too old. Too tired.
"I'm starting to get the appeal of burning it all down," he muttered.
"Don't tempt me," a voice said behind him.
Liam didn't even flinch. He'd sensed Cyn Dravus the moment he'd entered the sector. The man didn't leave footprints or echoes. He just was.
Cyn stepped into the moonlight, coat billowing slightly even though there was no wind. Typical dramatic sense. Probably practiced in front of a mirror before missions.
"Nice of you to show up," Liam said. "What, the Organization finally decided to send Dad?"
Cyn didn't react. He never did. His face was a slab of weathered stone carved into vague disapproval.
"You've been avoiding containment," he said.
"You've been avoiding honesty."
"You read the logs, then?"
"I read the logs," Liam said, turning to face him. "And the schematics. And the kill switch."
A flicker of tension passed through Cyn's jaw. Barely there. But Liam caught it.
"Why didn't you use it?" he asked.
Cyn was silent.
"You trained me to be controlled. Programmed. You could've shut me down a hundred times already. Why didn't you?"
"I wanted to see who you became," Cyn said.
Liam barked a bitter laugh. "A walking weapon? An experiment with too many feelings? Spoiler alert: I became the thing they feared."
"No," Cyn said, stepping forward. "You became the thing he feared."
Liam blinked. "Vex?"
Cyn nodded once.
"He didn't just make you to destroy the world. He made you because he thought someone else eventually would. You were his answer to every threat. You were… overkill."
"That explains the murdery part," Liam muttered. "Still doesn't explain why Nova's genome is inside me."
Cyn's silence stretched for too long.
Liam's eyes narrowed.
"You knew," he said. "You knew they used her."
"She was never meant to activate the link," Cyn said. "Your bond was an anomaly. An accident."
"No," Liam growled. "It was real. We're real. Everything else you, Zorren, Haldran, all of that is the lie."
Cyn didn't deny it.
"Then why are you here?" Liam asked. "If you're not going to kill me, what's your play?"
"I came to deliver a message," Cyn said, pulling a thin, data chip from his coat and tossing it to Liam.
Liam caught it, slid it into his scanner.
The hologram that flickered into existence wasn't Zorren.
It was Ardent Ysae.
:: "To whoever finds this, if you're watching, the Catalyst is accelerating. His synchronization rate has passed 70%. If it hits 100% before containment, the event will trigger. Protocol Zero is now upgraded to Protocol Omega. The Catalyst must be neutralized permanently. Authority: Override Class Crown." ::
Liam's chest tightened.
"They're not even pretending anymore," he said. "They're going to kill me."
Cyn nodded.
"And you?"
"I'm still deciding."
Liam stared at him. "You're really going to wait to see if I explode before you make up your mind?"
"You're not the only one with something to prove."
Another long silence stretched between them.
Then Cyn said, "You have twenty-four hours before Zorren locks the city."
"And Nova?"
Cyn's eyes flicked up. "She's looking for you."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because if I do explode," Liam said, "I'd rather it be next to someone who believes I can choose not to."
Cyn stepped back, his figure already fading into the shadows.
"One more thing," he said before vanishing. "The heartbeat… the second one… it's not Vex's."
Liam frowned. "Then whose is it?"
Cyn's voice echoed like a ghost as he disappeared.
"Yours. From another timeline."
And then he was gone.
Back in ASTRA-NOIR, Nova sat in the darkened lab, the stasis pod screen open, her fingers trembling as she ran the data again. Kairo stood nearby, arms crossed, watching her like she might dissolve.
"They're not just building Catalysts anymore," she whispered. "They're building iterations. Trying to trigger the perfect version of him across multiple timelines."
"And?"
Nova closed her eyes.
"And they already succeeded. Liam is the last because he's the only one who lived long enough to choose."
Kairo stepped closer. "And if he chooses wrong?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she stood, pulled her jacket on, and whispered, "Then I'll stop him."
Her hand touched her chest, feeling that second pulse deep in her ribs.
"But first… I'll find him."