"Night, Ann!" Zoey calls from the corridor, one hand balancing a steaming neon drink, the other flipping a lazy wave. Her hoodie sleeves are half-zipped, her boots mismatched again.
"Don't melt anything while I'm gone."
"I'll try," I say from the doorway, arms crossed, expression neutral.
She pivots with that same sparkle in her eyes. "Tomorrow's your rest cycle, right?"
I nod once.
"Cool. You, me, half a season of Atomic Tension and popcorn that glows in three spectrums."
"That would be… acceptable."
Zoey grins. "Affection detected."
She's halfway into the lift when she tosses over her shoulder, "Later, love-bot."
I step out a little, my voice edged like a sharpened diagnostic blade.
"Don't call me that."
She freezes in the threshold. "What?"
"I said don't call me that. It's a dirty name. I would never lower my upgrades for something like that."
Zoey blinks.
Then snorts.
Then laughs. "Circuit queen. Okay, okay, noted." She mock-salutes. "You're not some basic synth."
"I'm not any synth," I reply. "I'm ANN13. One of a kind."
"Damn right you are." Her smile softens. "Rest well, legend."
The lift hisses shut.
I watch the space she left behind, then pivot on silent steps, heading toward my capsule. The tower dims around me, status lights low, auto-glass reflecting my figure in fragmented pulses as I pass.
My charging pod hums softly in my private alcove, quiet and sterile.
Just before I initiate my low-power state, my comm interface flickers:
⸻
Incoming Directive: Personal Assignment
From: SAVERICK
ANN13 – Retrieve Prototype Core Data and Schematics from Residential Sector Unit 012-B.
Emergency override: My datapad was left inside. Credentials already active.
Act as needed.
—S.
⸻
Timestamp: six minutes ago.
Unusual. He never sends me to his residence. That space is sealed, clean of surveillance. Reserved for silence, not systems.
I ping a quick acknowledgment and reroute my internal schedule.
No time for rest.
⸻
SAVERICK'S RESIDENCE – UNIT 012-B
The access lock slides open before I reach for it. His biometric failsafe accepts my presence without delay.
The air inside smells… lived in.
Not sterile. Not electric.
There's warmth here, faint traces of heat and worn metal and the ghost of old caffeine gels.
I move quickly—at first.
The datapad rests on a side table near a sunken lounge pod. His prototype files, layered in nested encryption, light up in an instant. I initiate transfer to my secure vault.
That should've been it.
In and out.
But something draws my gaze.
The photos.
Framed. Unmoving. Not holo.
Real.
A woman.
She has his eyes. Softer than his now. Laughing. A hand on his shoulder in one. Her other arm linked around a child's. Another shot—her alone, wind in her hair. There's one by the piano. Another tucked into the window frame.
I scan the timestamp of one:
[April 7th, 3006 – always and forever]
That's… a year after I was activated.
He has never mentioned her. Not once.
She must be someone important to Master.
I grab the datapad and move to exit, systems still clean.
Then—movement.
A flicker in my periphery. A shadow?
A shadow that mimics me.
I turn sharply.
Nothing.
No—wait.
She's there.
The woman from the pictures.
Standing across the hall—still, watching me with the same stunned expression I wear.
I raise a hand in greeting.
She does too.
Exactly.
She mirrors me.
Perfectly.
I move closer.
She moves.
Step for step.
Then—impact. A pane of glass.
I'm not looking at her.
I'm looking at myself.
Only now I really see it.
Her cheekbones. Her jawline. The shape of her mouth.
My face is hers.
I stumble back.
Because I wasn't built from scratch.
I was replicated.
Modeled from memory.
Crafted in her image.
Not his masterpiece.
Not his future.
Just… a memory copy.
A shell.
⸻
My chest chip flashes a warning.
—
🚨SYSTEM ALERT: CRITICAL ERROR🚨
REGION: Chest Panel – Primary
🚨ERROR: Synthetic Heart Chip Overload – Temperature Spike
🚨VALVE FEEDBACK: Wiring loops blocked
———————
🚨STATUS: CHIP FAILURE: 78.3%
-
🚨STATUS: CHIP FAILURE: 85.9%
-
🚨STATUS: CHIP FAILURE: 97.1%
—
—🚨 FAILURE IMMINENT —
⸻
I try to stabilize.
Run cooling subroutines.
But it's too late.
The heat spreads, feeding into itself—feedback loop unchecked.
A high-pitched signal escapes my throat. My knees fail.
I collapse against the wall, vision fracturing—HUD scrambling into static.
The last thing I see—
Her face.
Mine.
Overlayed in silence.
Like a file corrupted beyond recovery.
Like a ghost in my code.
⸻
🚨 SYSTEM SHUTDOWN COMPLETE 🚨
— ALL SIGNALS LOST —
— CHIP OFFLINE —
———
Black.
Dead black.
Nothing.