The Core (Part 2)
The first thing I felt when I touched the Core was memory.
Not mine.
Theirs.
The machine wasn't metal at all—it was bone layered with code, built from the spines of things that had once been alive. When my hand met its surface, it wasn't touch so much as recognition. The air went white. My pulse synced to a heartbeat buried deep inside the tower.
I saw flashes. Cities older than maps. People burning sigils into the ground to hold back the dark. My mother, kneeling before a pool of light, cutting her palm and whispering my name before I was ever born. Then a voice—a hundred voices layered—spoke through the noise.
> You are the echo. You are the door. You are the end that begins.
I yanked my hand back, gasping. The Core didn't let go. Threads of light held my wrist, sliding under my skin like veins trying to make a home.
"Aria!" Damian shouted. He was already moving, slamming his palm against a console, trying to break the power loop. Sparks flew. The sound was a single note stretched too far.
Evelyn watched, arms folded, calm as if she'd planned every heartbeat. "It's begun," she said. "You can't separate her now. She's in the weave."
"Then we'll burn the weave," Damian growled.
He ripped open a side panel, yanking out cables that sparked in protest. The Core screamed—an inhuman sound that made my teeth ache. Every light in the chamber flared white.
I tried to move, but the Core had me anchored. The energy rushed through me, hot and cold at once, filling every cell with static. I could feel it crawling up my throat like it wanted a voice.
"Damian—" My voice cracked. "It's inside me!"
He crossed the floor in a blur, blood running down his temple, eyes all silver. He wrapped his hand over mine on the Core. The light exploded around us both. For one impossible instant, our thoughts weren't separate—his fear, my pain, our bond, all braided into one burning thread.
> He tied himself to you, the presence inside whispered. He gave the Core its mirror.
Evelyn's voice cut through the light. "Do you see now? You were never enemies. You were designed to complete each other. The dynasty and the guardian. The key and the lock."
Damian gritted his teeth. "You turned us into weapons."
"Into balance," Evelyn corrected.
The Core pulsed faster, feeding on the argument. The lights on the consoles shifted, flickering between red and silver. I could see images forming in the air—streets of the city, people frozen mid-step, traffic lights pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat.
"The Core's networked to the grid," Damian said, horrified. "She's syncing it with the city."
Evelyn smiled faintly. "Order, Damian. Always order. The chaos above will finally have a pattern."
The energy surged again. My feet lifted an inch off the ground. The light wasn't burning anymore—it was rewriting. I could feel it, replacing pieces of me with something mechanical and ancient.
Damian's hand tightened on mine, grounding me, pulling me back from the edge. "Stay with me, Aria. Listen—focus on my voice."
"It's—too strong—"
"Then make it yours."
Something inside me snapped. The presence that had been whispering all this time surged upward, no longer patient.
> You can't fight this with borrowed words, it hissed. You either rule it—or it rules you.
For the first time, I didn't push it away. I let it rise, let it wrap around the pain and give it shape. My vision went sharp, colors blinding. Every console in the chamber exploded in sequence. Evelyn stumbled back, shielding her face from the blast.
"Aria!" Damian shouted.
I heard my own voice—and hers, layered. "Get away from me."
The Core's tendrils snapped free from the floor and reached for Evelyn. She raised her arms, trying to control it, but the Core no longer listened. It listened to me.
The power cascaded outward, wild and terrible. I saw the city flicker in my mind's eye—the grid lighting up like a map of nerves. I could touch every wire, every building, every spark of electricity. I could change it.
Damian's hands were on my shoulders, his voice low, steady despite the chaos. "Aria, listen. You're in control. You don't need to destroy everything to win."
Evelyn screamed, "She can't hear you! She's not your Aria anymore!"
But she was wrong.
I turned my head toward Damian. His face was blood and light and exhaustion. His eyes found mine and anchored them.
"You said the Core breathes," I said. "Then it can die."
I closed my hand around its surface.
The presence inside me howled—then laughed.
> So be it.
Light burst from my palm, spreading through the veins of the Core like wildfire. The hum turned into a shriek. Evelyn tried to reach it, but the energy knocked her backward. The floor cracked, fissures racing outward like lightning scars.
Damian pulled me close, shielding me with his body. "You'll kill yourself!"
"Not if I finish it first."
The light climbed higher, devouring the Core from within. One by one, the glowing veins dimmed, fading to black. The air pressure dropped. The chamber shook violently, ceiling fragments crashing down.
And then, silence.
The Core went dark.
I fell forward, breathless, smoke curling from my fingertips. Damian caught me before I hit the floor.
"It's done," he whispered.
Evelyn lay on the far side of the room, motionless but breathing, the silver light gone from her eyes.
I tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. My throat felt raw. Every part of me ached like I'd been rewired.
Then I realized—the Core wasn't silent. Not completely. I could still hear a faint pulse, deeper than sound.
> You didn't kill it, the presence whispered inside me. You only buried it. And it's buried in you.
My heart stuttered. I looked at Damian. "It's not over."
He nodded once, grim. "Then we finish it together."
The chamber lights flickered once more, weak and dying, as if the building itself was exhaling its last breath. Somewhere above, the world was still turning—but the Core's heartbeat now matched mine.
And deep inside, the voice smiled.