DARIAN P.O.V( point of view)
~Outer City, Pre Dawn~
Freedom didn't feel like relief. It felt like standing naked in the rain with every gun already aimed.
The city stretched before us, low buildings, half lit streets, ordinary people waking into lives that didn't know how close they had come to disaster. Eden had already started its work. I could feel it in the silence of my comm, in the absence of Syndicate chatter that should have been screaming by now.
They weren't scrambling, they were recalibrating and that was worse.
Adanna walked beside me, her steps steady despite the weight she now carried. No protection detail, no access codes, no shield except the truth and a system that had chosen morality over obedience.
We reached the abandoned rail depot just as the sky began to pale. Rusted steel arches curved overhead like the ribs of something long dead. I checked the perimeter out of habit.
"We can't stay long," I said.
"I know," she replied. "They'll come."
Not if then when?
I felt it then... the shift.
Not footsteps, not drones.
Something older.
"This hunt is different," I muttered.
She looked at me. "How?"
"They're not tracking Eden anymore," I said slowly. "They're tracking us."
ADANNA P.O.V (point of view)
I felt Eden before it spoke.
A gentle pressure behind my eyes..... not pain, not urgency but awareness.
It showed me things without asking.
Small things....
Bank transfers quietly reversed before families lost homes.
Medical systems rerouting power during outages.
A shipment of weapons misdirected just enough to arrive useless.
No announcements..... no credit but just subtle corrections.
"Darian," I whispered. "Eden's already changing things."
He stilled. "How fast?"
"Fast enough that someone will notice," I said. "And when they do… they'll panic."
Eden responded again, deeper this time.
Not with projections but with memory.
I gasped.Suddenly, I wasn't standing in the depot anymore.
I was eight years old, sitting on the floor of my father's study.
ADANNA P.O.V (point of view)
~ Memory / Eden Echo~
My father knelt in front of me, eyes tired but warm.
"Promise me something, Ada," he said.
"What?" I asked, swinging my legs.
"If anyone ever tells you power is neutral," he said softly, "they're lying."
He placed a small device in my hand, it was warm from use.
"Eden isn't about control," he continued. "It's about restraint. The world doesn't need a god. It needs a conscience."
The memory fractured.
I was older now, fifteen. Watching him argue with unseen men through encrypted calls.
"They want dominance," he said. "I built accountability."
Another fracture then the night he died.
Sirens, blood and his hand squeezing mine.
"They will come for you," he whispered. "But Eden will listen… only to the one who knows loss."
The memory released me and in return made me staggered and Darian caught me instantly.
"Adanna...."
"He didn't just hide Eden from them," I said, breath shaking. "He hid me inside it."
DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
That stopped me cold.
"What do you mean?"
She looked at me with tears she refused to let fall.
"He coded Eden to recognize lived consequence," she said. "Not authority. Not clearance. Not intellect."
"Pain," I said quietly.
"Yes."
I felt something shift in my chest.... awe and fury tangled together.
"They killed him for that," I said.
She nodded.
"And now they'll come harder," she replied. "Because Eden doesn't just answer me."
She swallowed.
"It learns from me."
That was when the first shot rang out.
DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
Glass exploded above us....
I dragged her down as bullets tore through rusted steel, sparks screaming. We rolled behind a concrete barrier as boots hit the ground around the depot.
Not Syndicate soldiers but something worse.
Contractors.....
Men who didn't care who won.... only who paid.
I recognized one voice instantly.
"Darian," the man called calmly. "Old debts never die."
My jaw tightened.
"Rafe," I muttered.
Adanna looked at me sharply. "You know him."
"I should've killed him years ago," I said.
"Still time," Rafe continued. "Step away from the girl, walk out and your debt's cleared."
I laughed once, bitter. "You always were bad at math."
More footsteps came closer.
I leaned to Adanna. "When I move, you run."
She shook her head. "Not without you."
"Adanna....."
She grabbed my face. "No more leaving and no more shadows."
For one dangerous second, the world narrowed to her eyes.
Then Eden intervened.
ADANNA P.O.V (point of view)
Lights across the depot flickered.
The rail control system, ancient, ignored....woke up.
Barriers dropped.
Tracks powered briefly, violently.
Metal screamed.
Men shouted in confusion buy Eden didn't attack them.
It confused them....
Gave us seconds.
"Now," Darian snapped and we both ran with our hands locked.
Bullets chased us but lost rhythm, aim thrown off by sudden power surges, locked gates, false signals.
As we burst into the street, I felt Eden settle again..... quieter now and learning.
"Adanna," Darian said as we slowed in an alley, breathing hard. "This won't stop."
"I know," I replied. "They'll never stop hunting what they can't own."
He looked at me, rain streaking his face, eyes fierce.
"Then we make them afraid to hunt," he said.
I reached for him, resting my forehead against his.
"We already have," I whispered. "They just don't know it yet."
Somewhere far away, Eden made another quiet correction.
And for the first time since my father died, I understood.
He hadn't built Eden to save the world.
He built it to force people to face themselves.
The Syndicate would come again.
The hunt would deepen.... but Eden was awake and so were we.
To be continued .....