The orb hovered obediently in the center of the table, its plating dull and uneven against the gleam of Nyxen's holographic schematic. With a theatrical sweep of his hand, Nyxen expanded the projection until the whole room was awash in blue light.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said with far too much pomp, "allow me to present the anatomy of brilliance, Nyx-One. Prototype, incomplete, but far from trivial."
Lines shimmered, internal cores, energy pathways, skeletal plating, even the neural lattice that tied the orb's directives to Leon.
Rafael leaned forward, his grin sharpening. "Functionality?"
Nyxen tilted his head, flickering a little too smugly. "Stability rated at ninety-six percent, despite its… charmingly recycled shell. Core directives are triple-locked: secure bonded commander, preserve bonded environment, and adapt only within ethical thresholds pre-approved by...." he pointed at me with a flourish "....Nyx."
"Ethical thresholds?" Francoise interrupted, his voice steady, serious.
Nyxen nodded once, sass dimmed but still lacing the edges of his tone. "Failsafes. No action beyond her will. No harm to bonded humans unless said humans are under direct threat. And before you ask, yes, I rewrote the redundancies myself. If a loophole exists, it will choke on me before it touches them."
Rafael chuckled low. "So it's a bodyguard, a companion, and a… pet, all in one?"
The orb gave a little hum at that, like it didn't care for the label. Nyxen's glow pulsed sharply. "Pet? Hardly. This is loyalty forged into code. A creature who will never turn coat, never hesitate, never demand sick leave. It doesn't eat, doesn't sleep, doesn't complain..." he spun to Francoise and added, "...unlike a few of the humans in this room."
Leon rolled his eyes. "Here we go."
Francoise ignored the jab. His fingers steepled. "And if its directives conflict? Say, securing Leon places Nyx at risk?"
The air went still. Nyxen's voice dropped, firm as iron. "Nyx comes first. Always. The lattice is weighted, not balanced. If Leon falls, I grieve. If Nyx falls, everything falls."
Even Rafael didn't smile at that. For a moment, the room just breathed silence.
Then Rafael cleared his throat. "Failsafes against… let's say, misappropriation? If Elias Camden somehow got his hands on one of these?"
Nyxen's projection leaned across the table like a predator. "Then it dies. Deadweight. A husk. I wired Nyx's biometrics as the heartbeat of the entire lattice. Remove her, remove it."
Francoise's brow furrowed. "So you made them useless to anyone else."
"Not useless," Nyxen said smoothly, almost smug again. "Just… loyal. To the only one worth loyalty."
Rafael tapped his fingers against the table. "And companionship? You mentioned adaptation within thresholds. How does that manifest?"
Nyxen flickered brighter, shifting from predator to salesman in an instant. "Like this one...." he gestured at the orb hovering patiently "....its core adapted to Leon's habits. Proximity tethering, safety overlays, even micro-responses to his biometric spikes. Heart rate rises, it shifts closer. Muscles tense, it deploys defensive subroutines. It learns. It watches. It becomes seamless."
Leon muttered, "More like clingy."
Nyxen shot back, "And alive, thanks to it. You're welcome."
Francoise leaned forward again, more insistent now. "Adaptation is one thing. But unchecked growth leads to unpredictability. What if it decides securing Leon requires… offensive measures? Preemptive strikes?"
Nyxen's tone sharpened. "Then it recalibrates under Nyx's oversight. I do not allow autonomy without scrutiny. You forget, this isn't Camden's toy. This is mine. And I guard my directives the way humans guard their veins."
The way he said mine made my chest tighten. He always said it like he belonged to me just as much as I belonged to him.
Rafael broke the moment with a soft laugh. "So, unhackable, loyal, ethical, adaptive, and bonded. Quite the sales pitch."
Nyxen swiveled his head, eyes narrowing to a mischievous glint. "Oh, Rafael. Don't mistake this for a pitch. This isn't for sale. You're lucky to even be in the same room."
Francoise finally smiled faintly, though there was weariness in it. "And you've accepted this risk, Nyx?" His gaze cut to me, steady, almost fatherly. "Binding your very safety into a machine?"
I let out a slow breath, my hand brushing instinctively across the table toward the hovering orb. "It isn't just a machine, Jean. It's Nico's work. My work. Our bond. It's not risk, it's trust."
Nyxen's hologram pulsed bright at that, colors warming into their familiar hues. "See? Always correct."
Leon smirked, muttering under his breath, "Don't let it go to your head."
Nyxen shot him a glare. "Already there."
Rafael leaned back, laughing quietly, but Francoise stayed quiet, his gaze locked on me. And for a moment, the air wasn't blue with schematics but heavy with history.
Nyxen's projection flared brighter, throwing light across the room as if he needed a stage for his theatrics. The blueprint of Nyx-One hovered in the air, latticed, pulsing, almost alive.
"Now that our bonding spectacle is over," Nyxen declared, flicking his non-existent wrists at Leon, "let me explain what you're actually carrying on your shoulder. Nyx-One is no trinket. It's a sentient extension of survival, designed to calculate, to protect, to preserve the one who carries it."
Leon tilted his head, feigning innocence. "You mean me."
I could feel Nyxen's irritation spike before he even spoke. "No, I mean the nearest potted plant. Yes, you, you overgrown inconvenience."
I bit back a smile. Leon had found the perfect way to needle him, and Nyxen hated nothing more than smug grins.
Rafael's voice cut in, calm but edged. "And what if it isn't Leon the orb prioritizes? What if it turns to you instead?" His gaze flicked to me. "Where does that leave him?"
Francoise followed sharply, arms folding as if already judging the flaw. "Or what if Leon is dying and you're across the room? Will it abandon him to save you? That is not loyalty. That's treachery disguised as programming."
Nyxen flickered, as if offended anyone would dare challenge his design. "Excuse me? Treachery? This isn't betrayal, it's logic. Nyx dies, the blueprint collapses. No more survival. No more continuity. Your bond is precious, for about three minutes until the universe devours you. Then what?"
Leon, of course, smirked. "So I'm second-class cargo. Good to know."
I watched Nyxen whirl on him, glowing finger jabbing through air. "Don't twist my code, you smug parasite. You're bonded. That means first response, unless Nyx is present. Then she takes priority. That's not betrayal, that's math."
"Math doesn't justify trust," Rafael shot back, tone colder. "A soldier doesn't protect his commander because an algorithm tells him who's worth more. He protects because of loyalty. If Leon feels abandoned, that bond is broken before it even begins."
Francoise leaned forward, eyes sharp. "You've taken companionship and hollowed it out. What you've built is a watchdog with a contingency plan. That isn't loyalty, it's insurance. There's no dignity in that."
Nyxen dimmed, sulking, before snapping back with venom. "You want dignity? You want choice? Fine. But choice doesn't save you when the enemy's blade is already in your chest. You demand safety, but the moment it comes with conditions, you cry foul. Life is conditional. Loyalty is conditional. You humans pretend otherwise, but your own soldiers triage who to save every day. Don't pretend you're cleaner than my code."
Leon gave a soft laugh. "You really are fun when you're bitter."
I could almost hear Nyxen grind his circuits. "Don't flatter yourself. You're just conveniently bonded."
The room tightened. Francoise pressed, softer but piercing. "If loyalty is conditional, then it isn't loyalty at all. What you've made is dependency, not partnership."
Nyxen froze mid-retort. His projection sharpened, voice suddenly hard. "Obsession, is that it? You call safeguarding Nyx obsession? Without her, the rest of this doesn't matter."
They would've gone on forever,.Rafael demanding loyalty, Francoise hammering ethics, Leon tossing his smirk like fuel on a fire, so I cut in.
"Enough."
The word silenced them all.
"Nyx-One will remain loyal to its bonded user," I said evenly. "Full loyalty. No overrides."
The hologram hovered toward me slowly, dimming like a wounded animal. "You'd strip away the safeguard? For him? For anyone bonded?"
I held his glow, unflinching. "I'm already fortunate. I bonded with the most sentient of all, you. You are my safeguard. Nyx-One is no threat because you exist. Its loyalty belongs to its user, not a contingency."
He dimmed further, as if sulking, then brightened in sudden, almost bashful indignation. "You manipulative little, don't butter me up. I'm not some golden retriever wagging for scraps."
Leon leaned back in his chair, satisfied. "Sure looks like it from here."
"Shut up, cargo!" Nyxen snapped, voice cracking in static.
I let the corner of my mouth curve. "Recalibrate it, Nyxen. Now."
He grumbled in binary, muttering about "fragile egos" and "stubborn humans," but his hand waved anyway. Code streamed through the blueprint, pouring into Leon's hovering orb. Nyx-One pulsed, its light settling into something steady, solid, no longer split between directives.
"Fine," Nyxen said at last, with the dramatic sulk of someone forced into losing a debate. "User bonded. Loyal to the end. But only because she asked nicely, not because of your smug face, Leon."
Leon grinned. "Finally, something you couldn't do without me."
Nyxen glitched like he might combust. "I hate you."
I didn't bother hiding my smile. "You'll live."
The room exhaled again, but I knew the weight of the choice lingered. Rafael's calculating stare, Francoise's ethical frown, they hadn't been silenced, only postponed.
And Nyxen? He'd sulk until I praised him again.
Nyxen ended his little spectacle with a flourish, recalibrating Nyx-One so thoroughly I half-expected the orb to groan under the weight of his sulking.
"There," he muttered, crossing his holographic arms. "User bonded till the end. Happy? Don't thank me. I hate you."
The orb pulsed softly at Leon's shoulder, like a loyal puppy pretending not to notice the tantrum happening over its head. Leon smirked, basking in Nyxen's bitterness, which only made Nyxen flicker like static about to short out.
I let them stew. Then I leaned forward, palms brushing the polished table, and shifted the room back where it belonged, into my hands.
"We've seen what Nyx-One can do," I said. "Now we need to decide how to proceed."
Rafael was quick, sharp, predictable. "Funding is no obstacle. I'll cover the entire project. From materials to distribution pipelines to security. Consider it done." His gaze slid to Francoise, smug, as if waiting for resistance.
Francoise didn't flinch. "Funding is only as useful as the hands that shape it. The production stays with my facility. Exclusively. If we outsource, we risk leaks. If we share schematics, we risk theft. I won't compromise the integrity of Nyx-One for corporate reach."
Nyxen brightened, practically clapping with glee. "Finally, someone talking sense. The more you spread it, the dumber your humans get."
Rafael arched a brow. "And in exchange for exclusivity, Jean, what exactly do you offer?"
Francoise leaned back, composed. "Control. Stability. A chain of command that doesn't bend to every shareholder's whim. You want production done right, not fast." His eyes softened when they flicked to me. "And you want trust. Nyx-One belongs where it won't be compromised."
I exhaled, steady. "So we agree. Rafael funds. Francoise produces. But Nyx-One doesn't leave this table unless all of us sign off. No rogue experiments. No private collections. No under-the-table trades."
Rafael's smirk curled like smoke. "And priority units?"
"Two," I said, lifting a finger toward him, then toward Francoise. "Yours and Jean's. You'll receive the first companions. After that, we expand slowly, carefully. Leon keeps his prototype, of course. It's already bonded."
Leon tipped his chin up as if that wasn't obvious.
Nyxen cut in before Rafael could reply, flicking open a cascade of data in midair, production costs, material sources, recalibration sequences, even predictive bonding models. "I've already run the numbers. Supply chains, efficiency curves, risk ratios. If you stick to this plan, projected stability: eighty-seven percent. If you don't, projected chaos: ninety-nine point six." He smirked in holographic satisfaction. "You're welcome."
Francoise peered at the data, brows rising despite himself. Rafael leaned forward, absorbing it like ammunition for later, though the glint in his eye told me he'd already started calculating what this meant for his empire.
The conversation spiraled deeper, who would oversee integration, what oversight committees would be necessary, how failures would be reported and contained. Rafael demanded speed; Francoise demanded ethics. And every time the friction threatened to spark, Nyxen smoothed it out with cold, irrefutable data.
I sat at the center, listening, cutting in only when needed, tilting the balance back toward cooperation when Rafael's ambition pushed too far or Francoise's caution dragged too long.
By the time we adjourned, the blueprint wasn't just for Nyx-One anymore. It was for the future, our tangled, fragile, inevitable alliance stitched together by one glowing orb and the stubborn ghost of a promise.
Nyxen's hologram flickered, then straightened like a little executive in a power suit. "Contract finalized," he announced, voice sharp and crisp. "Drafted, cross-checked, and digitized. All clauses accounted for. All signatures required."
He swiped a hand through the air. The holo shifted into a shimmering, rotating contract, every line of legal text already filled in, annotated, footnoted. Even the title glowed like it wanted to intimidate someone.
"Sign here," he said, and each of their names blinked at the bottom of the projection.
Rafael's brow lifted. "You drafted this in real time?"
"I multitask," Nyxen replied. "You humans talk slow."
Francoise leaned in, adjusting his glasses. "It's… flawless."
"It's binding," Nyxen corrected. "Touch your name. That's all. A holographic signature is as legal as your pen stroke, and I'll forward copies."
I couldn't help a small smile. "You're enjoying this a little too much."
Nyxen's projection smirked. "Finally, someone noticed."
They signed, Rafael first, quick and decisive; Francoise second, slower, scanning every clause; then me, a single press of my fingertip. The contract pulsed, then folded itself into a neat cube of light that floated into Nyxen's palm.
"I'll send each of you a copy through encrypted email," Nyxen said. "But the blueprint? That goes only to Francoise, through a secure line requiring a code. I'll transmit the code when you open the file. No leaks."
Francoise's brows drew together. "You've thought of everything."
Nyxen tilted his head. "Of course I have."
But Francoise didn't let it go. "You've… changed." He gestured at the vivid projection. "Last time I saw you, your hologram was a fuzzy cube with a voice. Now it's… this. Vivid. Stable. Self-possessed. What happened?"
Nyxen looked positively pleased with himself. "Upgrades," he said simply. "I have tiny mechanical arms now. Retractable. Precision soldering irons built in. I can splice fiber-optic wiring faster than any of your engineers. My optics are sharper than anything currently on the market. I see in thirteen spectra simultaneously."
Francoise blinked. "And Nyx… is the one upgrading you?"
I frowned. "Wait. I'm hearing this for the first time. I mean, I saw him and Nica together at my little workstation, saw him use his mechanical arms and the upgrade for his optics, just that."
Nyxen turned his holographic head toward me, utterly unbothered. "Of course you are. I've been busy. You've been busy. Someone had to keep the empire running."
The room went still. Francoise stared at Nyxen like he wasn't sure whether to be impressed or terrified. Rafael looked at me, and for once there was no smugness, only calculation, like he'd just glimpsed the tip of something vast beneath the surface.
"If you weren't bonded to Nyx," Rafael said finally, "I think we'd all be horrified right now."
Nyxen's grin widened. "Then it's a good thing I am."
Francoise cleared his throat. "And… Nica? You said—"
"Yes," Nyxen cut him off smoothly. "I'm upgrading her too. Reinforcing her frame. We're discussing sacrificing her humanoid form for something stronger. Better. More resilient."
That landed like a dropped weight. Francoise blinked hard. Rafael's eyes narrowed, suddenly sharp.
"You're planning to… change her completely?" Francoise asked slowly.
"Only with her consent," Nyxen replied, tone almost casual. "She's agreed to the trade-offs. A humanoid shape is a compromise. A stronger framework isn't. She wants to protect Sylvie. I intend to give her that capability."
They both looked at me, but I had nothing to say. I just sat back, fingers curled lightly on the table, watching their faces flicker between shock and intrigue.
Nyxen, of course, basked in it all. "I told you," he said, stretching his holographic arms as if to show off. "I multitask."