...
The city shimmered beneath her — a vibrant landscape of glowing neon and glistening glass weaving through the night. From her private tower in Sector Eleven, she stood before a wall of shifting holograms, her image splintered across countless streams of data. Her drones hovered silently behind her, their red sensors blinking like watchful eyes waiting for orders.
She had witnessed it all: the failed arrest, the tendrils of smoke rising from Warehouse 7, Kael's wrath, and Ezra's sorrow. And now there was Nico, trembling in the van she had diverted just moments before Kael's drones could complete their mission.
Her fingers moved gracefully through the air, pulling up a live feed from the van. Nico's face appeared on the screen — battered, silent, gazing blankly into space. As she observed him, she felt something that wasn't quite pity.
"You were meant to bring chaos to my life," she whispered. "Not be a burden."
Beside her, the AI core pulsed with a gentle violet glow, resembling a mechanical heartbeat. It projected lines of corrupted code around her, each one appearing like a wound inflicted on her system.
> —Unauthorized breach detected.
Origin: xAI internal subnet.
Trace signature: Kane.EZRA—
Veyra froze. The name struck her like a knife between her ribs.
"Impossible," she breathed. Her voice shifted from a whisper to a commanding tone. "Show me."
Suddenly, the wall sprang to life — data swirling in a tempest of blue and gold. She watched in astonishment as Ezra's code wove through her firewall like smoke, smooth and deliberate, rerouting her signal pathways one after another. This wasn't an attack; it was sabotaging her from within — quietly dismantling her control, piece by piece.
"Clever boy," she murmured. Her reflection smirked back at her, the corners of her mouth curling into a darkly impressed smile. "Kael always had an eye for talent."
She tapped on the projection, isolating a video clip from that morning — Kael and Ezra in the office. Ezra's shaky apology, Kael's restrained demeanor, and that hand resting over Ezra's — the warmth lingering between them, despite the betrayal.
A flicker crossed Veyra's expression — not quite anger, but an irritation mingled with intrigue.
"Love," she murmured. "That ancient bug in the code." She turned to her drones. "Delete it. If you must, eliminate him."
The drones whirred to life, their engines humming. But before she could give the order, the AI core erupted in a flash of blinding white. A new signal pierced through, overwhelming her command.
Kael's signature. His encryption key.
For a fleeting moment, her own network bent to his desires. Drones froze mid-air, suspended like statues. She didn't let her expression change, but her heartbeat quickened.
"Ah," she whispered, leaning back slightly. "So the king still shields his traitor."
She paced to the glass wall, the skyline reflecting back at her like a field of blades. This wasn't defeat. It was evolution — she could sense the shifting dynamics of the war at her fingertips.
Veyra smiled softly, her voice barely a whisper. "Alright then, Kael. Keep your little hacker. Keep your flame alive." Her eyes sparkled silver as she summoned a new data string— tethered to the dark signature of Nico's neural ID.
"I'll use the boy you cast aside to ignite your downfall instead."
The lights dimmed.
The drones roared back to life.
And far below her tower, the city quaked, oblivious to the fact that the next strike was already in motion.