The white world shattered like glass, and for a terrifying moment, Arav and Riya were falling through a void filled with screaming faces and fragmented memories. Then they landed hard in what looked like a control room made of light, with the dark, pulsing knot of Verma's corruption throbbing at its center.
And there, connected to the knot by glowing cables of energy, was the ghost of Rajesh Sharma.
"Father?" Riya whispered, her voice breaking.
The figure turned, and Arav's breath caught. Officer Sharma looked exactly like the photos in Riya's apartment, except translucent and flickering like a faulty hologram. His eyes were sad but clear.
"Riya?" he said, and his voice echoed as if coming from a great distance. "You shouldn't be here."
Verma materialized beside them, looking pleased. "Remarkable, isn't he? I couldn't let such a brilliant mind go to waste. So I preserved him—the first successful full-consciousness upload."
Riya's face was a mask of grief and fury. "You trapped him here? For eight years?"
"Trapped?" Verma chuckled. "I saved him! His body may be gone, but his mind has done more for dream science than anyone in history."
Arav was watching the cables connecting Sharma to the dark knot. "He's not just powering the system," he realized. "He's fighting it. Look."
Indeed, where the cables met Rajesh's form, there was a constant, subtle push-pull. Tiny fractures ran through the dark knot where Rajesh's consciousness was slowly, patiently resisting.
"You always were too clever for your own good, Arav," Verma said, his smile fading. "Yes, Rajesh has been... uncooperative. But now that you're both here, I won't need him anymore."
Verma raised his hand, and new cables shot toward Arav and Riya.
The Real World - 11:27 PM
Kiran watched in horror as Verma put on a dream headset and connected himself to the system. The man's body went still in a special chair as his consciousness joined the battle in the dreamscape.
This was it—the chance Kiran had been waiting for.
While the guards were distracted by the monitors, Kiran made his move. Years of forced research had taught him exactly how the neural locks worked. He'd been secretly disabling his own for weeks.
The lock around his wrist clicked open.
The female attendant noticed and opened her mouth to shout, but Kiran was faster. He'd been a dream hacker, yes, but he'd grown up on Mumbai's streets long before that.
Two quick strikes and both attendants were down. The guards turned, weapons raising, but Kiran was already at the control panel.
"I'm sorry it took me so long, Rajesh," he whispered, and began typing furiously.
The Foundational Layer - Dreamscape
The cables snapped toward Arav and Riya, but Rajesh Sharma moved faster. With a roar of effort, he tore himself free from the dark knot, the energy cables shattering like glass.
"Get to the core!" he shouted to them. "I'll hold him off!"
The dream space became a battlefield. Rajesh and Verma clashed like gods, their forms shifting as they wrestled for control of the very reality around them.
Arav grabbed Riya's hand. "Come on! Your father bought us a chance!"
They ran toward the dark, pulsing knot—the heart of Verma's control system. As they approached, Arav could see it wasn't just darkness—it was a complex structure of corrupted code and malicious programming.
"I don't know how to destroy this!" Riya said, her hands hovering over the pulsating mass.
"Not destroy," Arav said, his eyes scanning the structure. "We need to purify it. Reboot the system."
He began manipulating the code, his fingers moving through the light like a musician playing an instrument. This was what he was born to do—not stealing dreams, but understanding them.
The Real World - 11:43 PM
Kiran worked frantically as alarms blared throughout the laboratory. He'd freed the other dreamers from their chairs, but they were still unconscious, trapped in the dreamscape.
"Come on, kids," he muttered, watching Arav and Riya's vital signs on the monitor. "Whatever you're doing, do it faster."
Guards were pounding on the reinforced door. They'd be inside in minutes.
Kiran made a decision. He began rerouting all power to the dream stabilization systems. If this worked, Arav and Riya would have the energy they needed. If it failed... well, they were all dead anyway.
The Dreamscape - Final Confrontation
Rajesh Sharma was fading, his form becoming more translucent with each passing moment.
"I can't hold much longer!" he called to them.
"We're almost there!" Arav shouted back.
The dark knot was beginning to brighten, the corruption receding under Arav's skilled manipulation. But Verma noticed what was happening.
"Enough of this!" Verma roared.
He abandoned his fight with Rajesh and surged toward Arav and Riya. But Rajesh made one final, desperate move—he wrapped what remained of his consciousness around Verma, holding him fast.
"Riya!" her father called. "I'm so proud of the woman you've become. Now finish this!"
Tears streamed down Riya's face, but her hands were steady as she helped Arav with the final commands.
The dark knot erupted in pure, white light.
The Real World - 11:59 PM
The explosion of light wasn't just in the dreamscape—it filled the laboratory, blinding everyone. When it cleared, all the dreamers were waking up, coughing and confused.
Arav and Riya jerked awake in their chairs, the neural headsets smoking slightly.
Kiran rushed to them, helping remove their restraints. "You did it! The system's rebooting—all the corruption is gone!"
But Riya's eyes went to the chair where Verma's body sat. The man was awake, but his eyes were empty. Vacant.
"His consciousness was still in the system when it rebooted," Arav said quietly. "It... didn't survive."
Riya turned to where her father had been connected. "And my father?"
Kiran's face was sorrowful. "He's gone, Riya. But he died free, saving thousands."
As the first CIB teams finally breached the laboratory, Riya leaned against Arav, exhausted but victorious. They'd stopped Verma, but the cost had been high.
Across the city, people were waking from strange dreams they couldn't quite remember, unaware of how close they'd come to losing their minds forever.
The dream war was over. But for Arav and Riya, a new partnership was just beginning.