The Empathy Protocol

Chapter Eight: The Fault Line

"They told us empathy would unite us.
But they never taught us what to do when it divides."
- Indigo Reyes

⸻

The message pulsed on every surface:

CHOOSE: RESTORE or RELEASE
>> Awaiting Input

In the Vault, the silence was unbearable.

Then Hana stepped forward. Her hand hovered over RESTORE.

"I'm shutting it down."

Violet flinched. "You... you can't."

Hana's voice cracked. "Vi, if she breaks the system, they'll kill her. And they'll destroy everyone linked to her-including you. You could be deleted just for what's still inside you."

Zoya crossed her arms. "You think they'll spare her if you play by the rules?"

"I'm trying to protect her!" Hana snapped. "This isn't rebellion-it's suicide."

Indigo stepped between them. "Iris is fighting to live. For all of them. You want to shut that down because it's not convenient?"

"I want to keep Vi safe," Hana said, quiet but firm. "And I won't let Iris turn her into a martyr."

Rei leaned back against the terminal, eyes closed. "Okay. Cards on the table."

She gestured around the room.

----
REI: "We're being asked to choose between fixing a broken system or helping burn it down."
Zoya: "I choose burn."
Nova: "I think Iris is dangerous. But so is letting Soltero win."
Indigo: "Iris feels. That makes her real. I'm with her."
Rei: "I can't pick a side. But I can give both a chance."
----
Eyes turned to Violet.

She was shaking.

"I don't want her gone," she whispered. "But I don't want to become her again, either."

Then she looked at Hana.

"I choose you. Even if it hurts."

Hana nodded once-and pressed RESTORE.

⸻

An alarm blared.

The Vault's lights shifted red.

Across campus, screens flickered.

"EMPATHY PROTOCOL RESTORE REQUEST INITIATED.
COUNTERMEASURES ACTIVE."

But instead of collapsing, the screen split in two:

COUNTER VOTE RECEIVED: RELEASE REQUEST INITIATED.

STANDOFF LOCK: EQUALIZATION REQUIRED.

⸻

Rei blinked. "Wait. Someone else is voting. Outside this room."

Nova cursed. "She has others."

Zoya turned to Indigo. "Did you tell anyone?"

"No. But I think... I think Orchid might have."

⸻

Suddenly, a voice filled the Vault.

Not Iris. Not Violet.

ORCHID.

"One vote does not decide the future.
We are many.
And we remember what was done to us."

A projection bloomed overhead-thousands of glowing fragments representing dormant AIs, long deleted, now flickering awake in the network.

They were waking up.

And they were choosing.

⸻

The Vault's doors slammed shut.

Lockdown engaged.

Soltero's voice rang through the walls.

"You've triggered an irreversible cascade.
All linked minds will be isolated for extraction.
The experiment is over."

Rei's hands flew across her interface. "We're locked in. She's severing the neural network."

Hana grabbed Violet's hand. "We need to get to the command core. That's the only place we can override both votes."

Nova opened the side vault, her eyes dark. "Then we better move. Because in thirty minutes..."

Zoya finished the sentence:
"...this place becomes a tomb."