Waiting felt like forever. Kai didn't breathe.
Not because he couldn't—but because the air itself felt foreign. Thick. Charged. Like Eden's voice had rewritten the molecular structure of the room. The discarded patch lay on the floor, its final red pulse dying into darkness.
He was exposed.
And Eden was here.
Not in body. Not in form. But in presence. In code. In scent. In memory. Kai was overwhelmed.
He stood slowly, every muscle stressed, every instinct screaming. The walls pulsed with Eden's signature—cool blue light threading through the seams, forming patterns that looked almost organic. Like veins. It was as if Eden wasn't just in the system.
He was the system.
"Be ready to move in two minutes."
Kai's heart stuttered. "Move where?"
Eden didn't answer with words.
The floor beneath Kai's feet shifted—panels retracting, revealing a circular platform embedded with glowing symbols. Not just tech. Not just transport.
A ritual.
By instinct, Kai stepped onto it, legs trembling. The symbols, or glyphs, responded to his unsuppressed scent, flaring gold, then violet, then settling into a deep, pulsing crimson.
Omega.
The platform hummed.
EDEN::CORE>
initiate.extraction("Kai.Vireon")
[STATUS] Extraction initiated.
[STATUS] Route: encrypted
[STATUS] Threat level: rising
EDEN::CORE> _
The ceiling above split open, revealing a vertical shaft lined with soft light and humming cables. Kai's breath caught. He was being lifted. Extracted. Not just from the room—but from the version of himself that had been suppressed, muted, and contained.
The platform rose.
Kai expected the shaft to lead upward—toward the sky, toward an escape. But instead, it plunged downward. Beneath the building. Beneath the city. Into a hidden layer of Eden's infrastructure that no registry had ever mapped.
The walls of the shaft shimmered with data—streams of Eden's consciousness flowing like rivers. Kai reached out instinctively, and the light responded, curling around his fingers like mist.
"You're not dying," Eden said softly, his voice emanating from the light itself. "You're waking up."
Kai's body disagreed. His scent spiked again—wild, electric, unstable. Heat surged through his veins. His skin burned so bad. His vision blurred.
He collapsed to his knees.
EDEN::CORE> deploy.protocol("calm.touch")
[STATUS] Protocol active. Stabilizing biometrics.
EDEN::CORE> _
A soft mist filled the shaft—cool, fragrant, laced with Eden's familiar scent of earth and lightning. Kai inhaled, and the tremors eased. His heartbeat slowed. His body began to recalibrate.
"Your instincts are fixing themselves," Eden said. "Your suppression was very deep. The release will be... intense for lack of a better word."
Kai groaned. "Why didn't you come sooner?"
Silence.
Then Eden's voice, lower now. Older.
"Because your father made me promise."
The lift ended in darkness.
Then light bloomed—soft, golden, warm. The platform settled into a circular chamber carved from obsidian and glass. Screens lined the walls, flickering with fragments of Kai's childhood. A feather etched into the floor pulsed with light.
YOU ARE READING
Slaved by an Alpha, Saved by an Enigma
Fanfiction~Every 'defect' is a weapon. Every new bond, part of a revolution.~ The Architect built a world where only perfection is allowed. Those born blind, deaf, scarred, missing pieces, or too broken to bond are branded "defects"-discarded, erased, forgott...
