404 found himself shaking. He didn’t even know when the tears had started, only that they wouldn’t stop. His chest ached, each breath shallow, unsteady.
He turned away, hoping to hide the weakness spilling down his face, but before he could move far, a hand caught his wrist .
He froze.
The man didn’t say a word. He simply pulled him closer, one breath colliding with another. And then, without warning, his lips crashed against 404’s.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful. It was desperate — like something buried too deep had finally clawed its way out.
And in that single, stolen moment… the world around 404 shattered.
Memories surged through him like a flood breaking a dam.
Laughter under rusted lights.
Warm hands pulling him through a field of broken machines.
The whisper of a promise — “No matter what happens, I’ll find you again.”
Then alarms, chaos, blinding white light — hands torn apart as soldiers dragged them away.
And the silence that followed when he thought he’d lost him forever.
404 stumbled, gripping his head as the images flashed one after another.
Faces, sounds, touches — all of it too real to ignore.
All of it leading back to him.
09.
He looked up, eyes wide, breath trembling. 09 stood there, eyes wet, lips parted like he was afraid to breathe. For the first time, his expression wasn’t guarded — it was raw, breaking, human.
404’s tears came harder.
Because now he remembered.
He remembered everything.
The room went quiet except for their uneven breaths, the sound of hearts trying to catch up to time.
And in that stillness, 404 realized — this wasn’t a stranger standing in front of him.
It was the boy he’d once promised never to forget.
---
The air between them trembled with something unspoken — relief, fear, love, all tangled together.
But before either of them could speak, the floor beneath them pulsed.
A faint vibration — low, rhythmic — like a heartbeat echoing through metal.
09’s expression changed instantly. He looked toward the window. Outside, faint blue lights flickered against the glass. Not drones — something heavier. Larger.
404 turned, eyes widening as shadows crossed the walls. Armored figures descended in silence, surrounding the house from every angle. The air was thick with static, humming with unseen power.
This time, it wasn’t Argo.
It was something worse.
09 reached for 404’s hand, gripping it tightly.
“Stay close,” he whispered.
Turning to face 404,
09 smiled at him through the blur of tears. His voice trembled, raw with regret.
“I knew this moment would come… I just hoped I’d be ready for it. The only thing I ever wanted was for you to remember us—and I’m so sorry, for being the one who broke your life apart.”
For a moment, silence hung between them—thick, fragile, trembling.
404 tried to speak, but no sound came. His throat burned, words trapped beneath the weight of everything unsaid. So instead, he stepped forward, hands shaking, and wrapped his arms around 09.
He held on tightly—like maybe if he did, the world would stop falling apart.
He didn’t say a word. He just waited for the worst.
---
The lights outside brightened, flooding the room with pale blue. The ceiling shook.
And just as the first blast tore through the outer wall, their fingers locked — the only thing holding them together as the world around them fell apart.
----
Thank you for following this story until the end — for every read, comment, and moment you spent with 404 and 09. Your support means more than words can say.
If you loved this journey, don’t stop here.
Dive into my next story, Blood Oath — where love, loyalty, and fate twist in even darker ways.
See you there.
—graytesoul
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INPUT REJECTED
Science FictionHe woke up in a scrap chamber - no name, no memories, no identity. Just a flickering message on his wrist: "INPUT REJECTED." In the cybernetic city of SYNAXIS, where every soul is scanned, sorted, and assigned a function by the all-seeing AI ARG0, h...
