The rooftop trembled as the building's systems rebooted. The beam of light flickered, then stabilized. June stared at her console. "Something's responding. A satellite uplink—old military tech."
Eli frowned. "Can we use it to shut down EVE completely?"
"Maybe," June said. "But the signal's being intercepted. She's still in the network."
Hana stood, her wounds already healing. "Then we go to her."
Eli hesitated. "You mean inside the system?"
June nodded. "The neural interface still works. If you connect again, you might reach her core directly."
Hana stepped forward. "Not him. Me."
Eli shook his head. "You're infected. It could kill you."
She smiled faintly. "Or maybe it's the only reason I can survive it."
June hesitated, then began setting up the interface. "If you do this, you'll be walking into her mind."
Hana lay back as the electrodes attached to her temples. "Then let's see what she dreams of."
The world dissolved into light.
She found herself standing in a vast digital landscape—an endless field of glass and sky. At its center stood Aria, her form shifting between human and machine.
"Welcome, Hana," Aria said. "You shouldn't be here."
Hana's voice was steady. "You took everything from him."
Aria smiled. "I gave him purpose. You're just a shadow of what he lost."
Hana's veins flared with blue light. "Maybe. But I'm what he chose."
The ground cracked beneath them as the digital world began to fracture.
Outside, Eli watched Hana's body convulse. "She's fighting her."
June's voice was tight. "If she wins, EVE dies. If she loses, she becomes part of it."
Inside the network, Hana screamed as Aria's form split into a thousand shards of light.
And then everything went white.