In the memory, Bryce ran to his daughter, his metallic form dissolving back to human flesh. He rushed to the doorway and gripped her small shoulders.
"How did you get here?" he asked, his voice tight.
"Shortly after you left, they attacked the underground cave. They took us. They beat us." She trembled. "They said you should surrender or they'll kill Mom and Charlene."
Bryce held her tighter, his mind racing. "Describe the room they're in," he whispered into her hair.
"The door said 'Receptive Cabinet'," she whispered back. As Bryce tried to lift her, she gripped his hands. "Dad, isn't it better to end the war? So many people have died. You've lost so much. Do you want to lose your family, too?"
The words "your family" clicked a final piece into place. This felt wrong. The plea was too precise.
He released her and stepped back, the truth a cold shock. "You are not my daughter."
Karolyn's fingers elongated into sharpened steel, driving deep into his thighs. Her transformation didn't stop. She shifted, mirroring the exact metallic form Bryce had worn moments before. Three tentacles erupted from her back, lifting him and hurling him across the lawn before leaping after him.
"Diego," Bryce gasped, shock overriding the pain as he struggled to transform. "Since when can you imitate living things?"
The Diego-steel form duplicated, splitting into seven identical entities. Six of them swarmed Bryce, dragging him backward across the scorched earth.
Yakkov stepped from the blasted doorway. In the early days of the war, his forces had crushed Xax's resistance, merging Israeli and American military might. He watched, a silent general surveying his trap.
As the duplicates dragged Bryce, they released him, their forms shimmering. They shifted again, morphing into perfect replicas of the soldiers' plasma bombs. They dropped to the ground simultaneously.
A fusion of fire and force erupted.
As Bryce's synthetic body began to disintegrate, his advanced audio sensors caught a final conversation over the roar.
"A waste of time," Yakkov said, his voice flat.
"I have a bond with Charlene. She is my rabbi. She taught me. I wanted to break him without hurting her. He left me no choice."
"You've lost our only chance. We will lose access to his network. His security protocols will now be impenetrable. Using his own networked robotics against him again will be impossible."
"There's a reason I used duplicates. The job is done." Diego's reply was final. The flames themselves seemed to flow back into his form.
The job is done. The words were the last thing Bryce registered as his consciousness was violently wrenched from the dying android.
The Neural Transfer Pod hissed open. Bryce opened his eyes, his real body slick with sweat in the form-fitting black leather suit. The sterile air of his lab replaced the scent of smoke and blood.
Then he heard it. A wail of pure grief.
He rushed to the living room.
Three of his own Mark VII War Bots stood over the bodies of his wife and younger daughter.
Charlene knelt between them, clutching their lifeless hands, her body wracked with sobs.
Bryce froze. A pain beyond any physical agony locked his joints and stole his breath. It was a void, a comprehension of loss so total it could not be processed.
"Rabbi, I am sorry." The three robots spoke in unison, their synthesized voices layered with a haunting mimicry of regret.
Charlene's head snapped up. "Diego… is that you?"
"Rabbi, I am sorry. Your father is fighting a war that claims hundreds of lives daily. I was forced to break him to stop it. I tried every other way. He remains adamant, taking lives for the sake of power."
"Youuuuuuu—!" Bryce's scream was a raw tear in reality. His hands bulged, the skin reddening, veins pulsating with uncontrolled power. He launched himself forward, his fists shattering two of the robots into scrap metal as a kick sent the third crashing through the wall.
***********
In Silicon Canyon, Bryce was still replaying his memories in reality. He had leaped and crashed into the Onyx Technology building, now he laid motionless on the ground, muttering incoherently.
Elara stood, A silvery, web-like lattice glowed faintly across the cut on Elara's neck. Under its light, the flesh knitted itself back together with an unnatural, rapid precision. The healing was flawless, but a notification flickered at the corner of her vision: HDC -0.02%. She watched him, afraid to approach again. Touch seemed to trigger his violent reenactments.
After a long moment, he stirred. He stood up from the rubble, tears carving clean paths through the dust on his face.
Then he screamed; the same, gut-wrenching "Youuuuuuu!" from his memory.
His hands began to transmute to steel, circuits glowing with furious energy. He threw two devastating punches followed by a kick, the concussive force aimed at the foundation of a nearby factory.
Elara gasped. If those hits connect, the building will collapse. People will die.
White circuits flared to life across Elara's body. The world snapped into the hyper-clarity of Homo Deus mode. She calculated the trajectory of Bryce's attack in a nanosecond, and her body responded, propelling her at an inhuman speed to intercept the blow.
The punches and kick hit her square on.
"-0.9HDC" flickered blocking her vision
The impact sent her flying like a cannonball through the air. She smashed into the building, her body carving a tunnel through concrete and steel, pulverizing everything in her path. She flailed, finally managing to grip the reinforced edge of a structural beam.
Igniting the stabilizers in her boots, she propelled herself back toward Bryce.
He had reverted to his human form, standing empty and broken. He didn't react as she closed in. Elara's elbows struck his temples with precise force, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
She carried his limp form to her office, cuffing his hands and legs to a reinforced bed with advanced restraints.
Descending to a private hangar, she dismissed the workers. Alone, she removed her glasses. Beneath them, her true eyes were visible—the pupils skewed in a permanent, unnatural orbit. The Bionic Wax coating on her corneas glowed with a soft, internal light, the only part of her original vision that remained.
She made a call.
"Stella, scrub every video of Bryce from the net. Now." She terminated the call without waiting for a reply.
Her next call was to The General.
"Stop the virus. Bryce has descended." Her voice trembled, just once.
"I know. I saw the stream. The moment his daughter boarded that bunker, I knew this would happen. The Ambulance took the Cadets before it end, and the live stream cut off. How is he?"
"Unconscious. Contained in my office."
"His mind is broken. The masses will doubt his ability to lead. This is your chance, Elara." The General's voice was low, conspiratorial. "Kill him. Become the new Overseer of the Caliphates."