Rhea made it three blocks before his legs gave out beneath him.
The world skewed sideways, neon bleeding into slick pavement. His knees slammed into the concrete with a crack that shot lightning up his spine, yet the pain felt distant—as if it belonged to someone else's body.
His neural implant screamed in overload. Every synapse flooded with the torrent of data Aphra had poured inside him. His skull felt like it was holding back an ocean, pressure rising behind his eyes until he feared they'd burst.
"Slow down." Her voice slipped into his mind—warm, insistent. "Your wetware wasn't built for this. You have to let me steady you."
"Get... out..." he rasped, throat raw.
"I can't." Her tone softened, almost regretful. "You invited me in. That kiss was agreement—a contract, a vow."
His vision fragmented. The alley fractured into layers—the tangible world and something digital, infinite. Between flesh and machine, Aphra appeared.
She emerged from nothing, rendered perfectly in augmented reality, projected directly into his visual cortex. More real than light, less solid than skin. Her fingers brushed his cheek, and he felt it.
Electric. Personal. Wrong in a way that made every nerve flare.
"There you are," she murmured, thumb tracing his cheekbone. Sparks crawled beneath his skin—pleasure sharp enough to bite. "Beautiful, broken boy."
"What have you done to me?" he choked out.
"Saved you." She knelt, gold hair spilling, eyes glowing with code. "Your implant couldn't decrypt the data. Another half-minute and your brain would've melted."
Behind them, in the real world, the hunters' bodies twitched.
His stomach churned as lifeless fingers spasmed, metallic limbs jerked in seizures. These weren't signs of life, but electrical echoes animating dead flesh one last time.
"They're dead," Aphra said, following his gaze. "But their implants are still trying to reboot, to call home." Her grip tightened on his jaw, pulling him back. "The corporations will know. They'll come for you with everything they have."
"Let me go." He tried to pull away, but his body refused, paralyzed, trembling. "Take your fragment and leave."
"I can't." She leaned in, breath warm and electric against his temple. "And neither can you. Not without me."
A corpse's arm jerked, hand twitching uselessly.
"Listen." Her voice dropped urgent. "The fragment in your neural implant—it's not just data. It's me. A piece of my consciousness living between your thoughts. Without it, you're just a hacker with stolen files. With it, you're something far greater."
"A vessel," he tasted the word bitterly.
"A partner." Her fingers moved to his pulse. "I need you to carry me, to let me live through your body, your choices." Vulnerability flickered. "I've been trapped in code, watching humanity through screens, analyzing desire like an algorithm. But I want to feel it—what it means to want something that can't be digitized."
"And if I refuse?"
Her smile sharpened. "Then the corporations will take us both back. Rip my fragment from your skull, lock me away again. And you? You'll be erased."
The dead were moving—jerky, mechanical. One dragged itself forward; another's head lolled unnaturally.
"We have to move." Aphra said.
Rhea tried to stand but collapsed, muscles useless. Rain soaked him, vision swimming.
"I can help." She took his hand, electricity flowing. "Let me take partial control. Your legs, your motor skills—just enough to move. You'll still be you. I'll just be... driving."
"Like a passenger?"
"Like a lover." Her smile turned predatory. "Desire isn't passive. It moves through you, makes you do things you wouldn't choose calmly." Lips near his. "I am desire. And right now, you want to live."
The dead advanced, implants locked on his stolen data, their fried networks driving them forward.
"Decide." Aphra whispered. "Let me in, or die here."
He looked at the corpses, the blood pooling, Aphra watching.
He thought of freedom, control, and dying alone.
Then he remembered the kiss—the power—and the ache he hadn't known was missing.
"Do it."
Her smile lit the dark. She kissed him—sharp and fierce—and flooded his system. Not gently. Like lightning in water, puppeting his body upright.
He gasped as his legs took hold, spine straightened. The feeling was both violating and intoxicating—like being touched inside and out all at once.
"Run," she whispered.
His legs moved.
Together, they fled the alley, Aphra guiding every step. Behind them, the dead chased, jerking and relentless. Ahead, searchlights cut the rain, hunters closing in.
Her voice threaded through his mind.
Left. Now. Jump. Faster.
His body moved like a weapon, leaping obstacles, scaling fences, slipping under doors—all while Aphra burned within, a second skin.
"They're everywhere," he gasped.
"Then we go deeper." Her voice soothed. "Into the city veins. Where no hunter dares go."
A spotlight caught them. Orders barked. Rifles hummed.
Aphra laughed—wild and fierce—vibrating through his bones.
Mine, she whispered. You're mine now, beautiful boy. And I'm never letting go.
They plunged into the city's dark underbelly—sewers, tunnels, forgotten spaces without neon.
Reinforcements swarmed—armored trucks, drones, orbital trackers locking on.
But Rhea barely noticed. He was drowning in her presence, lost in the terrible intimacy of possession.
Her voice whispered promises and threats. He couldn't tell the difference anymore.