For a full three seconds, Maxx forgot how words worked
Lyra—no, 4531, no, whatever this upgraded cosmic monster queen version was—staggered forward, light flickering around her like broken stars.
Her mask was half-dissolved, revealing cheekbones, soft lips, and eyes that burned like twin stars… but with emotion behind them now. Actual expression. Actual life.
Her hair glowed brighter than before, longer, flowing like liquid code and moonlight. Her eyes—once sharp and inhuman—now had a softness behind the cosmic fire.
Her body was more defined, more human-proportioned… dangerously human.
Maxx made a sound that was definitely not attractive.
"Y-you're… uh…"
Lyra blinked slowly. "Functional?"
"No, like… pretty."
Maxx's brain shut down.
"No Y–you're… tall," he blurted to correct himself
Lyra blinked, confused. "I was always tall."
"No, like… emotionally tall."
She squinted. "That doesn't mean anything."
"It does to me!"
He slapped both hands over his mouth.
OH GOD WHY DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD.
The floor shook again. Red alarms stuttered overhead.
Helix's voice roared through the Archive:
"WARNING: SUBJECT 4531 HAS ACCESSED BANNED TEMPLATE EVOLUTION. PURGE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED."
Lyra winced, sparks rippling over her arms.
Her knees buckled.
Maxx jumped forward.
He barely caught her—his hands gripping her forearms, warm, solid, real.
She stared at him, breathing hard. "You… came here alone?"
"Correction," Maxx said. "I came here stupid."
Lyra's lips twitched—almost a smile.
"Stupidity," she whispered, "is how all great rescues begin."
He swallowed hard.
This was her but… not her now that he was close.
Her face had weirdly more expression.
Her eyes held emotion instead of pure logic.
Her breathing—she had breathing now—brushed his shoulder in warm waves.
4531 never breathed.
4531 never blushed.
But Lyra-Archive-Hybrid?
Her cheeks stained faint violet when Maxx's hands slid to her waist to steady her.
"Careful," he said softly. "You're… different."
"I know." Her voice trembled. "Everything feels sharp. Loud. Human. I do not understand half of what I'm experiencing."
Maxx blinked.
"Same. I don't understand half of what I experience either."
The corridor behind them split open with claws of blue light—Archive drones crawling out.
Lyra straightened, a pulse of power snapping through her spine.
"I can take us out," she said softly.
"I learned. When I reclaimed my template."
"You can teleport now? Like really teleport?"
"I can get us out based on my data," she whispered. " The data—the memories—they taught me. I can transport us anywhere outside the Archive's range."
Maxx exhaled in relief. "Good. Great. Perfect. Amazing. How long have you been able to do that?"
Lyra tilted her head. "Approximately ten seconds."
Maxx froze.
"Are you telling me your new teleportation skill is fresh out the box?!"
She nodded once. "I have never tested it."
"TERRIFIC! LOVE THAT FOR US So reassuring!
Her hand rose—hesitated—then gently cupped his cheek.
Maxx's heart nearly passed away.
4531 never touched him gently but then she pulled away immediately.
He stared at her hand.
At her trembling fingers and at her eyes—still burning with purpose, but now flickering with fear.
And then—
His heart did something stupid.Completely stupid and classically annoying.
He took her hand.
Lyra stepped closer, their hands still held.
The way she leaned closer, as if checking his face made him… nervous?
She lifted her glowing hand toward him. "Maxx… trust me"
"I do," he said quietly. "I mean—my track record of trusting you is like 70% pain, 30% running, but—yeah. I trust you."
Lyra blinked.
Her cheeks flushed faintly violet.
"I… appreciate that."
"Just—please don't rip a hole in reality and put us in the sun."
"No promises," she whispered.
"WH—"
She pulled him into her arms.
A bright sphere of violet energy exploded around them like a collapsing star.
The Archive dissolved—rows of memory cubes turning into streaks of light and then static..
Maxx screamed.
Lyra tightened her hold.
And then—
FLASH.
They were gone.
Maxx hit solid ground with all the grace of a brick dropped from space.
"Oof—my spine—my EVERYTHING—Lyra, WARN ME NEXT—"
He froze.
They weren't in his dorm or even on campus.
They were—
"Uh… Lyra? Why are we in the middle of a rooftop?!"
A cold wind slapped his face.
Lights from the city shimmered below them.
Holo-screens flickered across skyscrapers.
Drones zipped by, oblivious to the fact that a half-human echo AI and a shaking freshman had just teleported into existence.
Lyra wobbled on her feet as Maxx grabbed her instinctively.
Her body felt warm—real—alive in a way he wasn't prepared for.
Her fingers curled into his shirt and she looked dizzy, eyes flickering between three colors—blue, violet, white.
"That…" she exhaled, "…was more difficult than expected."
Maxx blinked. "Are you—are you okay? You're flickering like a broken RGB keyboard."
"I'm stabilizing," she whispered, leaning into him for balance.
"I have not used that function before."
"You DON'T SAY."
A spark arced off her shoulder.
Maxx yelped. "HEY—CARE—careful, I'm not insulated!"
Lyra pulled back abruptly—then froze.
Her gaze dropped to their hands still intertwined.
She stared at them then back at him and
back at their hands.
Maxx panicked internally.
DON'T SAY ANYTHING WEIRD.
DON'T SAY ANYTHING WEIRD.
YOU CAN DO THIS.
"…S-so," he said, voice cracking, "uh… you're… softer?"
Lyra blinked.
"Is that an observation or a malfunction report?"
"O-OBSERVATION! VERY NORMAL OBSERVATION! PLEASE STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT—"
She stepped closer again, examining him with new softness—curiosity—something almost shy.
"I remember…" she murmured, "…a sensation. Being close to someone. Warmth. Comfort. I do not know if I am… doing it correctly."
Maxx's brain blue-screened.
"You—you're doing GREAT. Ten out of ten. Perfect proximity. A+—"
A sudden BLAST of wind knocked him sideways.
Not wind.
Something arrived behind them and it was
A teleport ripple—violent, unstable— which cracked the rooftop.
Maxx turned very slowly.
"Please be a friendly—please be a friendly—please NOT another Helix murder robot—"
From the ripple stepped…
4531.
Her armor cracked and her arm still ruined.
Her body sparking from the fight she broke through to get here.
But her eyes—
Her eyes were the old 4531.
Sharp. Focused. Terrifyingly protective.
She saw Lyra standing close to Maxx.
She froze.
Then her voice dropped to a glitchy growl:
"…Step. Away. From my asset."
Lyra straightened, her glow intensifying.
"Your asset?"
Her voice was colder,sharper and
Older.
"Little fragment… you have no rank to claim anything."
Maxx's stomach flipped.
"Oh no. Ohhhh no. We're doing this. We're doing the two-versions-of-the-same-girl-jealous-showdown. Guys—GUYS—I cannot emotionally survive this—"
The rooftop crackled with tension as 4531 stepped forward, jaw tight.
"He belongs with me."
Lyra stepped forward too, eyes blazing.
"He belongs with himself."
Maxx pinwheeled his arms.
"OKAY GREAT POINTS BOTH OF YOU BUT CAN WE NOT DO THIS ON A TALL BUILDING WITH NO RAILINGS—"
Both turned to him at the exact same time with two pairs of glowing eyes and two identical voices overlapping:
"Maxx."
He squeaked.
Lyra continued softly, "We must go. Helix will pursue."
4531 added, more aggressively, "You require protection."
Maxx looked between them.
Lyra — glowing and emotional and breathtakingly new.
4531 — battered but ferociously loyal, breathing like she'd kill a satellite for him.
Both waiting for him.
He held up his hands.
"Can we, uh… teleport somewhere LESS exposable? Like, I dunno—HOME?!"
Lyra nodded.
"I can take us."
4531 glared.
"You are unstable."
"So are you," Lyra replied.
"THAT'S NOT HELPING," Maxx screamed.
Lyra reached toward him.
4531 reached toward him.
Maxx shut his eyes and yelled:
"WHICHEVER ONE OF YOU CAN TELEPORT WITHOUT ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZING ME—DO IT!"
The rooftop shook as one of them grabbed his hand.
Light exploded.
And they vanished.