Chapter 136: Heavy Air

The notification remained suspended in the air.

[SASHA WAS SELECTED BY SOMEONE ELSE.]

Sasha didn't move.

Dillan stared at the words.

"Who?"

The System remained silent.

Elara looked toward the oak tree.

"You're asking the wrong question."

Dillan turned.

"Then what should I ask?"

Elara looked at Sasha.

"Ask why."

Sasha's expression tightened.

"Don't."

Dillan looked at her.

"Sasha?"

She lowered her eyes.

"I don't want to know."

The words were barely audible.

Dillan stepped closer.

"Why?"

Sasha's hands trembled.

"Because if I wasn't chosen by you…"

She swallowed.

"…then maybe everything I felt wasn't mine."

Dillan immediately shook his head.

"No."

"You don't know that."

"I know you."

"But do you?"

Sasha looked up.

Her eyes were wet.

"What if someone selected me because they knew I'd love you?"

The question silenced everyone.

The System flickered.

[EMOTIONAL AUTONOMY: UNDER REVIEW.]

Sasha stared at it.

"No."

The notification remained.

She stepped forward.

"I chose him."

[STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGED.]

"I stayed because I wanted to."

[STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGED.]

"I sacrificed myself because I wanted to save him."

[STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGED.]

Her voice became stronger.

"Then tell me who selected me."

The System finally responded.

[IDENTITY: RESTRICTED.]

Sasha clenched her fists.

"Why?"

[DISCLOSURE WOULD ALTER SUBJECT'S CURRENT MEMORY STRUCTURE.]

Dillan stepped forward.

"Then don't reveal the identity."

Everyone looked at him.

Dillan continued.

"Show us the decision."

The System flickered.

[REQUEST ACCEPTED.]

The world changed.

Sasha stood alone inside the Preservation Core.

Younger.

Frightened.

She had just watched Dillan collapse.

The Core's machinery surrounded her.

A voice spoke from somewhere beyond the white walls.

"He will die."

Sasha looked around.

"Who are you?"

"Someone giving you a choice."

"I don't want your choice."

"Then choose freely."

A door appeared.

Beyond it was Dillan.

Alive.

Another door appeared.

Beyond it was Sasha.

Alive.

The voice continued.

"Choose yourself."

Sasha stared at her own reflection.

Then at Dillan.

She walked toward Dillan.

The voice stopped her.

"If you choose him, you will become an Anchor."

Sasha froze.

"What happens to me?"

"You will carry his emotional instability."

"And him?"

"He will live."

Sasha looked toward Dillan.

"Will he remember me?"

"Not completely."

"Will he love me?"

A pause.

"That cannot be guaranteed."

Sasha's eyes filled with tears.

Then she smiled.

"I'll still choose him."

The memory froze.

Dillan stared.

"She chose herself."

Elara nodded.

"No."

She looked at Sasha.

"She chose to become herself through a choice nobody gave her."

The memory continued.

The mysterious voice spoke again.

"Then the selection is complete."

Sasha frowned.

"I thought I was choosing."

"You were."

"Then why did you call it a selection?"

Silence.

Then:

"Because someone selected you before you entered the room."

The memory shattered.

Sasha stumbled backward.

Dillan caught her.

"Who selected you?"

She shook her head.

"I don't know."

Elara looked toward the sky.

"I do."

Everyone turned.

Elara's expression had become serious.

"The person who selected Sasha…"

She paused.

"…wasn't choosing Sasha."

Dillan frowned.

"Then what were they choosing?"

Elara looked directly at him.

"They were choosing you."

Silence.

Dillan's blood ran cold.

The System appeared.

[SECOND ANCHOR SELECTION: PURPOSE REVEALED.]

[PRIMARY TARGET: DILLAN RUREN.]

[SECONDARY SUBJECT: SASHA RUREN.]

[SELECTION INTENT: FORCE HOST INTO EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY.]

Sasha stared at the notification.

"No…"

Her voice broke.

"So my choice…"

Dillan turned toward her.

"Was still yours."

"But someone put me there."

"Yes."

"They knew I'd choose you."

"Maybe."

"They designed the situation."

Dillan reached for her hand.

"But they didn't control your answer."

Sasha stared at him.

"You really believe that?"

"I do."

The System flickered.

[CONFIRMATION.]

[EXTERNAL SELECTION DOES NOT EQUAL INTERNAL CONSENT.]

Sasha closed her eyes.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Then she smiled.

"Good."

Dillan looked at her.

"Good?"

She opened her eyes.

"Because if someone chose me for you…"

Her expression hardened.

"…then they made one mistake."

"What?"

Sasha stepped forward.

"I chose myself anyway."

The chamber shook.

The System suddenly flashed crimson.

[EXTERNAL AUTHORITY DETECTED.]

Mara looked toward the horizon.

"No."

The sky darkened.

A voice echoed across the world.

"That was never your choice to make."

Sasha's expression changed.

Dillan stepped in front of her.

"Show yourself."

The voice laughed.

"You still think this is about Sasha."

A massive eye appeared above the clouds.

Then a second.

Then a third.

Elara looked upward.

Her face went pale.

"They're not watching you anymore."

Dillan stared at the sky.

"What are they watching?"

Elara whispered:

"They're watching the person who selected Sasha."

The System displayed one final warning.

[IDENTITY TRACE INITIATED.]

[SEARCHING…]

[SEARCHING…]

[SEARCH COMPLETE.]

Dillan waited.

The answer appeared.

[SELECTOR: DILLAN RUREN.]

Silence.

Dillan's face went blank.

Sasha whispered:

"No…"

Elara slowly closed her eyes.

"He selected you."

Dillan stared at his own name.

And somewhere inside the darkness, a younger version of his voice whispered:

"I needed someone who would choose me."

The name remained suspended in the air.

[SELECTOR: DILLAN RUREN.]

Nobody spoke.

Sasha stared at the notification.

Then at Dillan.

"You…"

Dillan couldn't answer.

His own name had never looked so unfamiliar.

Elara stepped backward.

"That shouldn't be possible."

Mara looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because the selection happened before Dillan had the authority to select anyone."

Dillan's eyes narrowed.

"Then who was I?"

The Retained Self answered.

"The version of you that existed before you remembered being Dillan."

The chamber went cold.

A memory appeared.

A tiny room.

White walls.

A child sitting alone.

Four years old.

Dillan.

But different.

No fear.

No sadness.

Just determination.

A voice surrounded him.

WHO DO YOU WANT?

The child looked up.

"I don't know."

THEN WHAT DO YOU NEED?

The child thought for a moment.

"Someone who won't leave."

The memory flickered.

Six silhouettes appeared.

The child looked at each one.

Then his eyes stopped on one.

Sasha.

The silhouette brightened.

[SELECTION REGISTERED.]

Dillan's face went pale.

"No…"

Sasha stared at the memory.

"That was me."

The child nodded.

He had selected Sasha before he even knew her.

Before he understood love.

Before he understood choice.

Before he understood what it meant to ask someone to stay.

The memory continued.

The child looked toward the unseen voice.

"Will she stay?"

[NOT GUARANTEED.]

"Then make her stay."

The entire chamber trembled.

Sasha's expression shattered.

Dillan closed his eyes.

The Retained Self whispered:

"That was the beginning."

The memory changed.

The child was older.

Standing beneath the oak tree.

Sasha was beside him.

Aurelia stood nearby.

The One Who Stays watched from beneath the branches.

Dillan heard his younger voice.

"I don't want anyone to leave."

The System answered.

[DESIRE REGISTERED.]

"I want everyone to stay."

[IMPOSSIBLE.]

"Then I'll make a place where they can."

The First Lock appeared.

Then the Second.

Then the others.

Dillan watched in horror as his younger self began creating the architecture of everything that followed.

The System.

The Anchors.

The preservation protocols.

The emotional safeguards.

The rules.

All of it.

Not because someone forced him.

Because he was terrified.

The memory ended.

Dillan opened his eyes.

"So I selected Sasha."

Sasha nodded slowly.

"But that wasn't my choice."

"No."

Dillan looked at her.

"It was mine."

Sasha shook her head.

"It was your fear."

The words struck him.

She stepped closer.

"You didn't choose me because you knew me."

Dillan remained silent.

"You chose the idea of someone who wouldn't leave."

Sasha's voice trembled.

"And then I became that person."

The System appeared.

[EMOTIONAL MODEL IDENTIFIED.]

[INITIAL SELECTION WAS BASED ON EXPECTED BEHAVIOR.]

[SUBJECT SASHA RUREN WAS NOT FORCED.]

[HOWEVER…]

The notification glitched.

Then another line appeared.

[ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS WERE ARTIFICIALLY ALTERED TO INCREASE PROBABILITY OF ATTACHMENT.]

Sasha's face went pale.

Dillan stared.

"Meaning?"

Elara answered.

"Your world was designed to make Sasha love you."

Silence.

Sasha looked at Dillan.

"And yet…"

She placed a hand over her heart.

"…I still chose."

Dillan's eyes softened.

"Yes."

"Even if the beginning wasn't mine…"

She took a breath.

"…the ending can be."

The System flickered.

[STATEMENT ACCEPTED.]

Then the sky cracked.

The gigantic eyes returned.

But this time, they weren't watching Sasha.

They weren't watching Dillan.

They were watching the memory.

The four-year-old Dillan.

The child who had made the first selection.

A voice descended from above.

"YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER HIM."

Dillan looked toward the child.

The child looked back.

For the first time, he wasn't afraid.

He smiled.

Then he pointed toward the sky.

"That's why I made you."

Dillan froze.

"Made me?"

The child nodded.

"You were supposed to grow up and forget me."

The Retained Self stepped forward.

"And when he forgot?"

The child looked at her.

"You remembered for him."

Dillan's chest tightened.

The child continued:

"But there was one thing I couldn't make."

"What?"

The child pointed at Sasha.

"I could choose who he would meet."

Then he pointed at Dillan.

"But I couldn't choose who he'd become."

The sky shook violently.

The eyes began closing.

The voice screamed:

"MEMORY PURGE INITIATED."

Dillan stepped forward.

"No."

The System flashed for the first time since its termination.

Not as an authority.

As a witness.

[MEMORY PURGE DETECTED.]

[WITNESS AUTHORITY: ACTIVE.]

[PURGE CANNOT PROCEED WITHOUT SUBJECT CONSENT.]

Dillan stared at the sky.

Then he smiled faintly.

"You finally understand."

The eyes opened again.

Dillan raised his head.

"I don't need a System to tell me what to choose."

Sasha stepped beside him.

Aurelia joined her.

Then Alina.

Dana.

Lyra.

Evelyn.

The Retained Self.

Mara.

Elara.

Everyone stood together.

Dillan looked toward the four-year-old version of himself.

"You chose Sasha for me."

The child nodded.

"But I'm choosing her now."

Sasha's eyes widened.

Dillan turned toward her.

"Not because I need someone who won't leave."

He extended his hand.

"But because you're someone I know."

Sasha stared at his hand.

Then took it.

The sky cracked again.

The voice screamed.

And the four-year-old Dillan smiled.

"Now you finally made your first choice."