Southern Command – 02:17 AM
Preyajeet was asleep for exactly twenty-three minutes before the alarm detonated through the base.
Not a siren.
Not gunfire.
Darkness.
Complete, swallowing darkness.
The power grid collapsed in one violent breath.
Emergency red lights flickered weakly across the corridor.
"Sir! Satellite communications down!"
He was already moving.
"What about backup channels?"
"Failing one by one!"
His jaw tightened.
This wasn't random.
This was coordinated.
Phase Six had begun.
Geneva – Global Oversight Control Room
Akanksha stared at a wall of screens turning black.
Energy grids across three continents failing.
Defense satellites blinking offline.
Air traffic control systems glitching.
Not hacked.
Rewritten.
A calm voice came through encrypted fallback frequency.
Adrian.
"It's embedded code."
Her fingers moved fast.
"Source?"
"Unknown."
But she already knew.
The elder didn't launch bombs.
He pulled foundations.
Zurich – Adrian's Underground Hub
Adrian isolated fragments of the intrusion.
"It's not attacking directly," he muttered.
"It's forcing systems to distrust each other."
Autonomous networks refusing to communicate.
Backup protocols overriding main systems.
Chaos—not destruction.
He activated emergency bridge protocol.
A narrow encrypted channel opened.
Between only two people.
Preyajeet and Akanksha.
For the first time since separation—
Their voices met again.
Southern Command – War Room
"Akanksha?"
Static.
Then—
"I'm here."
Just two words.
But steady.
Alive.
He exhaled slowly.
"Report."
"Global infrastructure destabilized. This isn't war—it's collapse simulation."
"Casualties?"
"Minimal so far. But if hospitals lose backup—"
He didn't let her finish.
"We stabilize locally."
"Yes," she agreed.
"And I stabilize globally."
Different sides.
Same mission.
Unknown Location – Elder Chamber
The strategist monitored cascading shutdowns.
"Financial systems dropping 12% per minute."
"Energy grids failing in controlled sectors."
The elder watched quietly.
"Observe."
"What are we testing now?"
"Whether leadership survives when certainty disappears."
Southern Sector – Field Operation
Preyajeet led a tactical engineering unit through the dark city.
No streetlights.
No traffic signals.
Hospitals running on limited generators.
Panic rising.
He coordinated manually.
Redirected power from military reserves to civilian medical hubs.
Used old analog communication lines.
No AI.
No automation.
Human command.
Geneva – Emergency Broadcast
Akanksha stood before global leaders via low-band transmission.
Her voice carried through unstable audio.
"This is not an invasion. It is systemic manipulation. Stay calm. Switch to manual redundancies. Disable autonomous overrides."
Someone challenged her.
"How do we trust your assessment?"
She answered without hesitation.
"Because if this were war, you would already see missiles."
Silence followed.
Then compliance.
Encrypted Channel
"Preyajeet," she said quietly.
"We're holding."
"Same here."
A pause.
"I can feel what he's doing."
He understood.
"The elder?"
"Yes."
"He's not trying to break systems."
She finished the thought.
"He's trying to prove they're fragile."
Zurich
Adrian found it.
A hidden root command.
Buried years ago.
In early predictive AI cores.
The elder's fingerprint.
"He planned this long before we met him," Adrian whispered.
He initiated counter-integration.
But it required global manual approval.
Including military override from Southern Command.
Preyajeet read the authorization.
If wrong—
Total blackout.
If right—
Systems reset.
He didn't hesitate.
"Approve."
Geneva
Akanksha authorized global civilian compliance.
"Execute."
The world held its breath.
For twelve seconds—
Everything went dark.
Absolute silence.
Then—
One satellite flickered back online.
Then another.
Energy grids rebooted.
Hospitals stabilized.
Air control restored.
Financial markets paused—but alive.
The blackout ended.
Unknown Location
The strategist looked stunned.
"They coordinated across continents without proximity."
The elder smiled faintly.
"Correct."
"Phase Six?"
"Successful."
The strategist blinked.
"They stopped it."
"Yes."
The elder turned away.
"And now they understand something deeper."
"What?"
"That systems are fragile."
He looked at the world map.
"And so are alliances."
His voice lowered.
"Phase Seven will not target infrastructure."
The strategist felt uneasy.
"Then what?"
The elder's eyes hardened.
"Truth."
Southern Command – Dawn
Sunlight returned slowly over the recovering city.
Preyajeet leaned against a vehicle, exhausted.
His communicator buzzed.
Akanksha's voice again.
"We did it."
"Yes."
A soft pause.
"Distance didn't matter," she said.
"No," he replied quietly.
"It never did."
But somewhere—
Far beyond their sight—
The next phase was already forming.
And this time—
It would expose secrets no one was ready to