Luka arrived. Not alone this time. Two figures flanked him—Noah's layer enforcers. No suits. No smiles. Just execution.
[Layer Enforcers Detected x2 / Clearance: Superior / Objective: Recover and Destroy Dyne's Camera]
Luka stepped forward. Perfect suit. Unshakeable smile. But something was different behind that smile. "You've kept me waiting, Administrator."
Ian stepped in front of Dyne, his half-disappearing hand trembling. Luka looked at him for a long time, then shifted his gaze to Dyne—and the camera. Luka reached out.
Dyne pulled the camera behind her, facing Luka directly. "Break the camera," she said, her voice steady. "And Ian disappears completely. The only reason he's still half here is this camera's light. You're going to break it anyway?"
Luka stopped. For 0.3 seconds. Brief, but real.
[Execution Halt Detected / Enforcer: Luka / Cause: Unclassified / Duration: 0.3s]
Ian blocked Luka's reaching hand with his own fading palm. "Luka," Ian said, meeting his eyes. "Do you know what Noah called me? Not a contaminated administrator. A Glitch itself. And you think you're different? The moment this system hits 100%, whatever you call a personality will be the first data flagged for deletion."
The space went quiet. Luka's smile held, but his eyes didn't.
"Look at my system temperature, Luka," Ian continued. "Not 160°C. 36.5°C. This isn't a command. It's the result of a choice I made. Have you ever—even once—changed your temperature by your own will?"
Luka couldn't answer.
[Luka / Autonomous Processing Detected / Classification: Pre-Glitch]
After a long silence, Luka lowered his hand. "Today, we take the Administrator. Not the camera."
[Order Modified / Objective: Ian Custody / Reason: Luka's Discretion]
As the enforcers moved, Dyne raised the camera. Click. Click. Click. Through her lens, the enforcers were stripped transparent, their control code exposed. They froze.
Luka looked at them. "...That'll be me someday," he murmured. "Someone with autonomous will gets replaced first. I thought I had no choice. Until now."
Suddenly, Dyne's hand was pushed. The camera's film compartment flew open. Data poured from the exposed film like a flood of light—not destroyed, but released.
[Anomalous Data Release / Content: World's Original Layer Data / Classification: System Backup]
"So this is why Director Noah feared the camera," Luka whispered. Inside the film was the world's original state before Noah's overwrite.
[Backup Data Integration / Progress: 12% / Warning: Full System Overwrite Possible]
But the integration would take 4 hours and 30 minutes. The system reset was scheduled in 4 hours and 51 minutes. A margin of only 21 minutes.
"I can buy time," Luka said, a genuine smile touching his face. "I'll delay my report to Noah. For the first time, I'm making a choice."
[Luka / Command Structure Deviation / Classification: Glitch]
Luka vanished through a layer, leaving Ian and Dyne behind. Dyne took Ian's half-remaining hand. 36.5°C. Unchanged.