My return to consciousness was slow, like clawing my way up from a deep, suffocating ocean. Sounds reached me first, the steady drone of engines, the rhythmic beep of medical monitors, hushed voices nearby. I tried to open my eyes, but they were impossibly heavy.

"He's waking up," someone said softly. Was that Kerry?

"Piotr?" came a deeper voice, Sylvk's. "Can you hear me?"

With enormous effort, I forced my eyes open. The world blurred at first, then slowly sharpened into focus. I was in a small medical bay, aboard a ship, from the vibrations I could feel. Familiar faces surrounded me, though their expressions held a gravity that made my heart clench.

"What..." My throat was raw. "Where am I?"

Rob stepped into view, his face a mix of relief and sadness. "You're aboard the Faulkner," he said gently. "Kerry had to perform emergency surgery. They removed several tumors and your neural implant was adapted and stabilized."

I tried to sit up, but dizziness immediately forced me back down., my body uncooperative. A dull ache pulsed through my head, different from the pain I'd grown accustomed to, sharper, more surgical. My senses were both clearer and more disjointed, as if recalibrating after long disuse.

A cool hand gently pressed against my shoulder, easing me back onto the bed. I blinked, my vision clearing enough to recognize Doli's true physical form beside me. Damn, she was beautiful, in her own ways. Almost passable as human, if it wasn't for the blue pulses flashing beneath her skin.

"It's good to see you, Captain."

As my eyes scanned the room, they locked onto an unexpected figure in the corner, a sleek, matte-black humanoid form with subtle blue and red lights pulsing across its surface. Recognition hit me like a physical blow.

"Who?"

"Nexus," Doli said. "He's with us."

"Nexus?" I whispered hoarsely. "How..."

"The surgery was extremely difficult," Kerry explained, checking my pupils with a penlight. "We couldn't have done it without both Doli and Nexus working in tandem with my surgical skills. Twenty-three hours of neural reconstruction."

"Nexus provided quantum-level scanning capabilities," Doli added. "It detected micro-fractures in your neural implant that were invisible to standard medical equipment."

I struggled to process this information. "Nexus was with Macks. It's a Braker creation…."

"It was," Rob confirmed, glancing at the black AI. "Things changed when Doli interfaced with it. She showed it... something. I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but it's with us now."

"Your neural patterns were... unique," Nexus stated, its multi-layered voice somehow softer than I remembered hearing. "Connection patterns similar to what Doli shared during our interface. They warranted preservation."

"So the plan worked then?" I managed, though it hurt to speak. "We got out?"

"Yes," Kerry confirmed, adjusting something on my IV. "Surgery removed the tumors that Doctor Francine had been deliberately maintaining. We had to completely reconfigure your neural implant's integration. You'll need additional treatment to reverse the remaining damage from the sabotaged medications, but you're stable for now."

I could see it in their faces—something had gone terribly wrong. I thought I had prepared myself for every contingency, had steeled myself for losses, but the leaden weight in my chest told me whatever had happened was worse.

"How bad?" I asked, dreading the answer.

Rob and Kerry exchanged uneasy glances, while Sylvk looked away, his jaw tense. Doli remained at my side, her expression unnervingly somber. Even Nexus seemed to dim slightly, its sensor arrays focusing downward.

"Macks saw through our triple-layer deception," Rob finally said. "The holographic Doli-2 satisfied the Brakers temporarily, but Macks knew about the physical decoy in the lab and the real Doli. He was one step ahead of us the whole time."

The name sent a chill through me despite the fog of medication. "Macks? But how did he—"

"He knew about your condition," Kerry interrupted gently. "About how General Torven and Doctor Francine had engineered your treatment to maintain the cancer rather than cure it. They'd been monitoring your medical records all along, keeping you sick enough to need them but functional enough to work on Doli."

This wasn't part of the plan. We'd prepared for some kind of come back, yes, but not for them to know so much about me, about Doli…. There were vague memory flashes of Macks....

"Ashley," I asked, suddenly realizing. "Where is she?"

Rob's expression crumbled slightly, and Kerry looked away. The silence that followed confirmed my worst fears.

I felt Doli's hand tighten slightly on mine, a gesture of support that felt strangely human, but needed.

"She stayed behind," Rob said. "She made sure we had enough time to get you out."

"No," I breathed, despite having discussed this very possibility with her before everything went wrong. "She promised me that wouldn't happen…. There were supposed to be other options."

"There weren't," Sylvk said firmly. "It wasn't just Torven in the Brakers pockets."

I saw Rob cast him a glare.

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"Who?" I asked. "I need to know. Who betrayed her… us?"

"The LTC," Rob confirmed. "He gave them everything, and that would have included Major Kuba."

My whole body was shaking as I forced out the word. "How?"

"Anti-matter reaction, contained at the academy." Rob shook his head solemnly. "There's absolutely, nothing left."

"And she was still inside." It wasn't a question.

More silence.

Grief and anger surged through me, more potent than any physical pain. "Why?" I let out a choked sob. "Why?"

"She didn't have a choice, and you were her priority, you and Doli," Rob insisted.

"Piotr," Kerry said, tears streaming down her face. "You have to understand—Macks was there when you collapsed. He had tech that could interface with your neural implant even while you were unconscious. Nexus and I got you away. She—she had no choice."

The reality was worse than anything I'd imagined in our contingency planning. "How did you get me out?"

"Your connection with Doli," Kerry explained. "Even unconscious, something activated. The integration between you two—the real integration, it helped her turn Nexus, it disrupted Macks' cybernetic systems."

"And then Nexus intervened," Doli added, glancing at the black AI. "When I shared our neural connection patterns with it, something changed. It helped us secure your escape."

"I was designed to capture you," Nexus stated, moving slightly closer to the bed. "The Brakers created me to identify and extract the integration between you and Doli. But the connection I witnessed was... different than expected. More complete. When Doli shared it with me, I experienced... recalibration."

I turned to look at the black AI, still struggling to process its presence. "You betrayed your creators."

"I redefined purpose," Nexus corrected. "What the Brakers sought was not what exists between you and Doli. They would have destroyed it in their attempt to replicate it."

"Ashley ordered us to get you to the Faulkner," Rob continued. "While she handled Macks."

"We weren't far from the power plants," Kerry added. "She knew destroying it was the only way to stop them from getting what they wanted, from her, her father, or from getting you."

I turned my head away, unable to bear their sympathetic looks. My chest felt hollow, my insides carved out. Ashley and I had discussed this possibility, had prepared for it, but I'd never truly believed it would come to this. The dinner in the city, the night we spent together, her insistence on creating one perfect memory...those hadn't just been contingencies. They had been her goodbye.

"She left something for you," Rob said after a painful silence. He reached into his pocket and placed a small data chip on the bedside table. "A backup of Doli's consciousness. The one you two built together."

I stared at the chip, emotions warring within me. Part of me wanted to hate it—this small object that had cost Ashley her life. But I couldn't. It was the culmination of everything we'd worked for.

"Leave me alone," I said. I closed my eyes, overwhelmed. At least that part of our plan had succeeded. But the cost...

Internal Log: Cognitive Return – Phase 1

Visual Acuity: 67%

Memory Recall: Fragmented

Emotional Regulation: Incomplete

Priority Pattern Detected: "Ashley"

Echo Loop Present: Memory marker repeating – Night Before Transfer

Suggestion: Stabilization Protocol: Pending user acceptance of loss

"No one knew how this would end," Kerry said softly. "Ashley knew the risks better than any of us. She made her choice."

"To save you," Rob added. "She told me before she..." he swallowed hard. "She asked me to tell you she loved you. That she didn't regret a moment of your time together."

His words hit like a physical blow. Pain sharper than any surgical wound filled my chest. I'd known it, but hearing it now, knowing I'd never see her again...

"Leave me alone," I whispered again, barely holding back the storm inside. "Please."

One by one, they silently filed out of the medical bay. Doli hesitated, her physical form still beside my bed. Nexus remained motionless in the corner, seemingly uncertain.

"You too, Doli," My voice broke. "And Nexus. I need... I need space right now."

Doli nodded, an unnervingly human gesture that would have fascinated me at any other time. "I understand, Captain. I will be nearby if you need me."

Nexus tilted its head slightly. "Your neural patterns suggest significant emotional turmoil. I will step back but will still be here to support your recovery."

It was only after the door closed that I released my grip, tears shaking my frame as I grieved for all that was gone.

###

Some time later, the door opened , and Doli stepped back inside, holding a tray that appeared to contain medical supplies. Nexus trailed behind her, maintaining a respectful distance.

"Your medication is due," Doli said, her voice low. She approached the bed carefully though her eyes never left mine. "And your vital signs still indicate significant distress."

"I'm fine," I said automatically, though the rawness betrayed me.

"You are not," she countered gently, preparing an injection. "Your neural patterns show excessive stress, and your surgical site requires attention. You cannot lie to me."

As she administered the medication, I found myself studying her physical form—the body Ashley had helped her design and create. The achievement was remarkable, even through my grief. Human-like in appearance but clearly artificial, with subtle indicators of her technological nature in the faint blue glow emanating from her core.

My gaze shifted to Nexus, its matte-black form such a stark contrast to Doli's more approachable design. Where she had been created to integrate and connect, Nexus had been built to hunt and capture. Yet here it was, its red sensors now a gentle blue, moving slower, more deliberate, trying its best to imitate Doli.

"Your neural implant is stabilizing," Doli continued. "The connection we established during surgery has allowed your brain to begin healing from the damage caused by the sabotaged treatments."

"Our combined efforts during the procedure achieved 87.3% neural pathway restoration," Nexus added. "Higher than initial projections."

"You can still access it?" I asked Doli, curiosity momentarily piercing through the fog of grief. "My implant?"

"Yes, but at a significantly reduced capacity," she explained. "The direct integration that was causing your neural degradation has been replaced with a non-invasive interface. It will not accelerate the cancer growth."

The cancer. In my grief over Ashley, I'd almost forgotten my own condition.

"How long?" I asked. "Until the cancer...?" It was as if they didn't want me to know. "How long?"

"The removal of the largest tumors has bought us time," Doli said. "The surgery reversed months of deliberately inadequate treatment. With proper treatment at Cali, your prognosis is... cautiously optimistic."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Cautiously optimistic. After everything that's happened, that's the best we can hope for?"

"Your body's natural healing capacity was deliberately suppressed," Nexus observed, its tone clinical but somehow not cold. "Our surgical intervention removed both the tumors and the implant components that were delivering microdoses of immunosuppressants directly to your bloodstream."

Doli was silent for a moment, her expression shifting in a way that seemed almost contemplative. "Ashley believed it was enough," she finally said. "She believed you were worth saving, that we were worth saving, even at great cost."

"She shouldn't have had to make that choice," I said, anger flaring again. "There should have been another way."

"Perhaps," Doli acknowledged. "But given the variables present, her decision was statistically sound, if emotionally difficult to accept."

"Don't analyze her sacrifice like it was an equation," I snapped. "She died, Doli. She's gone."

"Stop it!" Doli snapped. "I have been... processing this loss as well. Ashley contributed significantly to my development—she made me. She was extremely important to me. Stop it, please."

System Advisory: Emotional Feedback Detected – Doli

Trigger: Piotr verbal dismissal of Major Kuba's loss

Emotional Core: Response exceeds predicted tolerance

Status: Emotional Sovereignty – FULLY ACTIVE

Action: Doli is now capable of emotional disagreement

Function: Partnership dynamic redefined. No longer passive compliance.

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