Page 173 of Neon Flux

I pivoted, tracking her through the electromagnetic disturbance she created. My implants burned as I channeled more power, old scar tissue stretching and tearing. The pain was exquisite—almost as exquisite as watching her unleashed.

She appeared above me, crouched on a server rack. The Vector made her movements too fluid, too precise. Her eyes glowed with unnatural clarity. She was fucking magnificent.

“You’ve come to take me in?” she asked, her voice taut.

“To POM? Never.” I laughed, letting my Flux arc across the metal floor between us. “I’m your knight in shining armor, here to save you.”

Her expression flickered, and I lunged.

My Flux surged through my legs, launching me upward with enough force to crack the flooring. She dodged, barely, our fields grazing each other and sending a jolt through my system that made my teeth ache.

The servers around us were getting utterly wrecked, but I didn’t give a fuck. I didn’t care about anything except the sight of her completely unbound—how every time we collided it was a fucking supernova, and I was born again.

She dropped to the floor, channeling a massive surge that melted the metal grating where I’d been standing moments before. I rolled, coming up behind her. But she sensed the shift in the field and spun, her palm slamming into my chest.

The shock knocked me back, my implants struggling to absorb the overload. I tasted blood and metal.

“Why won’t you just leave me behind?” she demanded, advancing on me.

I grinned through the pain. “You’ll never be rid of me—not after you let me have a taste.”

Her next attack I anticipated, deflecting her Flux with my own. The collision sent a shockwave through the room, toppling three server stacks, their internal components exploding likefireworks. In the chaos, I circled behind her, but she tracked me. Our electromagnetic signatures were so synced now, stealth was impossible.

But she wasn’t a trained fighter, and even with Vector, her movements were predictable. I found my opening and slammed into her, finally pinning her to a stack. My hand wrapped around her throat, and I let my Flux flow through her.

Immediately, I felt her resonance. She wasn’t holding back anymore. She wasn’t hiding.

Her violet eyes flared as her hands clawed at mine. The power surged between us—until suddenly, the current reversed. Her Flux overpowered mine, her frequency snaking across my skin, and the implants in my face glowed so bright I was nearly blinded.

“That all you’ve got, corpo?” She grinned, wild-eyed and high on the surge. I was already giving her enough wattage to kill a normal human—but she could take it. She could take so much more.

“That’s my girl.”

I crashed my lips into hers, my tongue pressing deep into her mouth. She met me with equal ferocity, her tongue rolling against mine as our power flared. There was nothing but her and that sweet resonance. Our signals amplified until every server around us sparked, flames erupting as they overloaded. The lights overhead burst. Sparks flew, scorching my skin, but all I felt was her.

I’d never had this much power. The implants inside me hummed like they were going to blow. If she was to be my end, there was no other way I’d rather go.

The kiss turned brutal, our teeth clashing as our Flux built to impossible levels. The electrons between us formed a closed circuit, a feedback loop of pure, exponential power. The floor beneath us began to warp from the heat, the metal groaning.

“Cy”—she gasped against my mouth—“we need to stop…the containment fields…”

“Let them fail,” I murmured, dragging my teeth along her jaw. “Let it all burn.”

She pressed her palms against my chest—not to push me away, but to create a connection point. We aligned perfectly, and I felt the moment she lost control—when the Vector, the power, and the raw need became too much.

Her Flux exploded.

The concussive wave slammed into me with the force of a freight train. I was thrown backward, my body crashing through servers, wiring—through the very infrastructure itself. The floor gave way beneath me, buckling under the weight of our combined power.

As I fell, I saw her silhouetted against the chaos. A goddess wreathed in violet lightning, her eyes wide with a mixture of horror and awe. Beautiful. Perfect. Mine.

My back hit something solid far below, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. Pain radiated through my implants as their regulation systems struggled to compensate. Above me, through the jagged hole in the ceiling, I could see the server room beginning to collapse, a chain reaction igniting as Stellarium pipes burst.

The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Eon’s face appearing at the edge of the chasm, her expression torn.

In that moment of hesitation, I found a strange peace. She might run, but she’d never escape what flowed between us. Some signals, once aligned, can never be extinguished.

Darkness closed over me like water, and I surrendered to it with her name on my lips.