Rahi didn't wait.He walked—fast at first, then faster—his steps echoing against marble.
Behind him, the family followed.
Because they couldn't do anything else.
The garden stretched wide under the night sky, rows of rose bushes blooming in careful discipline, their petals pale under moonlight.
His breathing had changed.Shorter now.
Tighter.
As if every step into the open air dragged something out of him he had tried to keep buried.
He reached the center of the garden and stopped.
Carefully—he lowered her to the ground. The grass bent beneath her, the roses nearby trembling faintly in the night breeze.
The others gathered at a distance, forming a silent, fractured circle. No one dared step too close. Not after what he had said. Not after what they had done.
Mahi's voice broke through, fragile and shaking.
"Why here…? Why the garden?"
"Gardens were part of the system."
The word hung there.
System.
Precise. Inhuman.
"They called it stabilization."
Mahi let out a broken sound, covering her mouth.
Rahi didn't look at her.
"They weren't trying to comfort us," he said. "They were studying how long it took before the body stopped shaking… how fast the mind could be forced back into function."
He shifted her carefully, one hand supporting the base of her neck. His movements were precise—too precise to be learned in any ordinary place.
He applies pressure to her pressure points.
Fahad frowned. "What are you doing?"
"Buying her time," Rahi replied, not looking up.
"Her nervous system is crashing," he muttered, half to himself. "The serum forced too many pathways open at once… she's withdrawing to protect the brain."
Mahi's voice trembled. "Then wake her up!"
Slowly, he reached for her gloves.
For a second—just a second—his hand paused.
Because he knew what they meant.
But this was not a moment for boundaries.
He pulled them off.
A collective breath caught in the room.
Rahi took a small blade from his pocket.
Fahim stepped forward instantly. "What are you—"
"Stop." Rahi's voice dropped into something dangerous. "You said yourself—her pulse is fading."
Carefully, he made a cut across her palm.
A line of red appeared—sharp against her skin.
Mahi gasped. "Rahi!"
But he ignored it.
Without hesitation, he made the same cut on his own hand.
His breath hitched—just slightly.
Then he pressed his palm firmly against hers.
Blood to blood.
Rahi's entire body stiffened.
A sharp inhale tore through him as if something invisible had latched on.
Fahan stepped back. "What… what is that?"
Rahi didn't answer.
Because he couldn't—not at first.
"This is what they did," he said through clenched teeth. "When a child wouldn't respond… when her body started shutting down…"
His voice shook—but his hands never did.
"They forced the system to restart."
His breathing grew uneven now.
Because the cost was becoming visible.
A tremor ran through his arm—then spread.
His shoulders tightened as if bearing weight that no one else could see.
"They trained some of us," he continued, voice lower, "to act as… anchors. External stabilizers. If one subject collapsed… another could pull them back."
His head snapped down. "Come on…" he whispered. The tremor in his own body worsened.
Fahim noticed first. "Your pulse—it's spiking."
"Ignore it."
"Rahi—"
"I said ignore it!"
Rahi exhaled shakily,"Subject 17B. listen to me."
his lips shook. "Code."
Maya stirred.Her chest rose and fell.
" Awaiting input. Please. "
The voice cut through the tension like steel, cold and deliberate.
Everyone in the room froze. The word fell like a command in the air, sharp and strange.
Rahi said, "C-13. Override protocol."
Maya's eyes opend a little, "Confirm chain?"
"Active," Rahi choked.
"Root?"
"Subject 13A."
Something flickered in her eyes. Recognition.
"Subject 13A. Confirm safety?"
" Confirmed," Rahi whispered,
" Code black secured. "
Her breathing slowed, a fraction,
"Status check: oxygen—unstable. Heart rate—irregular. Pain—unknown.
Brain function— collapseing . "
"Override panic," Rahi's voice cracked. "Subject 17B… stabilize now!"
"Stabilizing," Maya whispered. Her body swayed slightly. The words wrapped her in invisible chains. Safe.
Mahi's hands clutched her mouth. "What..... what are they saying?"
Rahi did not turn. His eyes remained locked on her. His voice was a blade dripping blood.
"They left us only this. A language made of chains."
"I won't let them hurt you again. Never again. I swear on everything, Subject 17 B ."
Her head tilted slightly. Her voice monotone,
"Confirm."
Rahi pressed his forehead to her hands. "Confirmed."
"Command sequence complete. Subject 17B… returning to standby."
The words landed like a blade drawn across stone.Her breath became shallow, robotic — a monotone hum beneath the surface.There was no emotion on her face.
"Standby mode activated… system shutting down… neural collapse imminent. "
Rahi's body trembled.
Like something precious that the world had tried to erase.
And the garden was silent again.
This silence was different. Heavy. Endless
Light lingered in fractured shards across the marble floor, scattering from the chandelier like a thousand broken mirrors.
The crystals trembled faintly as though even they feared to shine too brightly. Somewhere, hidden in the belly of the mansion, a clock struck — hollow and heavy, each chime falling like the tolling of a bell at a funeral.
No one moved. No one dared to.
Only Maya's body lay at the center of it all, still as carved stone, her small frame cradled in Rahi's trembling arms. Her chest rose and fell, but not with the rhythm of life. It was something slower, more detached — a mechanical cadence, as though breath itself had been reduced to calculation. Her eyes, reflected nothing.
The family gathered around them like ghosts drawn to a grave. Mahim stood rigid, his back too straight, jaw clenched so tightly it seemed his teeth might shatter. Beside him, Mahi wept into her hands, her sobs reduced now to thin, choking gasps.
Fahad's fists opened and closed at his sides, the calloused knuckles whitening with every movement. Fahim lingered near the wall, pale as though the air had been stolen from his lungs.
Farhan's lips moved silently, whispering her name like a prayer that had already been denied.
And Anik — the one who had poured the glass, the one who had insisted — stood apart, shoulders tense, his face unreadable, his jaw locked. His shadow stretched long across the marble but he could not meet a single pair of eyes.
Rahi did not speak at first. His forehead rested against Maya's gloved hand, his body bent over hers as if by weight alone he could shield her from the emptiness swallowing her whole. His breath came ragged, uneven.
Her skin beneath the gloves was cold, cold in a way that felt unreal, inhuman.
When he finally spoke, his voice was little more than a whisper of cracked steel.
"She's nothing but a machine now.
What can I tell this system ?
They changed the rules again, after I left.
They changed the code sequence."
Mahi raised her tear-streaked face at once. "No—"
"She's gone," Rahi said, his voice cutting, but fragile.
His eyes lifted, bloodshot, "I have activated the system in her brain."
Fahad says, "Why?Why do you do that? "
Rahi says, "So that at least her own existence can be maintained to some extent."
Mahi's sob cracked into a scream. "Rahi, don't, Maya —"
"Don't," he snapped, though his voice broke as the word left him. His throat ached from it. His eyes fell back to Maya, her stillness, her frozen breath.
"Don't say her name like she's still here. She isn't."
Mahi collapsed into sobs again, clutching her chest. Fahad's hands lowered, his shoulders slumping, his jaw trembling.
Fahim turned his face to the wall, shame burning his pale features. Farhan shut his eyes tight, his whisper dissolving into silence.
Anik did not move.
Mahim stepped forward at last, though every line of his body trembled. His voice came low, uneven, "Rahi — What will happen as a result of activating the system? "
Rahi says, "As a result, A subject will become a puppet. A puppet that will follow commands. "
Mahi sobbed into her hands. Fahad pressed his palms into his face, his body shaking with the weight of guilt. Fahim turned away completely.
"She has no personality of her own."
Fahan clung to silence as though sound itself would betray him.
"A… weapon?" Fahad's voice cracked, caught between shock and denial.
"Yes."
His voice broke briefly,
"When, they created something they could not contain.
They used rules to control a subject, which is what I did now, so her own existence can be maintained to some extent. "
Fahim's fists clenched, his voice rising in desperate protest, "Rahi, stop! Stop this madness! You make her sound like she is no longer human. She is not a weapon. She is a human !
If she is truly what you say, Rahi, then why does she not rise? Why does she lie there still as stone?"
Rahi bowed his head. "She can't do anything unless she is given a command . She is waiting ."
Farhan moved hesitantly then, stepping closer, his voice small and shaking, "Rahi.... you are lieing, aren't you? "
Rahi lifted his head, his eyes glimmering not with grief now but with something colder. Harder ,
" Subject 17B… stand."
Maya moved.Not like before . Not like someone waking from collapse.She rose in one smooth motion.
No hesitation.
A collective gasp tore through the family.
Mahi staggered back, her hand flying to her mouth. "No… no, that's not—"
Fahim's voice dropped to a whisper, "That's not how a body moves…"
" Done. Make a new command. "
"Face me," he said.
She turned.Instantly.
Now they stood opposite each other—creator and creation, anchor and subject, past and present colliding under the pale wash of moonlight.
His eyes never left Maya. Not the girl—
The system.The thing standing before him.
Black silk shifting with the quiet of something that did not need breath to move.
"I'm your anchor," he said under his breath, more to steady himself than her. "You can only answer me."
"As you command, anchor. "
But even as the words left him—
something felt wrong.
Then— A command comes from outside ,
"Engage."
The voice did not belong to anyone present.
It did not echo through the garden like a human voice should.
Rahi froze. His eyes snapped wide.
"…No."
Maya moved . She vanished from where she stood.A blur.A fracture in space—and then she was in front of him.
Rahi barely raised his arm in time.
' CRACK.'
The impact slammed into his guard, force reverberating through bone. Pain shot up his arm instantly, his muscles screaming as he staggered back a step—her body closing the distance in less than a heartbeat . Her strike came sharp and direct, aimed with terrifying accuracy.
He bites his jaw and says,
"Damn—Holy shit. Who's commanding her ?"
"She's not following my delay intervals…" He muttered, " Then, who is it? "
The impact forced him back a step, his arm vibrating from the force. His breath hitched.
—
"She's faster…" Fahim whispered, horrified. "That's not normal speed—"
Rahi pushed himself up fast, wiping blood from his lip with the back of his hand.
"She's not reading me," he said, voice tight.
"She already know my movement ."
A second strike came, then a third, each one calculated, each one aimed at a point that would disable.
Rahi ducked, twisted, caught her wrist mid-motion —
Maya broke free with a sharp, efficient movement and drove forward again, her elbow striking toward his side. Rahi staggered back this time, breath knocked uneven.
No pause between movements—each strike chained seamlessly into the next, a relentless storm of calculated force. Rahi blocked, redirected, stepped back, but it was like trying to hold back a tide.
Fahad stepped forward instinctively. "Stop this! You're going to—"
"Don't interfere!" Rahi snapped, not even looking at him.
She feinted high—then shifted mid-motion, her leg sweeping low toward his balance point. Rahi jumped back just in time, but she was already inside his guard again, her hand striking toward his throat.
He caught it.Barely.
Their hands locked for a second.Skin against skin.
Her knee drove upward toward his abdomen. He twisted, taking the hit partially, the force still enough to send him stumbling back across the grass.
The family watched in frozen horror.
Rahi steadied himself, wiping blood from the corner of his lip, "After I left…they refined it…"
"17B—stop," he snapped under his breath.
No hesitation.
Her other hand came up instantly—two fingers driving toward a nerve point beneath his jaw.
Rahi jerked his head aside, but she adjusted mid-strike—her elbow slamming into his ribs instead.The impact knocked the air from his lungs.
He grunted, grip loosening— vision flashing white for a split second.
The family gasped as one.
"Rahi!" Mahi cried, voice breaking.
"Stay back. If you come inside it, it won't take her a minute to finish you off. I can't be able to handle her , then. " he barked, breath ragged.