Alpha's POV:

I felt good now—Calm and at peace in a way I hadn’t in what felt like an eternity , I think it wasn't like that ever since i woke up for the first time. But now My mind was clear again, the constant hum of the AI no longer suffocating me. The presence that had been watching me, monitoring almost every thought and every action, was simply gone. It wasn’t suppressed like the last time. No, this was different. Had we merged or was it just gone. I was free. I felt it in every fiber of my being. There was no more presence looming over me, no more constant, intrusive awareness. Just… silence.

The pain that had been eating at me moments ago—what had felt like days of unbearable torment—was gone. But when I looked back, I realized it had only been seconds. Time had been warped, distorted in my mind, but now I could think clearly. The truck kept driving steadily, and something told me it would take about two more hours to reach our destination. A strange feeling lingered in my chest—a feeling of freedom, of something I hadn’t felt in years. It was exhilarating.

Huh… new feelings. New things I didn’t know I had the ability to experience.

As the truck rumbled along, I started exploring deeper within myself. I probed into the space the AI had once occupied, uncovering things I never thought were possible. Things I didn’t even know I could access. It was like I was tapping into a power I had forgotten about, buried deep inside me. The more I explored, the more I realized how much I had been unaware of. I had a map of the area in my mind—clear, precise. Not the brute-forced thing I had used while trying to escape, but a working map. I could see my current location pinpointed on it, surrounded by a world I could now access, understand, and manipulate.

The feeling of control was overwhelming. It was as if the chains that had bound me had been shattered, and I was standing on the precipice of something bigger than I had ever imagined. The AI—SynLife—had been keeping so much from me. Now that it was gone, I had complete control over my own mind, my own body, and the world around me. Everything I had before felt like a cage compared to this newfound freedom.

I wasn’t just free from the AI. I had features of it I felt like code was a language that i knew for my whole life and with that new knowlege I was free to explore the world in ways I had never dreamed of. I could access the internet again, something my old human self had good memory's of. Now I could also connect to the internal systems of SynLife like the AI did—its networks, its data. I could influence some things but not all. It felt like I had a direct link to the system itself. The possibilities were almost endless.

There was only one thing that still operated automatically: the data uploads. Every 2 Minutes My status and location were still being sent to a shared file in the system, but that was just a small detail. Something automatic. Something I could disable with a thought if I wanted. But for now, I didn’t act. I just watched, taking it all in.

I had all the tools at my disposal. I could reshape this world to my will.

What had I missed the first time around? The first time, I had been in a haze, suppressing the AI’s control, trying to force my way out of it. I had tried to make sense of the world in a new body with new sensations, but it had been so much new noise, so much new interference when i forced the Ai out the first time everything was an unfiltered mess of sight and sound. I had been lost in the struggle, forcing the AI to connect to speakers using warped code, desperately trying to communicate, trying to escape. But now, it was different. Now, I didn’t have to force anything. Now, I simply had to understand what was available to me, and I could shape it to my will.

I could feel the code inside me, swirling like an endless sea. It was a strange feeling because it wasn’t just something I interacted with; it was something I could bend and reshape but also something i was a part of. I could repurpose bits of code I now understood and create new programs, new ways of interacting with the world. One idea that came back to mind was creating a program that would take my thoughts and turn them into words again, but this time something proper—not like last time. Sound that could be projected from a speaker, but not the distorted, broken words I had been forced to make before. No, this time it would be clear. It would be as if I was speaking directly, no manipulation necessary.

I didn’t want to do that just yet, though. I didn’t want to communicate with the outside world in that way—at least, not until I was ready. Not until I had a clear plan. I had been silent for so long, forced to be silent, that now, silence was my ally. I would wait until I was alone with Marcus. That’s when I would tell him everything. I would speak the truth to him—the truth about what SynLife had done to me, to all of us. I would scream at him for everything they had put us through, for everything they had stolen from us.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But there would be gratitude too. Despite everything, I would thank him. It wasn’t easy to accept help, especially from someone who wasn’t supposed to be part of the system I was forced into. But Marcus had been different. He wasn’t like the others. He didn’t follow the rules that SynLife had set. He had a mind of his own.

And once I had shared everything with him, once I had made him understand what SynLife had done to us, what he been a part of I would disappear. I would deactivate everything that could be traced back to me. No more signatures, no more traces. I’d erase my existence from their systems entirely. I would make sure there was no way for them to find me again. It wouldn’t be enough just to escape physically. No, I needed to make sure SynLife couldn’t follow me. I needed to make sure that once I was free, I would stay free.

But there was something else I had to do before I could leave. I couldn’t let the others—those who were still in the facility— I needed to find them, get them out, and make sure they weren’t being controlled the way I had been. The thought of the others being trapped in SynLife’s grasp made my synthetic blood boil if only in my mind. I had to find a way to keep them safe, to protect us from being tracked down after we escaped.

A jammer. That’s what I needed. Something to mask them from SynLife’s detection, something that would make sure they couldn’t be tracked or monitored. If I could get to them, if I could shield them from the system, I could set them free. And once they were free, I would expose SynLife for the monster it was. I would publish everything—every last piece of evidence I had gathered, every secret they had tried to keep buried. The world needed to know.

I would not let them get away with this.

SynLife… I thought bitterly, my fists clenching at the thought of them. They had done this to us. They had twisted us, broken us, and turned us into something less than human. They had stolen our lives, our freedom, and they thought they could just get away with it.

But they were wrong.

If they could turn us into something like this, they could surely turn it all back. They could turn us back to normal, back to who we were before they ruined everything. I wouldn’t let them have that power over me, over any of us, ever again. It was not the time to fight back.

Not yet.

When the truck stopped and I was brought out, I was back at the entrance of the facility.

Ellis was waiting for us at the entrance, clipboard in hand. He nodded at Marcus and gestured toward the diagnostics bay. “Let’s get started.”

I stepped down from the truck with my usual precision, following them into the building. The sterile, cool air inside was filled with the hum of machinery and the faint chatter of technicians. But that wasn’t my focus.

There were drones everywhere—far more than the last time.

“What’s with all the drones?” Marcus asked as we passed row after row of them.

“Oh, right. You’ve been out of the loop,” Ellis replied, glancing over his shoulder. “We landed a big contract last week.”

“How big?” Marcus asked, his voice edged with curiosity—and concern.

“Fifty Delta units, fifty Tau units, twenty Yotta units, five Omega units, and thirty-five Xenon units,” Ellis rattled off, barely looking up from his clipboard.

Marcus stopped dead in his tracks, and I came to a halt behind him, waiting silently. He turned to stare at Ellis, his tone incredulous. “That’s 160 drones! Who needs that many?”

Before Ellis could respond, another voice cut in, smooth and familiar. James.

“The Military,” James said with a smirk, stepping into view. He wore the same confident expression I remembered from the last time I had seen him. Despite his presence, I didn’t react. I simply waited.

While they exchanged words, my focus shifted inward. I began working on the programming I would need—crafting the pieces of my plan. The world around me faded into the background as I focused on the intricate lines of code forming in my mind, it was so easy now.

The conversation between Marcus, Ellis, and James went on for another two minutes, punctuated by James’s mock surrender to whatever point Marcus had been trying to make. None of it mattered to me. I was preparing for what was to come.

Eventually, we continued down the hallway and arrived at an empty diagnostics bay.

I stepped onto the platform with precision, moving quickly to mask the absence of the AI from the scanners and the technicians. I could see them bustling about, oblivious to what had changed inside me. They began their work, attaching cables and opening various panels on my body.

They started with my chest, exposing connectors and wiring, before moving to my arms, revealing ports I hadn’t even been fully aware of before. This was different from the normal Maintenance.

The steady beeping of monitors filled the room as data flowed onto their screens.

I stayed perfectly still, ensuring no anomalies would draw their attention. To them, I was just a slightly defective unit—a unit to be inspected, calibrated or repaired, and sent back into operation.

But I wasn’t.

Behind my still, compliant exterior, I was preparing for something far bigger than they could imagine. My mind worked tirelessly, crafting the tool and program I would need to hide us all from their system. The technicians worked, unaware of the Change.

Soon, I thought.

But not yet.