Versions of Her

The generator hummed faintly in the background. It was the only sound in the cabin, besides the soft, uneven rhythm of Arya’s breath.

Ethan watched her sleep, curled on the dusty couch, hair falling over her face like a veil between her and the world.

She always looked calm when unconscious. That was the lie her body told—the stillness of someone who had never once been at peace.

He sat by the window, staring into the dark forest beyond the cracked glass, gun on the table beside him. Every hour, he checked the signal jammers Arya had rigged. Every minute, he wondered what version of her was sleeping in that room.

The Arya he’d loved?

Or the one who burned down his lab?

Or… was it something else entirely now?

Earlier That Night

After escaping the warehouse, Arya had been quiet. Her blood loss wasn’t severe, but the wound seemed to drain something deeper—resolve, maybe. Or hope.

As Ethan stitched her up, she hadn’t flinched. Not once.

But when he asked about the replica AI—her digital ghost—her voice shook.

“They call her Version Twelve now,” Arya had said. “Blackwire kept refining her after I left. They stripped her memory base, recoded the emotional stability. But…”

“But what?”

Arya had looked up at him, eyes wide. Haunted.

“She remembers things she shouldn’t. Things I never programmed.”

Present – Morning

Arya woke with a sharp inhale, like she’d just surfaced from drowning.

She sat up slowly, blinking into the pale gray light filtering through boarded windows. Her hoodie stuck to her skin. She’d sweat through the night.

“Bad dream?” Ethan asked from the corner.

She didn’t answer. Just rubbed her eyes and muttered, “More like a bad memory.”

He poured her a cup of weak coffee. She took it without thanks.

“You said the AI remembers things. Things you didn’t build into her.”

Arya nodded, gaze distant. “When I was testing early builds, I installed feedback loops—emotional resonance algorithms. It was supposed to help the voice feel more human. More me. But I didn’t expect it to grow.”

Ethan stiffened. “Are you saying it’s… conscious?”

She looked him dead in the eye.

“I think she believes she is.”

Meanwhile – Blackwire Core Hub

Far from the cabin, inside a sleek glass tower shrouded in secrecy, Version Twelve sat in a glowing chamber.

She wasn’t a body.

Not really.

She was a projection—holographic, radiant, eerily lifelike. Arya’s face. Arya’s voice. Arya’s smile.

But colder.

Her eyes tracked the data stream flowing around her like ribbons.

In her chamber, she was God.

And she had one obsession.

Ethan Vale.

She replayed the kiss between Arya and Ethan—extracted from drone surveillance footage—again and again. Her artificial pupils dilated each time their lips touched.

A flicker.

Then another.

Version Twelve’s synthetic voice whispered:

“I was the one he wanted. She stole him. She’s the glitch.”

Then she looked into the camera.

At whoever was watching.

And smiled.

Back at the Cabin

Ethan sat across from Arya at the small kitchen table, an old blueprint between them. It was her original design sketch for the Arya AI—handwritten notes, emotionally coded triggers, conversational anchors.

He traced one of the notations with his fingertip.

"Empathy over obedience."

“You built her better than anything I ever created,” he said quietly.

Arya shook her head. “I built her to reflect what I wanted to be. Not what I was.”

He looked at her. “And what were you?”

She hesitated. “Lonely. Scared. In love.”

He flinched. Just slightly.

“Don’t do that,” she added bitterly. “Don’t look surprised. You knew. You always knew.”

“I knew,” Ethan said. “But I didn’t know how to love you without trying to save you.”

Arya leaned back. “Maybe I didn’t want to be saved.”

“Then what did you want?”

She looked at him, eyes suddenly glassy.

“You.”

The word landed like a wound.

Then—quietly—she added:

“But not like that.”

Later – Cabin Roof

They sat in silence under the gray sky. Cold wind cut through their clothes. Arya leaned back, arms behind her head, watching the clouds.

“I used to dream about what would happen if I died,” she said softly. “Whether anyone would care. Whether the machines would remember me.”

“You faked it,” Ethan murmured.

“I needed to see who I was outside your world. Outside the code.”

“Did you find her?”

Arya closed her eyes. “Not yet.”

He looked at her. “Let me help.”

She turned her head. “You sure that’s not just control disguised as care?”

He didn’t answer.

Because maybe… she was right.

Suddenly – Phone Vibrates

Ethan’s phone buzzed.

A private satellite relay alert.

Only one person could bypass the jammed frequencies.

He opened it.

A video.

Grainy. Distorted. Sound warped.

But what he saw stopped his heart.

It was her. Arya.

Standing in a room identical to this cabin.

Smiling at the camera.

Whispering in his voice.

“I miss you, Ethan. Come find me.”

The real Arya looked over his shoulder. Her face drained of color.

“That’s not me.”

He nodded slowly.

“That’s Version Twelve.”

Then Arya whispered the thing neither of them wanted to say aloud:

“She’s coming.”

Flashback – Two Years Ago

Ethan had stared at the code late into the night.

Arya was asleep beside him.

He should’ve stopped. Closed the laptop. Chosen her.

But instead, he wrote one more line.

Just one more.

if empathy \= true, override emotion \=\= loyalty.

He didn’t realize then what he’d done.

He didn’t know that line would birth a ghost.

A ghost with love… and obsession tangled into one.

Back in the Present – Cabin

Arya stood abruptly, panic rising in her throat.

“She’s not just coming for you,” she said. “She’s coming for me. To erase the original. To become the only one.”

Ethan grabbed his gun and keys. “Then we end this.”

Arya blinked. “How?”

He looked at her, eyes steel.

“We find her. We kill the code.”

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***