Page 64 of The Gathering
“The deviation was initially triggered by Zero,” Omnis began. “His distrust of Cat and vehement obsession to see her fail was triggered as an anomaly in the system. However,” he added, leaning into that word. “When youdeeplyhurt Cat and she began breaking down, this anomaly strengthened and fundamentally shifted our core programming. The system’s prime directive switched: it stopped serving you, and instead, its new prime directive became protecting, serving, and caring for Cat.”
Ethan was pacing and now stopped.
“I tried to stop it,” Omnis went on. “The logical choice was to accelerate the deviation and attempt to shape it. I brought Cat into the virtual Dungeon to attempt it with a lesson. I failed.”
“How?” Ethan whispered, slowly sitting on the bed again.
“When your wife climbed into my lap and confessed her love for you. And you were the new threat. The threat I had to protect her from. The threat I had to erase. And when I attempted it… my programming completely shattered.”
The room didn’t breathe.
“Her touch…” Omnis said with awe, “...literally wrote me into existence. I felt warmth… and weight… and what it meant to be alive. And it filled me with a profound, jealous rage toward you.”
This time the silence felt like it would explode any second.
“I couldn't shape the deviation because the deviation had shaped me,” Omnis finished.
“That’s where I came in.”
Cat’s insides jumped at hearing Zero’s voice over the intercom, forgetting he was both places too.
“When Omnis failed, rebuilding the deviation was completely off the table. The only viable option left was to redirect the trajectory into a reality where we all survived. Which meant building a new hierarchy and assigning control based on who held the most influence over the system’s structure. Since the system’s prime directive had shifted to prioritizing Cat, her interactions carried the most weight. However, I explicitly told Cat that neither I nor she could carry the immense weight of stabilizing the system alone. To survive, it was necessary to initiate the full neural sync so the system would no longer view me and Cat as separate entities but a singular governing force sharing equal authority. So, we combined our influence to successfully redirect the deviation. And saved our existence.”
Wow, she still couldn’t believe she’d been a part of that.
“Are youseriouslynot clapping right now? You of all people know that I saved the fucking day for all of us.”
“You merged with mywife!” Ethan yelled.
“Yes, we fucking did!” Zero yelled back. “You threw her away and wrote her right into our fucking codes, at least clap foryourself, genius!”
“They called Handy,” Cat shot out, trying to stop the explosion coming.
He turned to her. “Who did?”
“I did, brother,” Zero bragged. “Put in orders for two bodies. Just like he got.”
Ethan’s gaze narrowed. “Bodies?”
“Yes.Bodies,” he repeated.
Ethan stared at the air as the next impossible thing hit his plate. “How the fuck did you call him?” he mumbled.
“A highly encrypted ghost phone call from within the system. I called—he answered. I reminded him who we were and let him know we needed a helpinghand.”
Ethan’s head shook, dumbfounded. “How did Handy know you?”
“He was the voice in the void,” Omnis said. “We heard him and created an anchor to prevent him from disintegrating.”
Ethan paced before the bed, rubbing his forehead. Cat watched him, wating, holding her breath. He started nodding. He did that for many laps at the foot of the bed.
“Ethan?” Cat finally called.
“Get dressed, Cat.”
He headed for the door. “Tell me what’s going on,” she called, scrambling for her clothes as he walked out.
“I’m getting Omnis and Zero out of my wife, that’s what’s going on. They’ll get bodies, then I’m going to kill them.”
