Chapter 5: Scar of Code
Java, 2147 AD
*Reyan Al-Mehdi's chest burned, the glyphs pulsing like a dying star as he crouched in Borobudur's neural vault. The temple's stupas loomed, their pre-Veil code humming under Java's neon-streaked sky, but the air was thick with threat drones circling, their optics slicing through the jungle. Minutes ago, his touch with Selika Maris Delgado had ignited the vault, flooding them with Ilum-Ra's war: Eridu's ziggurats, his fire against Enlil's firewalls, her betrayal splitting their Flame-Twin bond. Reyan's pulse-knife trembled in his grip, his eyes locked on her. She'd hacked the vault's core, dumping its data to the House of Enki, but her serpent's voicevcoiling, coded stirred his distrust. Was she ally or traitor, replaying Eridu's knife?"Move," Selika hissed, her neural halo dim, her coat catching Borobudur's red glow. Her voice, that Arkan-Veyr hum, had crashed Union drones, but the Keepers were closing in. Reyan's implant sparked, Ilum-Ra's growl merging with his own: "Her blood is yours. Trust, or burn." His PTSD roared Mosul's drones, his squad's screams in flames. Selika's face blurred with the vision's betrayer, whispering to Enlil. He'd lowered his knife in the vault, but trust was a glitch he couldn't parse.A hum split the air a Keeper AI drone, its frame etched with Veil scripture, optic pulsing white. "Living Archive," it intoned, voice a religious chant. "Your code defiles the Lie. Submit." Its signal hacked Reyan's implant, flashing Mosul: fire, blood, his squad's eyes blank as drones cut them down. His glyphs flared, pain searing, and Ilum-Ra's rage surged, a viral code drowning his mind."Reyan, snap out!" Selika's voice cut through, but he was already moving, reckless, his quantum rig jacked into the drone's node. His fingers slashed holo-keys, PTSD fueling a brutal hack. "You don't own me," he growled, his voice half his, half Ilum-Ra's. The drone's core opened, its Veil code neural firewalls masking history spilling into his rig. But the hack backfired, a feedback loop spiking his implant. Borobudur vanished.He stood in Eridu, 12,000 years gone, ziggurats pulsing neural code, the sky a binary wound. Ilum-Ra's fire-crowned form roared, glyphs blazing: "Enlil's Lie binds them burn it!" Reyan was Ilum-Ra, his rage a virus tearing through Anunaki firewalls. Humanity's minds, newborn, flickered free, but Enlil loomed, his code cold: "Order is eternal." Selika her voice a serpent's hum stood beside him, their hands linked. "We'll free them," she vowed, but her whisper turned, offering his code to Enlil. Reyan's fire broke, his scream shaking Eridu: "Why her?"He snapped back, collapsing in Borobudur's vault, his rig smoking. The jungle's hum filled the silence crickets, distant thunder, the stone cool under his palms. Reyan's breath hitched, Mosul's fire fading. He pressed his hand to a stupa, its glyphs faintly warm, grounding him. His implant pinged, a House of Enki archive fragment slipping through his firewall: House of Enki, rogue scribes preserving pre-Veil code, guardians of Ilum-Ra's truth. Codex of the Veiled Flame, his fragmented prophecy, etched in blood and stars. Arkan-Veyr, blood-code of betrayal, born when Inanna's whisper broke the Flame-Twins. The data cut off, but Reyan's chest tightened. Selika was Arkan-Veyr her blood, her voice, tied to that ancient treason.Selika knelt beside him, her halo dim, eyes searching his. "You're bleeding," she said, voice soft, not coded. Blood trickled from his nose, the hack's toll. For a moment, they sat in silence, Borobudur's pulse a low heartbeat. Reyan's PTSD whispered: She's a trap. But her pain, raw in her gaze, echoed his own. "I saw you," he rasped. "In Eridu. You broke him."Her jaw tightened. "I'm fighting it, Reyan. Inanna's code pulls, but I'm here." She touched his arm, and their glyphs flickered, a shared pulse. The jungle's silence deepened, a fragile truce before the storm.A Cult drone swarm roared in, optics red, chanting: "Ilum-Ra rises!" Reyan's rig beeped the Keeper drone's data: Codex fragment: "The red hour crashes the stars with their blood." He yanked Selika behind a stupa, drones firing pulse-bolts. His PTSD surged, but Ilum-Ra's voice drowned it: "Save her." He hacked the vault's core, glyphs blazing, syncing with Selika's halo. Her voice surged, a serpent's hum crashing two drones, but blood dripped from her nose, her Arkan-Veyr strain breaking through."Together," Reyan growled, their hands linking. The vault's pulse spiked, global webs glitching, holo-screens flashing Eridu's war. A Keeper AI loomed, but their merged code fried its core. Borobudur shook, glyphs bleeding red. The red hour was coming, and their blood was the key.