Location:Vesper Halo – Private Quarters
Timeframe: Hours after Mira's full reintegration
Mira couldn't stop shaking.
Not from fear. Not anymore.
But from the weight of being whole again.
She lay on her side, curled beneath thin sheets, sweat still clinging to her back, eyes fixed on the ambient ceiling projection: stars crawling across a rendered sky that wasn't hers.
None of this was Earth.
None of them were from her past life.
But somehow, this was the first time she had ever felt fully real.
The door whispered open.
She didn't look up.
But she didn't need to.
She felt Aika first — her presence like gravity, impossible to ignore.
Then Rin. A precise heat.
Then Veyla — wild, defiant, and silent for once.
Last came Selene. Cool hands. Warm eyes. The scientist who had once remade a soul and now struggled to claim it.
They stood at the threshold.
No words yet.
Mira spoke first.
"I remember versions of all of you. Ones that failed. Ones where we never touched. Ones where I died alone."
Aika stepped closer. "This is the version where we don't let that happen."
Rin dropped her gear at the door. "We're not just your past."
"We're your present," Selene added. "And whatever future we make from here."
Veyla raised a brow. "And we're in this together. Fully. No more orbiting."
∎ The Bond, Physical and Real
Mira sat up, pulling the sheets around her. "Then come closer."
No command. No seduction. Just invitation.
Aika crossed first, sitting behind her, arms slipping around Mira's waist — grounding her.
Rin lay on one side, fingers brushing Mira's ribs.
Veyla leaned on the wall but didn't stay long. She moved behind Aika, resting her forehead against her back.
Selene hesitated the longest.
Mira reached out.
Selene's breath caught. And then she folded down beside her, forehead touching Mira's.
"I'm not good at this," Selene whispered. "I fix things. I don't know how to… be."
"You don't have to be perfect," Mira whispered back. "You just have to stay."
∎ Polybond Initiation: Full Synchrony
As their bodies touched — hips aligned, fingers entwined, hearts syncing — the bond reasserted itself.
Not just biologically, but energetically.
The neural splice threads glowed beneath Mira's skin first.
Then Aika's.
Then Rin's, Veyla's, and Selene's.
Emotion fed memory. Memory fed power.
A shared heat filled the space — not lustful, not yet — but undeniable.
The polybond flared, burning an invisible tether between the five of them. It pulsed not as hunger, but as recognition.
This wasn't just survival anymore.
This was home.
∎ After
Later, the five lay in a loose sprawl, half-asleep, hands still interlocked or grazing skin.
Mira opened her eyes and whispered:
"I thought the recursion was going to take me."
"It almost did," Aika murmured. "But it didn't."
"Why not?"
Aika smiled into her hair. "Because we pulled."
Rin muttered sleepily, "Hard."
Veyla chuckled. "You're not easy to rescue, you know."
Selene kissed Mira's temple. "Worth it."
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