Sid’s legs felt like lead as he stepped closer. Every nerve in his body screamed. The president’s lifeless body lay sprawled awkwardly near the door, his face twisted in shock even in death. Sid gagged but forced himself to look further.

"Gahh— f*ck, why is he here... is he dead? No... no, Morgana! Morgana!?"

Then his gaze landed on her. Morgana.

She lay beside his computer desk, her body eerily still, the soft light of the monitor casting sharp shadows across her pale face. Her arms were splayed at unnatural angles, her fingers trembling slightly even in death, and the subtle warmth he had known for months was gone. Sid’s chest tightened. His vision blurred. He dropped to his knees beside her, hand shaking as he reached for her.

"Morg...gana... no... no."

As his fingers touched her cold body, Sid’s vision flickered violently, plunging him back to the dead world. He saw himself pressing Evelise into the newly built mattress, her struggles frantic, trying to bite him as the creaking bedframe groaned beneath them. Tears streamed down his face, falling onto her bloodied cheeks, while her features twisted, shifting between Evelise and Morgana— the same lifeless face he had once seen in death.

Sid’s hands trembled as he knotted together the strips of leather and denim he’d scavenged, turning them into a makeshift rope. His chest tightened with every breath as Evelise thrashed on the bed, her eyes glowing faintly, teeth gnashing as she tried to reach him.

He had already tied her wrists, the sound of the strips straining against her strength echoing through the room. The wooden bed frame creaked under the tension. Now, he worked to restrain her legs, even as her claws tore shallow lines across his arms.

Sid could barely breathe. He straddled her, muscles shaking from exhaustion, tears streaming down his face. The memory of Morgana’s lifeless body flashed before his eyes— cold, pale, and gone and for a moment, he thought he might break entirely.

"Stop... please... I can’t... lose another one. Not again."

His voice cracked as he tied the final knot, his hands trembling. He met Evelise’s eyes, searching for even a flicker of the person she used to be, fighting to hold on to his own sanity. Evelise strained against the bindings, the mattress creaking beneath her as her body jerked and twisted, caught in a war between the monster and whatever humanity still lingered inside.

Sid reached for a nearby cloth and wrapped it gently around her mouth, muffling her growls. His tears fell onto her bloodied cheek, tracing over the dirt and sweat. His combat vision kept flickering, the faint red outline of her body pulsing in his eyes as a single command blinked above her head:

[E + Right Mouse Button] — Execute.

Sid froze, staring at it, his breath shallow. His fists clenched so tightly that the veins bulged along his arms, his head throbbing like it was about to burst. The voice in his head screamed for him to end it— end her but his heart refused.

"Stop it!"

He roared, the sound breaking into a sob just as lightning split the sky outside, drowning his cry in a deafening crack of thunder.

In that flash of light, the world shifted. Morgana’s lifeless body appeared before him again— her eyes wide open, glassy, reflecting the storm’s white glare. The mark on her neck stood out dark against her pale skin as Sid pressed down on her chest, his hands trembling, shouting her name over and over.

"MORGANA! MORG—NO! PLEASE, PLEASE, MORG!"

His voice broke completely, swallowed by the rain and thunder, as he kept pushing, desperate to bring her back. His body was shaking so hard he could barely stay on his knees. He pressed down on Morgana’s chest again and again. His hands were slick with sweat, slipping each time he tried to push harder. The faint echo of thunder rolled through the apartment, but all he could hear was his own voice breaking apart as he screamed her name.

"Morgana! Come on, please! Live, live... Live!"

He choked mid-sentence, his hands trembling as he leaned closer, his forehead pressing against hers.

"Please... breathe... I don’t care how strict you are,... just— please."

When her chest didn’t rise, he panicked. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly, tears spilling down his face.

"You’re fine, okay? You’re fine, Morgana. You’re just... you’re tired. I’ll fix this. I’ll fix it, I swear."

His voice grew desperate as he stumbled to her bag on the floor, spilling everything onto the carpet. Pens, files, notebooks, even a few small tools rolled away from him as he dug through the contents like a madman.

"You’re smart, right? You always kept some science thing in here— something! Come on, there has to be something!"

His hands stopped when he saw her thesis folder lying at the bottom. The title, neatly printed across the top, hit him like a knife:

"The Reanimation Threshold: Neural Decay and the Limits of Biological Revival."

Sid stared at it, his eyes wide and wet.

"Reanimation... revival... You... you were studying this, weren’t you?"

He tore the folder open, flipping through her notes with shaking hands. Words blurred together— neural current, synaptic activity, electrical stimulation window —all dancing across the page as his tears hit the paper. He grabbed a handful of wires from her small toolkit, fumbling with them as he tried to make sense of what she’d written.

"It says there’s a limit... before the brain shuts down completely, If the neurons still fire... if the heart still has a spark... then maybe—"

He stumbled out of the bedroom, nearly slipping on a slick puddle of white liquid on the floor, but he didn’t stop. He sprinted to the kitchen, yanked a metal fork from the drawer, and rushed back toward Morgana’s body. He didn’t even look at the other corpse— the president. He knelt beside Morgana, his breath ragged.

"If I can just... just give you a little shock... maybe..."