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Calaroga Shark Media. Welcome to Midnight Frequencies, a special Romance
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Weekly and Ghost Scary Stories crossover event. This is episode four,
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The Thread Unbroken. The streets of Manhattan have become a
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river of sleepwalkers. From the rooftop where Kai and I
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crouch watching the impossible scene below, I can see thousands
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of people moving in perfect synchronization toward the Radio District.
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Office workers still in their pajamas, construction crews abandoning half
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finished jobs, mothers carrying infants, all of them walking with
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that same blank expression I saw on the agents I commanded.
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But this is different. This is bigger, more coordinated, more
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terrifying in its scope. How many do you think are
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under the compulsion? I ask, my British accent, sounding fragile
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in the face of such overwhelming supernatural power. Conservative estimate
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quarter of a million people in Manhattan alone, Kai says, grimly,
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adjusting the scope on what looks like a very non
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standard rifle. And it's spreading Brooklyn, Queen's, even parts of
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New Jersey. Anywhere with decent radio reception is being affected.
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I watch a group of teenagers abandon their school bus
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and join the procession. Their young faces, eerily serene as
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they march toward whatever fate the Council has planned for them.
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This is my fault, I whisper. If I hadn't awakened,
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if I'd never started broadcasting, stop. Kai's voice carries that
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listener authority, cutting through my guilt spiral. This was always
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going to happen. The Council has been preparing for decades,
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waiting for a siren powerful enough to serve as their
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anchor point. If it wasn't you, it would have been
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someone else, and they might not have had the strength
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to resist. Resist what exactly, We still don't know what
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they're actually planning. Kai points toward the WKNT building, where
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I can see figures moving on the roof, tall ethereal
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shapes that seem to phase in and out of visibility.
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Look at the transmission array. I follow his gaze and
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feel my blood run cold. The radio towers that normally
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broadcast at modest power levels are now pulsing with energy
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that's visible to the naked eye. Silver light courses through
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the metal structures like veins carrying luminous blood, and the
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air around them shimmers with heat distortion. They're not just
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planning a broadcast. I realize they're building something a resonance amplifier.
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Kai confirms. If they can get you to add your
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voice to their frequency, they'll be able to reach every radio, television, smartphone,
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and computer in North America, maybe further, and do what
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rewrite the fundamental nature of human consciousness, turn everyone who
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hears the broadcast into extensions of their collective will. The
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scale of it is so vast I can barely comprehend it.
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Not just New York, but the entire continent, possibly the
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world transformed into a hive mind, controlled by beings who've
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abandoned their humanity entirely. There has to be a way
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to stop them. I say, your order trained, don't you
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have weapons protocols something for a situation like this? Kai's
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expression is grim our. Protocols for this scenario are direct
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nuclear strike on the transmission point, followed by electromagnetic pulse
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to disrupt any surviving supernatural frequencies that would kill everyone
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in Manhattan, hence the last resort classification. Kai shoulders his
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equipment pack, But there might be another way. The Council
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needs your voice to complete their amplifier. They specifically called
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you to the station that means they can't do this
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without you, so we just don't go. If you don't go,
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they'll send those quarter million people to bring you, and
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when human shields don't work, they'll start killing them to
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motivate you. Kai's voice is steady, but I can s
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see the weight of what he's saying in his eyes.
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They have all the leverage, Lyra, the only choice is
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how we play the hand we've been dealt. I stare
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down at the endless stream of people, seeing families torn
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apart by compulsion, children separated from parents, chaos spreading through
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the city like a supernatural plague, all because I answered
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my phone eight hours ago, All because I trusted my
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voice to the airwaves without understanding what I was. There's
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something else, I say quietly. When I use the command
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voice on those agents, when I made them forget, it
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didn't feel wrong. It felt natural, powerful right. I look
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at Kai, needing him to understand. What if the Council
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is correct? What if trying to remain human is just
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limiting what I could become? Kai goes very still. Are
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you considering their offer? I'm considering survival, I say, honestly,
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for all of us. If I have the power to
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stop this, shouldn't I use it, even if it means
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changing into what someone who thinks human lives don't matter,
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someone who sees other people as tools to be manipulated.
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Kai's voice is urgent now, and I can hear his
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listener abilities, reading the undertones in my words, hearing things
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I'm not even sure I'm thinking lyra Power without conscience
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isn't power, it's tyranny. But power with too much conscience
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is useless. I counter The White Siren fell because she
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held back, because she tried to be human when she
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was something more. Maybe if she'd embraced what she was,
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she would have become exactly what the Council is now.
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Kai interrupts, being so far removed from humanity that they
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can orchestrate something like this without feeling any guilt about
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the suffering they're causing. I want to argue, but looking
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down at the controlled masses below, I can't. Whatever the
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Council has become, it's not something I want to be,
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but it might be something I need to become to
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save everyone else. What if there's a third option, I ask,
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What if instead of fighting them or joining them, I
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use their own amplifier? Against them. Kai raises an eyebrow, explain,
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they need my voice to complete their frequency matrix. Right.
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What if I give it to them, but instead of
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broadcasting their message, I use the amplifier to send a
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different command, something that breaks their control instead of extending it.
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That's Kai pauses, and I can see him working through
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the implications. That's incredibly dangerous. You'd be putting yourself at
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the center of a supernatural transmission array designed to reach
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millions of minds. The power flowing through you would be
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unlike anything any siren has ever attempted. Could it work?
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Theoretically yes, you'd have access to more raw power than
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the White Siren ever dreamed of. But the risk Kai
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shakes his head. That level of energy could burn out
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your mind entirely. Even if you survived, you might not
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be human afterward. And if I don't try, then the
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Council gets what they want and humanity becomes a collective
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extension of their will. I stare at the WUKNT building,
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where silver energy continues to build around the transmission array.
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In a few hours, when the sun sets and atmospheric
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conditions become optimal for long range broadcasting, they'll activate their
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plan unless I stop them. There's something you should know,
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I say quietly, about this connection. We have this frequency
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matching between us. What about it? I can feel you, Kai,
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not just emotionally, but literally, your presence in my mind,
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the way your voice harmonizes with mine, the electromagnetic signature
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of your listener abilities, it's all becoming part of my
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baseline frequency. Kai goes very still. That's not supposed to
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be possible. Nothing about me is supposed to be possible,
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I point out. But it means that if I do this,
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if I try to use the Council's amplifier, I won't
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be facing it alone. You'll be there with me, anchoring
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me to my humanity. Or I'll be pulled into the
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transmission and burned out alongside you. Maybe, but maybe we'll
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create something the Council has never seen before, a siren
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who doesn't have to choose between power and humanity because
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she's not carrying the burden alone. Kai stares at me
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for a long moment, and I can see the internal
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battle written across his features. Duty warring with love, training,
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fighting with intuition, fear, competing with hope. You're asking me
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to help you risk everything on a theory, he says. Finally,
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I'm asking you to trust me the way I'm trusting you.
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And if we're wrong, if this connection between us isn't
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strong enough to keep you grounded, when you're channeling enough
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power to reach millions of minds, then you do what
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you are trained to do. I say, simply, you stop
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the threat, even if the threat is me. The words
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hang between us, like a challenge and a promise. Around us,
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the city continues its supernatural evacuation, and I can feel
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time running out with every synchronized footstep below. Okay Kai
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says quietly, let's go save the world. We make our
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way across the rooftops, moving towards the WKNT building through
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a city that's become a surreal landscape of order and chaos.
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The controlled masses move in perfect streams, but emergency services
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are in complete disarray. Police sidneys wail uselessly as officers
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abandon their posts to join the procession. Fire trucks sit
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empty as firefighters march toward the radio district. How do
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we get into the building, I ask, as we reach
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the adjacent rooftop. I assume the council has some kind
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of security. They do Kai says, pointing to figures stationed
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around the building's perimeter. But look closely. I study the
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guards and realize what he means. They're not supernatural beings.
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They're humans under compulsion, standing motionless as statues, their faces blank,
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but their postures alert. Controlled humans won't respond to normal
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stealth tactics, Kai explains, but they will respond to a
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direct command from a stronger, supernatural voice. You want me
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to practice on them. I want you to understand what
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you're capable of before you face the council directly. Kay
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pulls out a device that looks like a radio but
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clearly isn't. This will let me monitor your voice, track
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the power levels and harmonic frequencies. Think of it as
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training wheels for reality manipulation. I nod, feeling that strange
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mix of terror and excitement that comes with approaching the
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edge of a cliff. What do I tell them? Something simple,
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make them sleep. I focus on the nearest guard, a
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middle aged man in a security uniform who's been standing
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motionless for hours. Taking a deep breath, I reach for
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that place inside me where the command voice lives, Feeling
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the power coil in my chest like a living thing. Sleep.
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I whisper, putting intention and authority behind the word. The
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effect is immediate. The guard's eyes close and he slumps
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to the ground in what looks like natural sleep. Around
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the building's perimeter, I can see other guards following suit,
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their supernatural compulsion overridden by my more direct command. Power
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level was moderate. Chai reports, checking his device, harmonic frequency stable,
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no signs of reality distortion. He looks up at me
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with something that might be pride. Your learning control faster
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than should be possible, Maybe because I have a good teacher,
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I say, and the words create that familiar resonance between us,
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making the air shimmer with silver light. We repel down
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the side of the building, entering through a window on
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the studio floor. The WKNT building feels different than when
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I left it this morning, charged with energy, humming with
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frequency that make my teeth ache. The walls themselves seem
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to pulse with power, and I can hear voices whispering
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just below the threshold of perception. They're in the main
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broadcast studio. I say, not sure how I know, but
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certain nonetheless three of them, maybe four? And there I pause,
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trying to interpret the sensations flooding through me. They're not
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entirely here. Part of them exists in other dimensions. Can
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you face them? I don't know, but I don't think
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we have a choice. We make our way through corridors
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that flicker between reality and something else, sometimes showing the
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familiar WKNT offices, sometimes revealing spaces that seem to exist
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in eternal twilight, filled with structures that hurt to look
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at directly. The main studio has been transformed. Where my
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familiar equipment once sat, there's now a complex array of
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crystalline structures that pulse with that same silver energy I've
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seen throughout the city. The transmission equipment has been rebuilt
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into something that looks more like an altar than broadcasting gear,
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and standing around it are three figures that make my
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eyes water when I try to focus on them directly.
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They're beautiful and terrible, retaining enough human shape to be recognizable,
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but changed in ways that suggest they've transcended physical limitations.
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Their voices, when they speak, come from everywhere at once.
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Daughter of the White Siren, They say, in perfect unison,
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you came. I came to stop you, I reply, my
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voice automatically shifting into that compelling frequency. Did you or
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did you come because you finally understand what you are.
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The Council moves as one, and I can see that
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they're not quite solid. Their edges blur into the air
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around them, and shadows pass through their bodies like they're
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made of mist. Feel the power building around you, Taste
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the potential in the air. This is what you were
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born for. And they're right standing in the center of
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their transmission array. I can feel energy flowing through me,
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unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's intoxicating, addictive, making every
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cell in my body sing with possibility. I can make
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you a god, the Council continues. Add your voice to ours,
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and we will reshape this world into something worthy of
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our attention. No more chaos, no more suffering, No more
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individuals making choices that harm the collective good. No more
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free will. I counter free will is an illusion that
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causes only pain. We offer unity, purpose, perfection. I can
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feel Kai behind me, his presence, a steady anchor in
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the growing storm of power through our connection. I sense
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his fear, not of the Council, but of the temptation
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I'm facing. Because part of me, the part that's always
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felt different, always felt like I was meant for something
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more wants what they're offering. Show me, I say, lyra
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Kai warns, but I can hear in his voice that
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he understands. I need to know what I'm choosing. Between
237
00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:48.200
the council smiles, and suddenly the array around me activates.
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00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:52.880
Power flows through my body like liquid lightning, connecting me
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00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:58.359
to every radio wave, every electromagnetic signal, every voice crying