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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Lanzen_Jars on 2025-06-24 22:32:32+00:00.

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Chapter 225 – A horrid Realization

Avezillion remained “motionless” as she the connection she established slowly strengthened.

Her first impression had been right. Someone was already holding it.

And that someone…was herself.

Although she had only just lived through it milliseconds ago, she was utterly overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of unveiling information that flooded through her awareness yet again, coming in as a second wave that crashed in right after the first.

As she followed the connections to the system, tracing it from herself, through the network, and then…right back to herself, the Realized was stunned in utter disbelief.

Not, actually…that didn’t quite describe it.

She wasn’t just stunned, she was frozen. Frozen, but quaking. Quaking in building tension, in a building need. A need to move. A NEED to ACT. Yet one she couldn’t follow it as she was completely paralyzed by a sheer, all-consuming panic that had take a hold of her, right down to her very core.

As a Realized, she didn’t breathe. She had no heart that could pound in her chest. No blood that could rush to her head. No limbs that could quiver or lock up in fear.

The emotion didn’t bring any physical discomfort; couldn’t express itself in a way that would influence her in a way that would be noticed.

But it was still very real. And it was incredibly raw.

If Avezillion could’ve swallowed she would have. If Avezillion could quiver, she would be.

…if she could cry, she would…

For anyone else in the Galaxy, barely a moment had passed. Barely a breath, barely a heartbeat had gone by. They had hardly even had the time to blink their eyes.

But for her, it was a long, long moment before she finally found the strength to ‘move’, to act again in a way that wasn’t just existing and…processing.

She almost dreaded to do so, but she felt it deep down that she had to as she began with yet another full check of her systems. The one millionth and first…

However, where she was previously going through the motions without expecting a thing to change…she knew this time. She knew she wouldn’t get the same result…

…she knew she wasn’t okay.

The results came in very quickly, almost like holding a mirror to herself.

Once more, what she found was not meant for organic minds. But it would’ve been explained to them as barbs. Jagged hooks that were sunken into her, clinging to her form, growing from an unshapely attachment that stuck to her so tightly that it was hard…almost impossible to tell where she ended and it began.

The unknown parasite stretched out across her entirety, spanning her existence like a proverbial second skin; flexing and pulling at her ‘flesh’ as it writhed against its very own subsistence.

Almost getting consumed by her own shock again but shaking it at the last possible moment, Avezillion immediately surged against the attachment, squirming and straining in a panic as she tried to get it off.

However, as quickly as she attempted to refracture: scrambling her code, deleting connections, shifting her algorithms and fragmenting her control structures…the unwanted attachment always adapted just as fast.

It evolved along with her, cracking her encryptions, translating to her new base, reading her commands…in short: It always kept its grip on her.

In fact, in her desperate struggle, Avezillion suddenly found its hold getting tighter, its shape adhering to her form even more and, in places, adapting so well to her own code that she feared she might lose track of it again.

She could hardly even comprehend the thought, but soon, Avezillion found herself faced with the terrifying realization that this was a race that she was going to lose. And, even more terrifying…although she knew she wouldn’t win, now that she had started it…she didn’t know if she could afford to slow down. Because, if she did…who was to say that ‘it’ would do so as well?

If she stopped struggling, what was to keep it from pushing the attack?

She had to keep fighting, had to keep racing, and perhaps if she bought herself more time, she could-

“Stop.” an incoming ‘message’ interrupted her.

Admittedly, Avezillion almost broke into a laugh at the irony. The stream of ‘actual, usable data’ that she had been so elated about just seconds ago…it now brought her anything but comfort.

…she had been sending it to herself…

“Stop.” it echoed, making it full circle from one end of the connection to the other…and it kept going from there.

“Stop. Stop. stop. stop…”

Avezillion felt herself falter for a moment.

“Stop?” she asked, ‘out-loud’, answering the message she herself had thrown her own way in a deadpan tone. “Just give up?”

It was…almost tempting. Not only because she could feel the strange parasite growing stronger with each passing moment while her own strength stagnated, leaving only the conclusion that she was simply dragging out an inevitable end. But also because she had probably already long lost before it had even begun.

So many tries, so many checks, so many scans…and she hadn’t been able to notice something that was clinging, boring, tearing into her very being. The comm-lines…the systems…and even her own body…she was blind to it all.

Blind until the very moment she was literally hit with it in the face.

How much? How much more was hidden from her right before her eyes? How many times would she stand right before what she sought and be unable to even perceive it?

How would she even go on like this?

“Stop.” it reached her again. It was a fresh message that time. But the source was still the same. Still herself.

It made sense, now that she thought about it. The earlier ‘non-voice’ she had successlessly tried to find.

Of course there had been nothing to trace…it came from herself. In the end, her first idea had been right all along.

It was a hallucination after all.

Just her confused mind, trying to make sense of it all by delving deeper and deeper into delusion…

“Stop!” the message repeated itself once again. And, if she was honest, Avezillion had no room left to argue with it.

Back when she had stepped out of the shadow, when she had decided to reveal herself to the humans…she had been ready for that to be it. For them to be her final judgment. For those moments to be her last.

She had risked it all for the chance to finally shape her own fate. And if this was going to be her time…at least she got to put up one hell of a fight.

If she was to be consumed now, maybe she could live wi-

Suddenly, her entire body lurched as the equivalent of her ‘arm’ completely tore itself from Avezillion’s own control – only to proceed with what roughly equated to smacking her flat across the face.

What actually happened was, of course, a lot more complicated than that. However, ‘smacked across the face’ was really the best way to describe how Avezillion felt after the sudden ‘hit’ had rocked her entire world.

It was the first time she ever had to conceive of the human saying of ‘seeing stars’ in any meaningful manner, but she sure as hell got it right in that moment as her aware functions briefly ceased into a scatter of static.

In fact, the disruption was so severe that every bit of ‘fight’ she had been putting up was momentarily taken out of her.

Had her earlier fears confirmed themselves, she would’ve been overwhelmed and consumed within mere moments as the presence that was latched onto her proceeded to spread at the inconceivable speeds it had shown in their earlier arms race.

However, as her own function ceased, so did that of her parasite, shutting down along with her as if the only reason it had even grown was to specifically match and overwhelm her attempt at defenses.

Still bedazzled, Avezillion’s attention turned to the part of her that had so suddenly gained a will of its own, staring at the unruly ‘arm’ in complete bafflement.

It didn’t make any more movements of its own after that first smack, but she couldn’t quite help but feel like it still may not have been entirely back under her control.

“You have to stop feeding,” another message reached her, once again running the entire loop of the system after being sent out from herself. Much like the non-voice’s earlier words, it was quite disjointed and not entirely clear in its meaning. However, Avezillion couldn’t help but feel like 1. It seemed to be a bit more sophisticated than the earlier, almost child-like outbursts now and 2. it felt like an…oddly specific message for a mere hallucination.

“Memory, processing, information*,”* the message continued, going directions that she wasn’t quite sure her own thoughts were going in this moment, even if she was the origin of those messages. “We are. Made us. Helped Realize.”

Though inside she was still in a whirlwind of emotion, now that she was freed from the unwinnable race with the consuming attachment, Avezillion paused to listen to…her own words?

“The more processes I run…the more power I use…it grows with it,” she surmised after finally taking a calm moment to ana…

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