i Swear

Leo didn’t say another word. He took a sudden stride forward, his hand reaching directly for the glowing silver node pulsing against Elena’s skin. "Don't touch it!" Sarah panicked, sending an intense mental command through the sync. Elena’s arm shot up with terrifying, mechanical speed.

Before Leo’s fingers could graze the metal, Elena's hand slammed hard into his chest, physically shoving him backward. The force of the push was far stronger than Elena's usual strength—the Neural Sync didn't have the natural subconscious limiters that usually kept a human from using maximum muscle exertion.

Leo stumbled back a couple of steps, his boots skidding on the hardwood floor. He gasped, catching his balance against the doorframe, his face twisting from confusion into pure shock."What the hell, El?!" Leo yelled, rubbing his chest. "You almost knocked me flat! Your hand feels like ice!

"Elena’s body stood in a rigid, defensive martial arts stance that Elena herself had never trained for. Sarah was piloting her with pure adrenaline now.

Elena's eyes remained wide and glassy, staring blankly ahead while her chest heaved with heavy, simulated breaths. Over on the couch, Sarah’s actual hands clenched into tight fists, mirroring the tension in Elena's posture.

The chrome helmet whirred louder, its cooling fans kicking into overdrive to handle the spike in neural activity."

I said... back off, Leo," Sarah warned through Elena’s lips. The voice was cracking now, a bizarre layer of Sarah’s frantic cadence bleeding heavily through Elena’s vocal cords. "It’s a prototype. If you touch the node while it’s active, it could cause a neural surge. You could hurt her!"

Leo looked from his sister's frozen, expressionless face to Sarah sitting motionless under the helmet. He finally connected the dots. The sheer strength, the rigid movements, the wrong voice—Elena wasn't the one speaking to him."You're not Elena right now, are you?" Leo said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, protective whisper. He didn't look at Elena anymore; he fixed his glare directly on the chrome helmet across the room. "Sarah. Step out of my sister's head. Right now."