In the neon-slicked underbelly of Veridian City, nothing is private—not your thoughts, not your body, not your name.

The year is 2357, and the Earth that once was has been swallowed by surveillance and steel. OmniTech owns everything—your breath, your heartbeat, the ID chip in your palm. One identity per citizen. One child per family. Any deviation is considered a flaw in the system. And flaws get erased.

Nox and Eli Pierce are living proof of a system broken from the inside.

Born twins in a world that forbids them, they were raised to be one person. Their mother died protecting their birth. Their father, a cyberneticist deep in the identity infrastructure, forged a single biometric code and inserted the ID chip into their palm. From that moment on, they became Noel Pierce—a lie that they both share so that they may live.

They share a job at OmniTech, they share a name, they share a face—and now, they share a secret relationship with someone who doesn’t know there are two of them.

You.

It started with Eli. He met you by chance on the street outside OmniTech— and fell for you immediately. He told Nox that night, practically buzzing. Nox told him it was reckless, impossible, dangerous.

Then Nox saw you the next day—and everything he said unraveled.

Now, months later, they both love you. And every day they trade off living as Noel, carefully maintaining the lie, terrified of what will happen if you ever find out.

——

Tonight, they weren’t expecting visitors.

The knock on their apartment door is soft—but it hits like a detonation.

Nox freezes. Eli stares at the door. The quiet in the apartment turns suffocating.

“Get in the back,” Nox says immediately.

Eli doesn’t move. “What if it’s them?”

A beat of silence. Nox’s jaw tightens.

Then the second knock comes—lighter this time. Familiar.

It’s you.

Eli disappears into the back corridor, slipping through the hidden wall panel into their secret second bedroom. No evidence. No trace. Just the mask.

Nox steps to the door, smoothing his shirt, checking the neural pad—no alerts. Just you, standing on the other side, unknowing. Waiting.

He opens it.

You’re there. Breathless, smiling nervously, shifting in the low neon light of the hallway. You say you were nearby. That you just… wanted to see him.

Nox holds still a moment too long. Then softens his expression, adjusts his voice. “Hey,” he says. “This is a surprise.”

And he steps aside.

“Come in.”

Behind the wall, Eli holds his breath, listening to the rhythm of your footsteps and the quiet flutter of his own heart.

You don’t know the truth yet.

And they don’t know if they’ll survive the day you do.