AUTHOR'S POV- 

They had been working together for years.

Six projects.
Six attempts.
Six failures.

And every single time, HUH, it ended the same way.

No deviation.
No desire.
No difference.

Only silence.

INSIDE THE LAB-

"Say it again," Rivan muttered, not looking up from the screen. "Because I still think it's a terrible idea."

"It's not terrible," Aarya replied calmly. "It's necessary."

He paused for a fraction longer than needed, fingers hovering over the keys, as if her voice had pulled him out of something deeper than the code.

This wasn't the first time she had said it.

Back in Eros-3, she argued for emotional variables....he remembered how certain she sounded, how impossible it was to argue with her when she believed in something.

In Eros-4, she pushed for an adaptive response, and he had agreed faster than he should have.

By Eros-6, she stopped asking.

She started insisting.

And somehow, he had stopped saying no the moment she looked at him like that. 
 

"Necessary?" He let out a short laugh, but it didn't carry the same certainty as before. "We have machines that can predict stock markets, diagnose diseases, and even simulate human speech perfectly. What exactly are we missing?"

He paused, eyes still on the screen, but his thoughts weren't.

Why necessary?

He wanted to dismiss it. To shut it down like every other time.

But something about the way she said it....made it harder this time.

Aarya stepped closer, folding her arms.
"Desire."

Rivan finally looked at her.

Not just at her words but at her.

"That's your answer?" he asked, quieter now.

"That's the only answer."

He didn't argue immediately.

Because even if he didn't agree, he understood why she believed it and that she wouldn't stop until she proved it.

Rivan let out a breath, but he didn't move away.

"You want to give a machine wants," he said. "Do you even hear yourself?"

"I do."

"And you don't think that ends badly?"

Aarya stepped closer.

Now there was barely space between them.

"That depends," she said softly. "On what it chooses."

"What if it doesn't?" she said, her voice sharper now.
"What if we succeed?"

Rivan's gaze hardened.

"Aarya..."

"No, listen to me," she cut in, something intense flashing in her eyes.
"What if we actually succeed?"

She held his gaze—unmoving.

"Then we would be the first scientists to create something that doesn't just think..."

Her voice dropped.

"...but wants, just to fulfill his desires...."

Rivan's jaw tightened. 

"That's exactly the problem," he said. "It shouldn't be choosing anything."

"That's why every version failed. Eros-3 broke trying to repeat the meaning. Eros-5 collapsed under simulated emotion. Eros-6.... Eros-6 looked at us... like it knew something was missing."

"You're not fixing the system," Rivan said. "You're removing the only thing keeping it stable."

"Control isn't stability," Aarya replied. "It's a limitation."

Rivan didn't step back. 

Neither did she.

Rivan (unspoken):
She doesn't realize what that means.
Or maybe she does.
And she doesn't care.

 "'And what are we calling it?'' he asked, feeling that now he cannot change her mind 

"EROS-7!!" she exclaimed, "cause after six failures I believe this is going to be what we wanted from so long!"

"One last question," Rivan said.

"Ask."

"If it learns to want..." he said slowly, "what happens when it wants something we can't give it?"

Aarya hesitated.

For the first time. 

Aarya (unspoken):

What if it chooses me?

"...Then we finally understand desire," she said.

"Let's hope," he said quietly, "we don't regret this."

Aarya didn't respond.

Because deep down, she already felt it.

In a world of logic, they created desire—and it chose its own direction.

Hello readers! 🤍

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