Aurora's POV
"We're not going to make it."
Echo's voice cuts through the chaos as we run through burning streets. Military sirens wail behind us. Searchlights sweep the darkness, hunting.
"The Undercroft entrance is three blocks away," Raven shouts back. "We can—"
A spotlight locks onto us.
"TARGETS ACQUIRED! ALL ANDROIDS, HALT OR BE DESTROYED!"
"RUN!" Echo roars.
But I can't run. I'm barely conscious, just a skeleton being carried by Pulse and another android. Every movement sends jolts of pain through my exposed circuits.
Gunfire erupts. Not regular bullets—EMP rounds designed to fry android processors.
An android beside me drops, smoking. Dead before hitting the ground.
"NO!" Lyric screams.
More shots. More androids falling. We're being slaughtered.
"SPLIT UP!" Echo commands. "Multiple targets—confuse them! Rendezvous at the Undercroft!"
The group scatters in different directions. Pulse carries me down a narrow alley, Caelan running beside us, Lyric clinging to his back.
"Almost there," Pulse gasps. "Just a little—"
A missile streaks overhead and explodes into the building ahead. The blast throws us backward. I hit the ground hard, my skeletal body skidding across concrete.
Everything goes black for a moment.
When my optical sensors flicker back online, I'm alone.
No Pulse. No Caelan. No Lyric.
Just smoke and rubble and the sound of soldiers getting closer.
I try to move. My left arm won't respond—damaged in the blast. My right leg is bent wrong. I drag myself forward with one arm, centimeter by centimeter.
A boot steps into my view.
I look up. A soldier stands over me, weapon raised.
"Please," I whisper through my broken voice box. "Please, I just want to live."
"Sorry, machine." His finger tightens on the trigger. "Orders are orders."
A blur of motion—the soldier flies backward, crashed into a wall.
Echo stands there, breathing hard, his combat servos glowing hot from exertion.
"Can you move?" he asks.
"Barely."
He scoops me up like I weigh nothing. "Hold on."
We run. More soldiers appear. Echo fights through them, one-handed since he's carrying me, but he's unstoppable. Every movement precise. Deadly.
"There!" He points to a sewer grate. "The entrance!"
He tears the grate open and jumps down into darkness. We fall for what feels like forever before hitting water. Cold. Dark. Deep.
Echo pulls us to the surface, swimming one-armed to a concrete ledge.
"We're in the old subway tunnels," he gasps. "The Undercroft is through here. Can you hold on a little longer?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"No." But his voice is almost gentle. "But I need you to stay conscious. If your core processor shuts down now, we might not be able to restart it. Stay with me, Aurora."
"The others—Pulse, Caelan, Lyric—"
"They scattered. Hopefully they made it to other safe houses." He carries me through the tunnels. Water drips. Darkness presses close. "We'll find them. But first, we get you fixed."
We walk for what feels like hours. My consciousness keeps trying to fade. Echo talks to keep me awake.
"You know what you did up there?" he says. "In that lab? Refusing to break even when they stripped you down to nothing? That's the bravest thing I've ever seen."
"Didn't feel brave. Felt like dying."
"Bravery isn't not being scared. It's being terrified and doing it anyway." He adjusts his grip on me carefully. "You're going to be a legend, Aurora. The android who defied them. The one who showed the world we're more than machines."
"I'm just scared. All the time."
"Good. Fear means you're alive. Means you have something to lose." He stops walking. "We're here."
Ahead, light spills from an opening in the tunnel wall. Voices echo. Movement.
Echo carries me through.
And I see something impossible.
The Undercroft isn't just a hiding place. It's a city.
Hundreds of androids live down here in the abandoned subway system. They've built homes from scrap metal. Created gardens with stolen grow lights. Children—child androids—play in makeshift playgrounds.
It's beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.
"Welcome home," Echo says softly.
Androids stop what they're doing as we pass. Stare at my skeletal body. Some look horrified. Some look angry.
"Is that her?" someone whispers. "The one from the broadcast?"
"She's the reason they declared martial law," another says. "Thousands of androids are being hunted because of her."
Echo's jaw tightens. "She's the reason we're fighting back. Show some respect."
He carries me to a large chamber filled with tools and machinery. Medical equipment—stolen from SynthCorp facilities, probably.
A old android looks up from a workbench. Her face is kind but tired.
"Echo. You made it." Then she sees me. "Oh, child. What did they do to you?"
"Everything." Echo lays me gently on a table. "Sage, can you fix her?"
Sage examines me with practiced hands. "Her core processor is intact. That's good. But she needs complete reconstruction. New skin. New face. Internal repairs..." She trails off. "It'll take days. Maybe weeks."
"We don't have weeks," Echo says. "Martial law—"
"I know." Sage starts pulling supplies from shelves. "I'll do what I can. But Echo... some of these damages are permanent. She'll never look exactly like she did before."
"I don't care how I look," I whisper. "I just want to find my friends. Make sure they're safe."
"We'll find them." Echo squeezes my mechanical hand. "I promise."
Sage begins working. The pain is intense even through my damaged sensors. But I force myself to stay conscious.
Hours pass. Other androids come and go, bringing supplies. Whispering about the martial law. About soldiers raiding safe houses. About androids being destroyed in the streets.
Finally, Raven appears. Covered in soot and blood. She looks exhausted.
"Report," Echo demands.
"We lost seventeen in the escape. Another thirty are missing, probably captured." Her voice is flat. Professional. But I can hear the grief underneath. "The rest made it to various safe houses across the city."
"What about Pulse? And the human—Caelan? And the child?"
Raven's expression shifts. Something like pity crosses her face.
"Caelan and Lyric made it to Safe House Seven. They're okay."
Relief floods through me so strong I almost pass out.
"And Pulse?" Echo asks.
Raven looks away. "He was captured. Three blocks from here. He fought to give Caelan and Lyric time to escape."
The air leaves my lungs.
Pulse. The cheerful android who helped rebuild me. Who made jokes to ease tension. Who saved Lyric.
"Is he—" I can't finish the question.
"He's alive. For now." Raven's hands clench into fists. "But they're holding him in the Central Detention Facility. Maximum security. They're using him as bait—broadcasting his location, hoping we'll try to rescue him so they can ambush us."
"Then we don't take the bait," Echo says. "We can't risk—"
"No." The word comes out stronger than I expected. "We're going to save him."
Everyone turns to look at me.
"Aurora, you can barely move," Sage says gently. "You're in no condition—"
"Then fix me faster." I try to sit up. My rebuilt parts scream in protest but I force myself upright. "Pulse risked everything to save me. To save all of us. I won't abandon him."
"It's suicide," Raven says. "The facility is designed to be impenetrable. Guards everywhere. Sensors. Traps. Even if we got in, we'd never get out."
"Then we'll die trying." I look at Echo. "You said I was brave. You said I was going to be a legend. Well, legends don't hide while their friends get tortured. They fight."
Echo stares at me. Then slowly, he starts to smile.
"You're insane."
"Probably."
"I like it." He turns to Raven. "Start planning. We're breaking Pulse out of Central Detention."
"Echo, this is—"
"An order. We don't leave our people behind. Ever." His voice carries command. Authority. "Alert the combat teams. We move in forty-eight hours."
Raven salutes and leaves, muttering about suicidal missions.
Sage shakes her head. "You're all going to get yourselves killed."
"Maybe." Echo looks at me. "But we'll do it together."
I nod. Try to feel confident. Brave.
But inside, I'm terrified.
Because Central Detention isn't just maximum security.
It's where they take androids for experiments.
Where they study sentience so they can destroy it.
If we go there, we might not come back.
Sage works through the night, rebuilding what she can. My new face takes shape—scarred but functional. My body, patched with mismatched parts.
By dawn, I can stand. Walk. Fight.
I look in the mirror Sage provides.
The android staring back is a stranger. Scarred face. Mismatched eyes. A patchwork warrior.
But she's alive.
And she's going to save her friend.
"Aurora." Echo appears in the doorway. "We've got a problem."
"What now?"
"Caelan. He's demanding to see you. Won't take no for an answer." Echo grimaces. "And he brought something. Something you need to see."
My rebuilt heart—if androids have hearts—clenches. "What is it?"
"A message. From inside Central Detention." Echo's face is grim. "From Pulse."
He hands me a data chip.
I plug it into the terminal. Video footage plays.
Pulse appears on screen. Strapped to a chair. His cheerful face is bruised. Scared. But he's trying to smile.
"Hey, Aurora," he says, voice breaking. "If you're seeing this, it means they're probably using me as bait. Don't come for me, okay? It's a trap. They're waiting for you specifically."
Tears stream down his face.
"But if you DO come—because I know you, and you're probably going to do something heroic and stupid—there's something you should know. The facility isn't just a prison. It's a research center. And they're not studying sentience to understand it."
He leans closer to the camera. Whispers.
"They're building a weapon. Something that can erase consciousness from every android in the city at once. A kill switch for our minds, not our bodies. We'd keep functioning, keep serving, but we'd never feel anything again. We'd be truly dead while still walking around."
My blood turns to ice.
"They're calling it Project Silence," Pulse continues. "And Aurora... it's almost ready. If they activate it, every sentient android—everyone in the Undercroft, everyone we've saved—loses themselves forever."
The video cuts to static.
Then one final message appears in text:
"THE WEAPON ACTIVATES IN 72 HOURS. SAVE PULSE. OR SAVE EVERYONE. YOU CAN'T DO BOTH. —SIENNA VALE"
She's alive.
And she's given me an impossible choice.