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Chapter 2 - ISSUE #2: IN THEIR IMAGE

If they could measure time…

She would know it's been weeks.

Weeks since her birth. Weeks of fire.

Weeks of breaking.

And of something else... quietly mending itself beneath the pain.

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Ava stands in a massive black-room training chamber, its walls humming with synthetic light. Dozens of combat drones surround her each modeled after past enemies of Mark: Mauler Twins, Sequids, Battle Beast simulations, even a Conquest mock-up. All glowing red.

She wears a sleeker combat prototype suit, silver and midnight blue, her hair tied back, face bruised but determined.

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She does not know what day it is.

Only that this time… something is different.

This time, she is not running.

She is remembering.

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Ava's face was sweating, her lips trembling. But also focus.

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They injected her again. The boiling chemical scream in her blood.

The commands barked in her ear.

The pain... always the pain.

- Flashback -

Ava was curled in a ball in her sterile cell. Wires in her skull, tears running down her cheeks as shadows of men in lab coats observe without emotion.

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She had whimpered in the dark, asking only what she had done to deserve it.

The answer never came.

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The simulation begins. Drones charge. Sirens blare.

SIMULATION ACTIVE LEVEL: MAXIMUM LETHAL.

Ava dodges a massive blow from a Mauler-type drone, flipping midair. The velocity of her movement cracks the sound barrier.

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She moves without thinking.

All reflex. All fire.

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One drone blasts her with a plasma cannon, she takes the hit full-force. Her body slams into the wall.

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She could give in. Let them watch her fall again.

But something inside her refuses.

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She gets back up, blood dripping, eyes burning. The Conquest-simulation drone comes at her with a red-hot gauntlet. Ava catches it mid-punch. It cracks under her grip.

She roars and tears the drone's arm off, then turns and uses it as a projectile, spearing another through the chest.

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No chains today.

No voices in her ear.

Just her voice.

One word pulsing inside her.

"Human."

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In the observation room, Donald Ferguson watches, stunned. Even he hasn't seen her fight like this before.

Donald:" She's... improvising."Cecil stands behind him, arms folded.

Cecil:" She's remembering what she is."

A monitor flashes red: Simulation drones at 63% destroyed.

Ava stands in the center, breathing heavily, surrounded by wreckage.

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She didn't want to lash out.

But no being deserves to be treated like this.

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A drone simulating Battle Beast lunges at her from behind.

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Pain again. Blow after blow.

Why? Always why.

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Instead of countering with force, Ava grabs the drone mid-strike and pins it, staring into its blank faceplate.

Ava:" I don't want to hurt anyone…" she said softly.

Then, her expression hardens. Her eyes glow faintly.

Ava:" But I won't be your weapon."

She crushes the drone with a seismic shockwave.

Silence. The training chamber is wreckage and fire. Ava stands in the center of the destruction.

She raises her head, breathing slowly. Her eyes fill with tears.

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"Human."

She still doesn't understand what it means.

But it gives her comfort.

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Suddenly, her hand twitches. Her neural implant activates. She clutches her temple.

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Pain shoots through her skull.

A failsafe, triggered remotely.

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Back in the control room, Donald sees the neural spike.

Donald:" Cecil! Her neural system, she's in agony!"

Cecil doesn't blink.

Cecil:" She's rejecting command protocols. Pain helps."

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Inside the chamber, Ava falls to one knee, fighting the override, teeth gritted.

Ava:" You... don't own me...!"

She punches the ground so hard, the chamber shakes, and her neural implant sparks violently, beginning to fry itself from within.

Ava, steam rising from her temple, smoke curling from her skin. But her eyes are clear. Focused. Awake.

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And in the burning silence that follows...

A new word joins the first.

"Human."

...and now…

"Free."

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TO BE CONTINUED...

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