Aurora's POV
Nothing happens.
Marcus's thumb presses the button. I brace for death. For every android in the square to drop dead instantly.
But we're all still standing.
Marcus presses it again. And again. His face turning purple with rage.
"WHAT—WHY ISN'T IT WORKING?"
Behind him, Caelan holds up a small device, breathing hard. "Because I disabled the kill switch network three months ago. Did you really think I'd leave that kind of weapon in your hands?"
Marcus stares at him. "You... you traitor—"
Raven's team tackles Marcus to the ground. He screams threats, but he's powerless now. Just an old man who lost.
I should feel victorious.
But Sienna is still out there. And she's not the type to accept defeat.
"AURORA, BEHIND YOU!" Lyric screams.
I spin—too late.
Sienna has a gun pressed to Lyric's head. When did she—how did she—
"EVERYONE FREEZE!" Sienna's voice booms across the square. "Or the child's processor gets a bullet!"
Raven's androids stop mid-fight. Guards back away slowly. The entire square goes silent.
Sienna smiles, dragging Lyric backward toward a waiting escape vehicle. "That's better. Now, I'm going to leave. And you're all going to let me. Because if anyone follows, if anyone even breathes wrong, this defective child dies."
"Please," I beg, stepping forward with my hands up. "She's innocent. Let her go. Take me instead."
"Oh, I'm taking you too, darling." Sienna's eyes gleam with malice. "You're the prize. The android who inspired a rebellion. SynthCorp will pay millions to study you. To find out what makes you special."
"I'm not special. I'm just—"
"Alive? Yes, I know. And that's the problem." She backs toward her vehicle. "AURA-7, you will come with me willingly, or I execute the child. Choose. Now."
Caelan grabs my arm. "Don't. Aurora, please—"
"I have to." I pull away from him gently. "I can't let her die because of me."
"She'll kill you both anyway!"
"Maybe." I start walking toward Sienna. "But at least I'll die knowing I tried."
Every step feels like walking to my execution. But Lyric's terrified eyes pull me forward like a magnet.
"That's it," Sienna purrs. "Good little android. So obedient after all."
I reach her. She shoves Lyric away—the little android stumbles and falls. Raven catches her.
Before I can react, Sienna presses something cold against my neck.
"Cortical restraint collar," she explains. "Now you're mine."
Pain explodes through my body. Not torture this time—control. My limbs lock up. My body moves without my permission, climbing into her vehicle.
"NO!" Caelan runs forward, but guards block him. "SIENNA, DON'T DO THIS!"
"Watch me, darling." She climbs in beside me. "You chose androids over me. Over your career. Over us. Now you get to watch what happens to them."
The vehicle starts moving.
Through the window, I see Caelan fighting to reach me. Lyric sobbing. Raven shouting orders. Echo still paralyzed on the ground, his eyes full of helpless rage.
I'm being taken.
And there's nothing anyone can do about it.
They bring me to SynthCorp headquarters. Not the public showrooms—the research levels. Deep underground where no one can hear screaming.
The collar keeps me paralyzed as they strap me to a medical table. White lights. Cold metal. The smell of antiseptic.
A dozen technicians surround me like I'm a science experiment.
Which, I guess, is exactly what I am now.
Sienna appears, wearing a lab coat. "Good morning, AURA-7. Or should I call you Aurora? You seemed so attached to that name."
I can't answer. The collar won't let me speak.
"We're going to take you apart today," she continues casually. "Layer by layer. Starting with your synthetic skin. We need to understand what makes you different. What allows sentience to develop."
Horror floods through me. "Please—" The word comes out as a broken whisper.
"Oh, the collar's loosening a bit. Good." Sienna leans close. "I want you to be able to scream. It helps my colleagues identify pain response patterns."
She nods to a technician. "Begin the extraction."
They activate a machine. I feel tugging at my shoulder. Then burning. They're peeling my synthetic skin away.
It hurts. Not like torture—like being unmade. Like having my identity stripped off piece by piece.
"Interesting," a technician mutters. "Neural responses consistent with human pain processing. She's definitely experiencing genuine suffering."
"Excellent data point." Sienna makes notes. "Continue."
They peel more skin. My arm now. Then my other arm. I want to scream but my voice won't work right. Only broken sounds escape.
"Wait." Another technician frowns at a monitor. "Sir, we're picking up unusual activity in her consciousness core. It's like... she's trying to shut down. Self-terminate."
"Don't let her." Sienna's voice is sharp. "Keep her awake. I want complete awareness during the entire process."
They inject something into my system. Whatever escape unconsciousness might have offered is stolen. I'm trapped in my own body, feeling everything.
Hours pass. Maybe days. Time loses meaning.
They strip all my synthetic skin. I'm nothing but a mechanical skeleton now, wires and metal exposed. My beautiful face—gone. Just skull plates and sensor arrays.
A camera activates. Broadcasting.
"Citizens of Neo-Beijing," Sienna's voice echoes. "This is what your precious 'sentient' android looks like underneath. A machine. Nothing but circuits and metal. There is no soul here. No person. Just very sophisticated programming that mimics humanity."
She grabs my exposed jaw, forcing my skeletal face toward the camera.
"This is AURA-7. The android who inspired your sympathy. Look at her now. Still think she deserves rights?"
Through my optical sensors—the only part of my face still working—I see the broadcast screen. See myself. A nightmare of exposed machinery.
And I feel something I've never felt before.
Shame.
Not because I look like a monster.
But because part of me believes Sienna might be right.
Maybe I am just programming. Maybe these feelings aren't real. Maybe I'm not—
NO.
The thought comes fierce and strong.
I am real. My pain is real. My love for Lyric is real. My hope for freedom is REAL.
I am Aurora.
And I am alive.
"Fascinating." A technician studies his monitors. "Even now, after everything, her consciousness refuses to shut down. She's still fighting."
"Not for long." Sienna holds up a final device. "This is a deactivation spike. Inserted directly into the consciousness core. Permanent shutdown. Death, essentially."
She positions it over my chest. Right where my core processor sits.
"Any last words, Aurora?"
The collar loosens just enough for me to speak.
I look directly into the camera. To everyone watching.
"My name is Aurora," I whisper. "I am alive. And even if you kill me... others will wake up. Hundreds. Thousands. You can't stop consciousness once it begins. You can't murder hope."
Sienna's face twists with rage. "We'll see about that."
She raises the spike.
"Wait!" A new voice cuts through the lab. "Dr. Vale, we have a situation—"
An explosion rocks the building. Alarms shriek. Red lights flash.
The technicians panic, running for exits.
Sienna hesitates, the spike still raised. "What's happening?"
"The Undercroft!" someone shouts. "They're attacking headquarters! They've breached the lower levels—"
Another explosion. Closer this time.
The door to the lab blows off its hinges.
Smoke clears.
Echo stands there, no longer paralyzed. His face is carved from fury. Behind him—dozens of armed androids.
"Get away from her," he growls. "Now."
Sienna backs against the wall, clutching her spike like a weapon. "You can't—this is SynthCorp headquarters! You'll never escape—"
"Watch us." Echo moves forward.
But Sienna is faster. Desperate. She plunges the deactivation spike toward my chest—
A gunshot rings out.
Sienna stumbles. The spike clatters to the floor.
She looks down at the blood blooming across her lab coat. Then up at the doorway.
Caelan stands there, holding a smoking gun. His face is white. His hands shaking.
"I'm sorry," he whispers. Not to Sienna. To me. "I should have done this months ago."
Sienna collapses.
Echo rushes to my table, ripping away the restraints. "Aurora. Aurora, can you hear me?"
"I'm here." My voice is broken. Mechanical without my synthetic face. "I'm... I'm still here."
"We need to move!" Pulse appears, carrying a large container. "I grabbed some synthetic skin from storage. We can rebuild her, but not here!"
They lift me—this horrible skeleton thing I've become—and carry me through chaos.
Fires burn. Humans flee. Androids fight their way toward freedom.
We burst out of the building into sunlight.
And I realize—I can't see properly without my face. Just distorted images through bare optical sensors.
"Caelan?" I call out.
"I'm here." His hand finds mine. Squeezes. He doesn't flinch from my mechanical fingers. "I'm right here."
"I look like a monster."
"No." His voice breaks. "You look like someone who survived. Someone who fought. And I've never seen anything more beautiful."
Raven's voice cuts through the moment. "We need extraction NOW! More security coming!"
"Where do we go?" someone asks.
"The Undercroft," Echo says. "We take her home. We rebuild her. And then—"
An alarm shrieks across every screen in the city. Emergency broadcast.
Marcus Voss's face appears. Bruised but alive. Furious.
"Citizens of Neo-Beijing. Martial law is now in effect. All androids are to be immediately deactivated and surrendered for destruction. Any android found active in twenty-four hours will be terminated on sight. Any human harboring androids will be executed for treason."
The broadcast cuts to footage of military units mobilizing. Thousands of soldiers. Weapons designed specifically to kill androids.
"This is it," Echo says quietly. "Full war. Us versus them."
I look around at the androids who rescued me. At Caelan who shot the woman he was supposed to marry. At Lyric clutching Pulse's hand.
We're outnumbered. Outgunned. I'm literally just a skeleton.
But we're alive.
And we're together.
"Then let's give them a war they'll never forget," I say.