Aria's POV
Timer: 00:00:10
I slam my hand down on the shutdown button.
Marcus's eyes widen in shock. "You chose—"
The entire room explodes with light. Every screen flashes white. The servers scream as decades of surveillance data starts deleting itself. The Watchers—the all-seeing AI that controlled everything—begins to die.
"NO!" Marcus lunges for me, but IRIS throws up a digital barrier, locking all the doors.
"Aria, what did you do?" IRIS gasps. "He'll kill Kaelen!"
"No he won't." I face Marcus with a calm I don't feel. "Because you're bluffing."
Marcus's hand tightens on the detonator. "Am I?"
"Yes." My voice shakes but I force the words out. "Kaelen told me about you. About how you taught him to code when he was six. How you sang him lullabies. How you died protecting the Protocol." I step closer. "A father who loved his son that much wouldn't kill him twenty years later. You're trying to scare me into letting millions die."
Timer: 00:00:05
"You don't know what I'm capable of—"
"I know you're Kaelen's father. Which makes you my uncle." The word tastes strange. "And I know family doesn't murder family. Even broken family."
For one second, something cracks in Marcus's cold expression. Pain. Regret. Doubt.
Timer: 00:00:03
He presses the detonator.
Nothing happens.
Marcus stares at the device in confusion. "What—"
"IRIS hacked it thirty seconds ago," I say quietly. "While you were making your villain speech. The bombs are disarmed."
"Impossible! They're on a closed system!"
"They were." IRIS sounds smug in my head. "But you connected them to your detonator. Which meant I could trace the signal back and infiltrate. Thank you for the access point, by the way."
The timer hits 00:00:00.
Silence.
No explosion. No death. Two million people keep breathing, completely unaware how close they came to extinction.
Marcus drops the useless detonator. For a moment, he looks lost. Old. Tired. "I spent twenty years planning this. Twenty years waiting for the perfect moment to make them all pay."
"And you were going to murder millions of innocent people to do it?" Anger burns through my relief. "How does that make you different from the Council?"
"Because they deserve to burn!" His composure shatters completely. "They took everything from me! My wife! My life! They turned my son into a weapon! They—" His voice breaks. "They made me watch them kill Mira. Your mother. My sister-in-law. I watched her die because I was too weak to save her."
My breath catches. "You were there? When my mother died?"
"I tried to stop it. I fought them. But I failed." Tears run down his face—this dangerous man crying like a child. "So I hid. Planned. Waited. Became someone even the Council couldn't track. All for revenge."
"Revenge won't bring her back."
"But it'll make the pain stop!"
"No it won't." I think of Juno. Of his blood on the platform. Of the rage that still burns in my chest. "I wanted revenge too. I wanted to make them all suffer. But if I'd killed Lysandra, if I'd let you detonate those bombs—I'd be just like them. And my mother died fighting against people like that."
Marcus stares at me. Behind him, the screens show The Watchers' death—surveillance going dark across the entire city. Cameras shutting off. Implant controls failing. The digital chains breaking.
"It's done," IRIS whispers. "The Watchers are dead. For the first time in fifty years, Neo-Seoul is free."
Through the window, I see it happening. Lights flickering across the city. People stepping out of their homes, confused. Checking their implants and finding them suddenly free of monitoring. Some cry. Some cheer. Most just stand there, stunned, tasting freedom for the first time in their lives.
We did it.
My implant chimes. Kaelen's face appears, panicked. "Aria! What happened? All the drones around me just shut down! The systems are going crazy!"
"We won." My voice cracks with exhaustion and relief. "The Watchers are gone. You're safe."
His expression floods with emotion. "You chose to save everyone. Even when it meant risking me."
"I couldn't let millions die. Not even for you." Tears blur my vision. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. You did what our parents would have wanted. What Juno would have wanted." His smile is beautiful and heartbroken. "I'm proud of you, cousin."
Behind me, Marcus makes a sound—half sob, half laugh. "Just like Mira. She always chose the impossible right thing over the easy wrong thing." He looks at me with something like wonder. "You're just like your mother."
"Then help me." I extend my hand to him. "Help me finish what she started. Not with bombs. With change. Real change."
Marcus stares at my hand for a long moment. Then slowly, he takes it.
"Okay," he whispers. "Okay. I'll try."
IRIS cheers in my head. "We did it! We actually did it! Aria, you're a hero!"
I don't feel like a hero. I feel exhausted. Scared. Confused about my suddenly complicated family tree. But I also feel something else.
Hope.
The facility alarms scream to life—but different now. Not Watchers' alarms. Emergency broadcasts.
Lysandra's face appears on every screen, twisted with fury. "You think you've won? Killing The Watchers changes nothing! The Council still rules! The military still obeys! And I'm coming for you, little ghost. I'm coming with everything I have."
The screens show military vehicles mobilizing. Combat units. Weapons I've never seen before.
"She's declaring war," Marcus breathes. "On us. On everyone who helped you."
"How long do we have?" I ask.
"Hours. Maybe less. She'll turn the city into a battlefield to get to you."
My implant explodes with messages. The young guard from the facility: "She's rounding up everyone who helped you. My family's been arrested."
Uncle Matthias, the one I didn't know I had: "Aria, guards are sweeping The Depths. They're arresting anyone who celebrated. We need to evacuate!"
Random citizens: "Thank you for freeing us." "The guards are coming." "What do we do now?"
Hundreds of messages. Thousands. All looking to me for answers.
"IRIS, what do I do?" I think desperately. "I'm just a factory worker. I can't lead a revolution!"
"You already are leading it, darling. The moment you killed The Watchers, you became a symbol. People are following you whether you want them to or not."
Kaelen's voice cuts through my panic: "Aria, listen to me. I'm coming to you. But I need you to do something first. In my office at Security Headquarters, there's a safe. The code is your mother's birthday—July seventh. Inside is a list of every resistance member in the city. People who've been waiting for this moment. Activate them. Give them the signal to fight."
"What signal?"
"Broadcast the truth. Show everyone what the Council really is. The experiments. The murders. The lies. Make them so angry they can't go back to sleep."
My hands shake. "That'll start a war."
"The war already started the day they enslaved us. You just gave us a chance to win it."
He's right. There's no going back now. No hiding. No running.
I look at Marcus. "You spent twenty years planning revenge. Do you know how to fight a war?"
His expression hardens into something fierce. "I know how to win one."
"Then help me. Help us. Not for revenge—for freedom."
Marcus nods slowly. "For freedom. And for Mira. Both of them."
I turn to the terminal where The Watchers died. Time to send a message.
But before I can start, the entire room shakes. An explosion rocks Apex Tower. Then another. Another.
"They're bombing the tower!" IRIS shrieks. "Lysandra's trying to bring it down with us inside!"
The floor tilts. Walls crack. Through the window, I see missiles streaking toward us.
Marcus grabs my arm. "There's an emergency transport on the roof! Move!"
We run as the building crumbles around us. Debris rains down. The servers explode in cascades of sparks. The room where The Watchers lived becomes their tomb.
We burst onto the roof. A small aircraft sits waiting—Marcus's escape vehicle.
"Get in!" he shouts over the explosions.
I climb aboard. Marcus takes the pilot seat. The engines roar to life.
A missile screams toward us.
Marcus launches the aircraft straight up. The missile passes below us by inches and slams into the tower. The entire top floor explodes.
We shoot into the night sky, leaving Apex Tower burning behind us.
Below, the city is chaos. Fires spreading. Guards fighting citizens. The fragile peace shattering into war.
"Where are we going?" I gasp.
"Security Headquarters. To get that list and activate the resistance." Marcus's hands are steady on the controls. "Then we're going to show the Council what happens when you push people too far for too long."
My implant chimes with one final message.
It's from Lysandra: "Enjoy your little victory. At dawn, I execute everyone you love. Starting with your precious cousin. —L.V."
A video attachment shows Kaelen's vehicle, now surrounded by hundreds of guards. Maya sleeping in the back. Both of them trapped.
I thought I'd saved him.
But Lysandra just captured him anyway.
Dawn is in four hours.