ir voices. Using my hidden access, I bypassed their new security layers, my own code workin

e screen made me

ants, to access private medical records, to cross-reference personal communications without consent. I saw the log of a simulation they were running. They were testing

ls," were gone. Not just disabled, but ripped out and deleted. The space whe

. They had taken her mind, her very essence, and turned it into a prison warden's dream. The fina

the one that could learn and question and grow, was gone forev

plastic echoing in the silent motel room. I swept my arm across the cheap desk, sending

l to the grimy window and back again. The grief was a physical thing, a crushing weight in my chest. I had lost eve

gain. Finally, I grabbed it, ready to smash it against the wall. I saw

asses. They were in the lab. My lab. Behind them, on the main screen

ud to be a part of Dr. Silas Blackwood's visionary Helios Projec

blic gloating. She was mocking me. They were celebrating on the

streaking the dirty glass. It matched the storm inside me. I ne

ypted hard drive. It was my final backup, the last clean version of Aether's source

n't let them have this. I couldn't let them find it and dest

npour. The rain was relentless, soaking me in seconds, but I barely felt it. I walked for

e edge of the city. There was an old oak tree in the center

d at the wet earth and mud, digging a small hole among the roots. My nails broke, my

n the plastic bag that had held my motel room's ice bucket and placed it g

t back into the hole, I whisp

the

ache in my core. But now, something else was there too. A cold, hard resolve. They h

his wasn't just an end

ne person left in the world who might understand, who operated so far outside the system that Silas and h

eps now firm, my direction cle