The dust finally settled. I stood with the others in Aaliah's chamber, all of us recovering, all of us desperate for answers on how to free her.
"So what it looks like," Chase began, glancing at his readings, "is that three power cells are stabilizing her containment. They're what's holding her in place."
"That's what I saw too," I murmured.
The tension in the room thickened with every second. I could feel it pressing down on everyone. Booker's breathing grew heavier, overwhelmed. Rev was shaken from the last attack. Chase, somehow, was holding steady—eyes scanning the system, brain already working through solutions.
Jacob leaned against the wall, jaw clenched, disappointment etched into his face. Maddie paced in tight, frustrated circles, her patience unraveling.
I must have blanked out, because the next thing I felt was Booker's fist gripping my collar. He lifted me clean off the ground, eyes burning with blue fire.
"Get it together!" he roared, his voice breaking the silence. "You are Kaleb Young! You are my brother. Act like it!"
His power radiated off him in waves, shaking the chamber. My throat tightened. Words failed me. I could only stare back with hollow eyes.
After a long moment, his fury faded. He set me back down, chest heaving, and walked away to cool off.
That's when Chase straightened suddenly. "I've got it!"
Everyone turned.
"There are three chambers drawing power from her. They're anchoring the containment." His voice quickened. "They have to be destroyed—"
"At the same time," he added grimly.
Before we could react, Rev poked her head back in from the doorway, eyes wide.
"We've got company."
The words had barely landed before the chamber doors burst open and the androids flooded in.
We fought hard. Maddie's sound waves split the air like knives. Jacob ripped through them with brute force, and Rev's constructs flared and shattered. Chase turned their broken pieces against them, recycling weapons out of spare parts as fast as he could. But no matter how many we cut down, more came.
They swarmed us. Booker was tackled clean through a wall. Jacob roared, tearing two in half at once. Maddie and Rev held the line as best they could.
It wasn't enough.
Anxiety pressed in, clawing at my ribs. I snapped.
I leapt into the air, Nexus energy surging out of me in a pulse that tore through the room. The androids froze as reality bent. One by one, their metal bodies shimmered—then shifted. Their frames softened, wings sprouting, gears folding into delicate patterns.
Butterflies.
They filled the chamber in a cloud of color and silence.
The others stopped fighting, stunned. Chase lowered his tablet, eyes wide, voice barely a whisper.
"You… you created life out of machines. Out of nothing."
The dome of power faded with a flick of my wrist. But the butterflies remained, fluttering gently where an army had stood.
Chase stared down at his readouts, shaking his head in disbelief. "Every time you use your power, Kaleb… you're pulling from energy reserves that shouldn't exist. Not here. Not anywhere."
Maddie swallowed hard. "What are you saying?"
"He's tapping into something infinite," Chase said, his voice trembling. "An energy the universe itself isn't built to contain. And the universe is already expanding."
My body moved without thought. Drawn.
I walked to Aaliah's chamber—hand brushing the glass—
And then I wasn't there anymore.