The machines didn't change at first.
No sudden spikes. No urgent alarms. Just the steady rhythm of her heartbeat—soft, mechanical, faithful.
But Leon saw it.
A flicker.
A twitch beneath her lashes, the smallest tremble in a face carved from stillness for too long.
Then another.
"Ayla?" Kalen whispered, leaning forward so fast he nearly tripped on the IV stand.
And then—
Her eyelids fluttered open.
Slow. Struggling. Like her body had forgotten how to be awake.
Her gaze was hazy, unfocused at first. Lights blurred. Shapes moved like shadows in water. But then it landed—by instinct, by heart—on the face closest to hers.
Leon.
And just like that, the world broke.
"Ayla?" he said her name this time, not Celeste. Not the lie. Just her. The name he hadn't dared to speak aloud for so long.
Her lips parted, but no sound came.
Tears sprang to Kalen's eyes. He backed away and pulled Viper forward like he couldn't breathe until she saw him too. "Look—it's her. She's—she's awake."
Ayla's eyes moved again, slower this time.
They landed on Viper.
And something shifted in them. A flicker. A glint of light in the dark.
Recognition.
Not full, not sharp—but real.
Like some part of her remembered being small in strong arms… a voice that once called her "brave"… a man who only ever watched from the shadows but had never stopped watching.
She blinked, tears slipping silently down the side of her face.
Elise let out a broken gasp behind them. She pressed her hands to her mouth again, turning to Jean. "She's not ours," she whispered, "but… but I still—"
Jean gently pulled her into his arms.
Damien stood frozen. Not in pain. Not in anger. Just quiet. His chest heavy with something he couldn't name.
Leon leaned closer to her again. His voice gentler now. Lower.
"Do you know me?" he asked.
Ayla looked at him. A long look. And then… the corner of her mouth twitched. Barely. But it was there.
He saw it.
And he smiled like he'd just won a war.