Silence settled over the Core Chamber like ash after a storm.
No more pulse waves.
No more alarms.
No more Rhys.
West stood with his back straight, chest rising and falling slowly, pipe still in hand. His knuckles bled where steel met steel. His ribs throbbed with every breath.
At his feet lay what remained of Rhys.
Half-machine.
Half-human.
Now neither.
The silver-white armor was cracked down the center, pulse conduits flickering faintly like dying embers. Rhys's face—what was left of it—still moved.
One eye glowed faint red.
A spark of the system refusing to die.
Aria stepped beside West. Her pulse lines dimmed, returning to cool silver-blue.
Her voice broke the stillness.
"Do we finish it?"
West stared down for a long moment.
No rush.
No emotion.
Then—he raised the pipe.
One last swing.
The strike connected with Rhys's core chest plate.
Metal shattered.
The red light in Rhys's eye blinked out.
And so did Grid-Zero's last master signal.
Across the chamber, everything stopped moving.
Pulse lights along the walls faded from red to white—neutral.
The ambient hum, the ever-present mechanical heartbeat… silenced.
For the first time since they'd entered Grid-Zero, there was no voice watching them.
No command overhead.
Only air.
Real silence.
Lem's voice crackled weakly over comms.
"System purge... complete."
West exhaled slow.
Sigma Unit lowered their weapons. One fighter dropped to his knees, hands shaking—not from pain.
From relief.
West let the broken pipe fall from his hand.
The sound it made—metal hitting metal—echoed for several long seconds.
Lem approached, tablet still glowing faint green.
"We've got total control now," he said, voice raw. "No AI layers. Just base human systems."
"No defense grids?" West asked.
"Nothing."
West nodded once.
"Good."
Aria stood quietly beside him, arms crossed.
Her gaze wasn't on Rhys anymore.
It was on the walls.
The lights.
The floor.
Everything that had been built to hold them down... now powerless.
Sigma's leader, a tall woman with streaked gray hair, removed her helmet.
Sweat and grime streaked her face.
Her voice was low but steady.
"What happens now?"
West didn't answer immediately.
His hands flexed once—feeling the bruises, the breaks.
Then he looked at Aria.
Her answer came first.
"We rebuild," she said quietly.
The next few hours passed in a strange rhythm.
Sigma Unit helped stabilize the lower floors.
Lem reconnected base oxygen systems—enough to keep the lower grid alive until full resets kicked in.
Aria moved through it all like a ghost—silent, efficient, calm.
But West watched her carefully.
And when everything was finally still, he found her standing at the edge of the central balcony.
Watching the city below.
Sunlight poured in through the newly opened tower gates.
For the first time, the sky was visible from Grid-Zero's heart.
Not simulated.
Not filtered.
Real.
Gray clouds moving slowly across a pale horizon. Ash dust in the air from ruined sectors.
But real.
Aria stood with her hands on the railing.
Her voice was quiet.
"I never thought it would feel like this."
West stepped up beside her.
"Like what?"
She tilted her head slightly.
"No signal. No voice in my head. Just... air."
West's mouth twitched in something like a smile.
"Feels wrong at first."
She glanced at him. For once—smiled back.
Then looked up at the sky again.
"What about you?" she asked.
"Now that it's over?"
West thought for a second.
Then shrugged.
"Never really planned that far."
Lem joined them a moment later, leaning against the railing.
He held out his pad toward Aria.
"No more locks," he said. "You're clear of all pulse tags. No ID. No trace."
Aria touched the screen with one fingertip.
A final pulse ripple faded.
And with it—her connection to the grid was gone.
Completely.
Below them, the lower gates opened wide.
Dozens of survivors gathered in the streets outside—watching the tower from a distance.
Not with fear anymore.
But with hope.
Sigma Unit lined the entrance, rifles lowered, helmets off.
No longer soldiers.
Just people.
West breathed in slowly.
Air mixed with steel dust and real wind.
It wasn't clean.
But it was free.
Aria turned to him one last time.
Her pulse light, now nothing more than a faint blue shimmer beneath her skin.
"What now?"
West looked at the sky.
"Whatever we want."