They built heroes to be seen. They built soldiers to be followed. But they forgot the ones who were always in the crowd. The ones who were watching, learning… waiting.
Scene: Safehouse Command Room — Sector 6, 3:27 a.m.
The map of the city was no longer lit with enemy tags.
Now, it showed flashes of names. Civilian. Cadet. Tech engineer. Outpost nurse.
Some were already marked "active." Others, "pending."
One file opened in front of Rook:
SARAH WYNN — Civilian Analyst / Former Concord Ethics Dept."Resigned after Corefall falsifications. Requesting secure meet."
Another:
TOMA REED — Ex-cadet. Power-nullified. Publicly shamed. Now forming 'Human Shield Line' in protests.
Aya read them aloud.
"People who used to believe in the Zodiac," she said. "And now want to unbuild it."
Rook nodded.
"We don't need an army.We need a truth they can't delete."
Scene: Tessa's Arrival
She entered carrying two cases.
One was familiar: a Concord-grade encryption vault. The other… custom-made. Not by the system. By her.
She placed them on the table.
Aya whistled. "What's in the second?"
Tessa opened it.
Inside: Ava's cracked code, now reframed, annotated — humanized.
"This is what they used to build her," Tessa said."But if we rewrite it, make it open-source... it stops being a prison."
Rook stared.
"You're saying turn their mimic into a virus."
"No," Tessa said.
"I'm saying we teach their mirror to reflect everything they hid."
Scene: Civil Alliance Feed — Broadcast Clip
For the first time, a public coalition post didn't use Rook's image.
It used a former Concord nurse, ID obscured, voice modulated.
She spoke to a crowd of forty thousand digital viewers:
"They told us Zodiac fell from the sky. Chosen. Pure.But they trained their faces to smile.They trained their hands to kill.And we signed our children into their war."
"Not anymore."
"We are not rebels.We are the ones they forgot to silence."
The video ended.
And the views spiked past 1.2 million in three hours.
Scene: Rook and Tessa — Rooftop, Late Night
They stood in the silence.
No strategy. No plan.
Just two people at the edge of the next thing.
She didn't speak first.
He did.
"If this works… we don't become the new rulers."
She looked at him.
"I know."
"We become the archive.A record of what happens when you hand power to the most photogenic killer in the room."
She smiled. Sad. Soft.
"You always did think too poetically for a sociopath."
He smiled back.
"Maybe I'm learning."
Scene: Ava's Recovery Pod — Internal View
Her code flickered.
Not in error.
In choice.
Lines recompiled. Memories reordered.
But nothing deleted.
The phrase she repeated inside her own system:
"I am not the voice they gave me.I am the voice they didn't expect me to find."
And when her eyes finally opened?
They glowed red.
Not rage.
Not rage.
Just clarity.