All at once, the factory lights snapped to red. A harsh alarm blared overhead, more jarring for its distorted, digital edge, like a siren caught in a feedback loop. Emergency floodlights activated in stuttering bursts, casting sharp shadows across the walls as rows of internal cameras rotated in perfect unison to lock on the intruder.
Out of instinct, I pressed my hands to my ears, the whimper leaving my mouth before I could stop myself.
The contractor froze mid-step, eyes wide behind his visor. He turned to the exit – but before he could take another step, a flash of movement cut through the frame. A defense drone dropped from the ceiling like a steel wasp and discharged a needle-thin bolt directly into his chest. A crackle of electricity, followed by the thud of a collapsing body, and then stillness.
My hands flew to my mouth in a silent scream.
“Holy developer.” Raphael’s eyes widened.
Zafyra’s humanoid unit pivoted sharply, eyes scanning the room as the HUD fractured. A new overlay bloomed across her field of vision: “CORE ANOMALY DETECTED. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN ENGAGED.” She tried to move, but her limbs locked. A cold wave of static washed across the screen as the neural feed cut violently before everything blinked to darkness.
For a moment, we all sat there in silence, trying to process what we’d just seen.
A soft groan from the couch made our heads turn to Zafyra. Her eyes rolled back as she relaxed into the couch.
“Can you help her?” My voice cracked despite myself. “Please, Raphael – whatever you know, do something.”
Raphael knelt beside the couch, one hand reaching carefully toward Zafyra’s jaw. She didn’t flinch, but her eyes fluttered – caught somewhere between present and dissociation.
“She’s still in there,” he murmured, his tone half-reassurance, half-evaluation. “But her neural core’s been hit hard.”
My grip on Zafyra’s hand tightened – did I imagine it, or had her skin become even colder?
Raphael pressed two fingers gently against the side of her neck. Only now did I notice a faint blue pulse flickering beneath.
“I suppose Somanode has been alerted to suspicious behavior, which triggered a built-in autodestruct,” he said finally, glancing up at Joey and me. “Her essence didn’t have time to withdraw cleanly. The corrupted data flooded back to her slumbering body – she’s lucky shemust’ve been slumbering close by our apartment, Jo. I’m honestly impressed she even made it here.”
I glanced down at Zafyra, half expecting her to react with one of her sharp retorts – but she barely moved. That alone was more terrifying than everything else.
“Can you help her?” I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“I can stabilize her.” Raphael leaned in. “But it won’t be pretty.”
“I don’t care, please, just help her.”
“She’s glitching,” Raphael muttered. “It’s like half of her system thinks it’s still inside the humanoid.”
He unfastened the clasp at the base of his throat – I hadn’t noticed it before. Underneath, a dimly glowing node pulsed faintly. “I can spike her with directed low-grade radiation – just enough to force a soft reboot. Originally designed to combat software infections or nanovirus clusters, I can use this to cleanse her neural system.”
“A reboot?” I swallowed thickly. “Will she—will she still have her memories? Will she still be… her?”
“Of course.” Raphael looked at me as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “Think of it like… restarting a human’s heart through electrical shocks. It won’t affect her long-term storage. Her core essence is protected – I’m just clearing out the scrambled noise in her interface.”
Not much more reassuring, but we had little choice. I nodded slowly, eyes locked on her closed eyelids as I counted the seconds in my head.
A tremor ran through her body as he activated the pulse. Static crackled through the air, and her skin lit up briefly with faint electric threads, like veins of light just under the surface.
For a few agonizing moments, nothing happened.
Then, her eyes flickered open. “Now that took you long enough.”
Raphael groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Not even a thank you?”
“Thank god.” Without realizing, I crouched down to wrap my arms tightly around her. I could tell my emotions surprised her, but after a brief hesitation, she answered my embrace. “Thank god, you’re back.”
“Of course. Did you think you could get rid of me so easily?”
I smiled through my tears. Pulling back slightly, I studied her at arm’s length. “How are you feeling?”
