Time froze.

Rae stared at the cold, impassive visor of Aegis’s helmet—and at the faint scar above her right eye. A scar Rae remembered all too well.

Rin saw her sister pale. “Who is she?”

Rae’s voice was barely a whisper. “Yoon Seul.”

Rin blinked. “Your best friend from middle school? The one who—”

“Died in that fire,” Rae finished. “Or so we thought.”

Aegis lunged.

Rae barely dodged the strike, metal slicing the air where her neck had been a split second before. She rolled, recovered, eyes wide with disbelief and grief.

“Seul, it’s me!” she shouted.

No reaction. Aegis struck again, faster.

Rin leapt into action, flanking her with calculated precision. “She’s not hearing you. Whoever she was… Mi Na erased it.”

“But I remember her,” Rae growled. “Her laugh. The way she used to tape books to her knees before taekwondo.”

Rae caught the next punch and held it, feet skidding across the floor from the force.

“I don’t care what they did to you,” she whispered. “I’m not giving up on you.”

Aegis’s helmet flickered.

A glitch. A memory crack?

Rin noticed it too. “Her neural implants—there’s latency when you speak. Keep pushing, Rae!”

Rae ducked under a sweeping kick and threw a light punch—not to hurt, but to reset rhythm.

“Do you remember our secret handshake? Fourth grade. You always messed it up because you’d laugh too early.”

Aegis faltered. Just slightly. Enough.

“Seul, they turned you into a weapon. But you’re more than that. You’re you.”

Rin accessed a side terminal, tapping into the helmet’s frequency. “I’ve opened a narrow-band feedback loop. If anything in her mind is left, she’ll hear you clearer now.”

Rae stepped forward, arms lowered.

“You’re not my enemy, Seul. You’re my family.”

Aegis stopped moving.

The helmet hissed.

And slowly, it lifted.

Underneath, tear-streaked and trembling, Yoon Seul blinked into the harsh lights. “Rae...?”

Behind her, the server hit 100%.

"Upload complete," Rin said breathlessly. "We got it."

But before they could celebrate, the base began to quake.

Emergency lights flared red.

Rin checked the console. “She rigged the whole place. It’s set to self-destruct.”

Rae grabbed Seul’s hand. “Then we run. Together.”