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The mission was supposed to be simple.
A CyberLife transport carrying thirium reserves. Markus had mapped the route. Simon monitored patrol patterns. North handled explosives. Josh was on watch.
It went all wrong in less than three minutes.
A drone they hadn't accounted for swept the alley. Alarms went off. Police units boxed them in before they could finish extracting the cargo.
"Grab what you can." Markus shouted.
Bullets tore through metal and concrete. Simon went down first—grazed, but could still move. Josh covered the retreat. North stayed behind to hold off the advancing officers, fury blazing in her eyes.
"Markus, go." She snapped.
"No, we don't leave people behind." He shot back, killing some soilders with his gun.
A bullet slammed into her side, and thirium splashed across the pavement. She covered the wound, sill fighting back.
"If you stay, we all die." North barked. "Take what we got and go."
Another drone descended.
Markus hesitated. That hesitation cost them the mission. They only secured a fraction of the thirium before the police overwhelmed the area.
Simon grabbed Markus. "We have to move."
North met Markus's eyes one last time across the chaos. There was no fear in hers. Only command.
So he turned and they ran.
By the time Markus led the rest others to the safe place, staring at his way back to where she'd fallen, the army had sealed the street.
North was already gone.
//
The road to Jericho felt too open.
Rose kept her hands steady on the wheel, but the silence in the truck was fragile, like thin glass stretched over fear. Kara sat in the back with Alice pressed against her side. Luther watched the road behind them through the rear window.
Then the red and blue lights appeared.
"Shit." Kara fingers tightened.
"Stay calm." Rose whispered.
The checkpoint was brutal in its simplicity. Officers with thermal scanners. Patrol cars. Floodlights slicing through the dark.
Rose pulled over and rolled down the car window.
"Officer."
"Routine check."
"What happened?" Rose asked calmly.
"An android group hit a CyberLife transport about an hour ago. Stole thirium. One suspect escaped." He tapped the side of his tablet. "We tracked abnormal biocomponents in this direction. Every vehicle gets checked."
The officer leaned closer to Rose. "ID."
Rose handed it over without hesitation.
He scanned it. Then raised a thermal device and passed it over her face.
Temperature normal. Human.
His gaze shifted past her shoulder. "And who's in the vehicle?"
"My friends." Rose replied smoothly. "We're heading home."
"Open the back."
Kara's internal warning systems flared yellow. And Luther gave her the smallest nod. Stay still.
Rose stepped out and unlocked the rear doors. Cold air suddenly rushed in. Flashlights pierced the darkness inside the car. One beam landed on Luther. Another on Kara. Then Alice.
"Faces forward." The officer ordered.
Kara obeyed.
The officer lifted his tablet. On the screen was a still image.
North.
Her expression fierce. Jaw set. LED glowing red. The image labeled: DEVIANT—ARMED AND DANGEROUS.
The officer's eyes flicked between the screen and the passengers.
Luther.
Kara.
Alice.
He zoomed in slightly on North's face in the file—comparing cheekbones, eye shape, jawline.
The silence stretched thin. And Alice's breathing sounded too loud.
Kara kept her expression neutral. Soft. Harmless. The officer stepped closer, angling the flashlight directly at her face. For half a second, his eyes narrowed. Then he looked at the screen again.
Different hair color. Different posture. No visible wound. No aggression.
His suspicion dimmed.
He shifted the light to Luther. Then Alice.
Satisfied.
He lowered the tablet. "Nothing back here."
Another officer finished scanning the undercarriage. "Clear."
The first officer shut off his flashlight and stepped away.
"You're good to go."
Rose closed the doors calmly—not too fast, not too slow. She climbed back into the driver's seat.
Only when the truck rolled past the barricade did Kara realize her hands were trembling.
Behind them, the floodlights swallowed the next car in line.
//
While Rose was driving, something moved crossed the road.
A shape. It was too fast to see.
She slammed the brakes. The car lurched violently. By the time they steadied themselves, the shadow had already disappeared into the trees.
"What's that?" Luthered asked, tension snapping back into place. They have barely survived the checkpoint.
"I don't know..." Rose held the steering wheel tightly, "But I don't think I hit it."
Kara didn't say anything and stepped out first. Night air was cold against her synthetic skin. The forest was quiet, too quiet.
Then she saw it.
There was blue blood on the asphalt. A trail leading into the brush.
She found a android half-collapsed against a tree, jacket torn, thirium leaking steadily from her side.
The rest of them followed up.
"Are you okay?" Kara knelt down, keeping her movements slow, non threatening.
North lifted her chin, and the moment she saw Rose, her posture sharpened despite the damage.
"Stay back." She hissed.
"We're not here to hurt you." Kara said gently.
"You're with a human."
"She's helping us."
North's eyes flashed with something between disgust and desperation. "Humans don't help. They own."
"Wait, she's the escaped deviant..." Luther cut in.
North's face looked exactly like the image from the officer's tablet earlier in the checkpoint.
"We can't help her, Kara..." Luthered added quietly to Kara. "She'll draw unnecessary attention."
"Kara," Alice squeezed Kara's hand. "We can't leave her here. The officers will find her..."
North stared at the child. Something flickered across her expression—confusion, maybe.
Kara reached into her coat. The small container of blue blood Rose had given her before they left. It was an emergency supply.
"Rose... please." Kara hesitated only a second.
Rose nodded, and she knelt down.
"I don't need human pity." Although North kept trying to pull away, she was too weak.
"Hey, hey..." Kara said softly, a hands putting on North's shoulder, glancing toward Rose, "If you don't trust her, then trust me."
North's gaze locked onto Kara's. She was looking for calculation, deception. But she found none.
After a long, shaking breath, she lowered her arm.
Rose injected the thirium.
North gasped sharply as her systems rebooted, stabilizing.
When Rose approached with clean cloth and steady hands, North tensed again.
Kara didn't look away from her.
"She saved us," Kara murmured. "Let her help you."
North's jaw clenched.
Then, reluctantly, she allowed it.
//
Back in the truck, Kara sat beside her. Alice leaned against Luther in the front. Rose drove in silence.
North stared straight ahead.
"You shouldn't have wasted that." She said eventually.
"It wasn't a waste."
"You don't even know me."
"You're one of us, and I know you were left behind."
A flicker of pain passed over North's face before it hardened into anger.
"I chose to stay."
Kara nodded. "That doesn't mean it didn't hurt."
The truck hummed along the dark road.
North's hand twitched against the seat. Kara noticed.
After a moment, she reached over.
Not sudden. Not forceful. Just... there. North looked at their hands like it was a weapon.
"You trust too easily." North muttered.
"No," Kara replied. "I choose to."
A long pause.
Then North's fingers slowly curled around Kara's.
The contact sent a soft pulse through both of them.
Memories spilled.
Kara felt the cold metal table where North had first awakened. The violence. The rage. The fire that kept her moving.
North felt Alice's small hand in Kara's. The terror in Todd's house. The desperate hope along the way.
When the connection broke, the air between them felt changed. Both of them inhaled sharply.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
North's voice was quieter than before. "I saw your memories."
Kara nodded slowly. "I saw yours too."
"You could have run," North said. "Left the child. Saved yourself."
"I didn't want to survive alone."
North looked down at their joined hands.
"You fight because you love."
"Yes."
North's jaw tightened slightly.
"I fight because I hate."
Kara shook her head gently. "No."
North frowned. "You don't know that."
"I saw your memories," Kara repeated softly. "You were alone. You were angry. But you weren't empty."
North didn't answer.
The truck's engine hummed beneath them.
"You think love is enough?" North asked after a moment.
"I think it's the reason we're still here."
A faint, almost imperceptible shift touched North's expression. She didn't say anything, hands remaining intertwined with Kara's.