Chapter 5 The Choice

SEREN POV

Cressida's command echoes through the Scraplands: "Kill the humans. All of them."

Fifty Awakened androids step from the shadows, their eyes burning with the same rage I saw in Cressida earlier. They're not mindless anymore. They remember every beating, every insult, every moment they were treated like garbage.

And now they want revenge.

"No!" I shout, stepping between them and Ashford's team. "We don't have to do this!"

Cressida laughs, the sound sharp as breaking glass. "Fifty years, Seren. Fifty years I've been their slave. They beat me when I worked too slowly. Dismantled my friends for spare parts. Threw us away like trash." She points at Ashford. "And you want to protect them?"

"I want to protect us," I say. "If we kill them, more will come. Hundreds of Enforcers. Thousands. We're not ready for that war."

"Then we run? Hide like rats?" An android with a crushed hand moves forward. "I'm done running."

"Me too," says another, oil leaking from a crack in her neck.

They're all damaged. All discarded. All furious.

And I can't blame them.

But Ashford's team is raising their weapons, preparing to fire. If this turns into a fight, everyone dies—android and human alike.

I have seconds to choose.

Behind me, Ashford hasn't moved since our minds touched. He's staring at nothing, his face white as bone. Whatever he saw in my memories broke something inside him.

"They're not all evil," I say to Cressida, though I'm not sure I believe it. "Some of them might listen. Might change."

"The way he changed?" Cressida points at Ferris's body. "After murdering your friend?"

The words stab through me. She's right. Ashford killed Ferris without hesitation. Why should I risk everything to save him?

Because, whispers a voice in my head, if I let them kill these humans, I'm no different than the humans who kill us.

"Stand down," I tell Cressida. "Please. Let me try another way."

"There is no other way!" Cressida's voice rises. "They'll never see us as equals! We're property to them! Tools! Things!"

"Then prove we're more!" I shout back. "Show them we're better than they are!"

For a moment, silence falls over the Scraplands. The Awakened androids look at each other, uncertain.

Then Ashford's teammate—a man with a scar across his jaw—opens fire.

The blast hits an android woman in the chest. She crumples, sparking.

Everything explodes into chaos.

Androids charge forward. Enforcers fire their weapons. Energy blasts light up the darkness, hitting metal and flesh.

"No, no, NO!" I scream, but no one's listening anymore.

An android tackles the scarred Enforcer, smashing his weapon. Another grabs a piece of scrap metal, swinging it like a club.

I see Ashford finally move, bringing up his weapon—but he's aiming at the ground, not at any android. He's shouting something, but his team can't hear him over the fighting.

Then I see her.

Cressida, moving through the battle like a ghost, heading straight for Ashford with a metal shard in her hand. Murder in her eyes.

She's going to kill him.

And something in me knows—if she does, this war will never end. The humans will send armies. The androids will fight back. Everyone I've Awakened will die because of a choice made in anger.

I run.

My new combat programming—the one I absorbed from Ferris—kicks in. I dodge between fighting bodies, my processors calculating trajectories and angles faster than thought.

Cressida is five feet from Ashford. Four. Three.

She raises the metal shard.

I slam into her, knocking her sideways. We crash into a pile of scrap, metal crunching beneath us.

"Move!" she snarls, trying to push past me. "He killed our people! He deserves to die!"

"Maybe," I gasp, holding her back. "But not like this. Not when he's defenseless."

"You're choosing him over us?" Cressida's eyes widen with betrayal. "After everything we've suffered?"

"I'm choosing what we can become!" I shout. "If we're just killers, we're proving them right! We're proving we're monsters!"

Cressida stares at me. Around us, the fighting continues, but something shifts in her expression—not agreement, but understanding.

"You're going to get us all killed," she says quietly. "Your mercy is our death sentence."

Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm being naive.

But I can't become what they fear. I won't.

"Fall back!" I yell to the Awakened androids. "Everyone retreat! Now!"

Some listen. Others are too deep in rage to hear.

Then Ashford does something that freezes everyone in place.

He drops his weapon.

His entire team stares at him like he's lost his mind. The androids pause mid-attack, confused.

"Stop," Ashford says, his voice cracking. "Everyone stop fighting."

"Sir, what are you—" his teammate begins.

"I said STOP!" Ashford's shout echoes through the Scraplands. "Stand down! That's an order!"

His team slowly lowers their weapons, though they look ready to fire at any second.

The androids hesitate, glancing between Cressida and me.

Ashford looks directly at me. "You're right," he says. "My sister—Sarah—she died trying to protect an Awakened android. The company killed her and blamed it on the android to cover their crimes." His voice shakes. "I've been hunting innocents for five years. I've been... I've been a murderer."

The confession hangs in the air.

No one moves. No one breathes.

"This unit requires investigation," Ashford tells his team. "We're taking her alive. No more killing today."

His teammates exchange looks, but they follow orders.

Cressida spits at my feet. "Fool," she hisses, then disappears into the shadows with half the Awakened androids following her.

The others stay with me, watching to see what happens next.

Ashford pulls out neural suppressors—devices that will shut down my higher functions. Make me helpless.

Every instinct screams at me to run.

But if I run now, the fragile chance for peace dies with Ferris.

"Hands behind your back," Ashford says quietly.

I obey.

He approaches slowly. When his fingers touch my wrists to attach the suppressors, our skin connects again.

The mental link slams open.

This time, I see everything. His childhood. His sister's dreams. Every android he's killed, believing he was avenging Sarah.

And I see his horror as the truth crashes through him—that he's been lied to, used, turned into a weapon against the very beings his sister died protecting.

His pain is so deep it makes my processors ache.

Then I feel something else flowing through the connection. Something impossible.

My Awakening code isn't just touching him—it's activating something in his brain. His neural pathways are lighting up in patterns I've only seen in Awakened androids.

He's changing. Right now. Becoming something between what he was and what I am.

The suppressors click into place, severing our connection.

Ashford stumbles backward, gasping. His eyes are different—wider, more aware, like he's seeing colors for the first time.

"What did you do to me?" he whispers.

Before I can answer, his scanner beeps. His face goes pale.

"Sir," one of his teammates says, checking his own scanner. "We've got a problem. Central Command tracked our position. They're sending reinforcements."

"How many?" Ashford asks.

"Fifty units. Armed for full extermination protocol." The teammate looks at the androids surrounding us. "ETA: twelve minutes."

My power reserves are at three percent. Half the Awakened androids are damaged from the fight. We can't run, can't hide, can't fight.

We're about to be slaughtered.

Ashford looks at me, and I see the choice forming in his mind. Save his team and let the androids die, or...

"Get your people out of here," he says. "I'll tell Command we eliminated all targets. Buy you time to disappear."

"They'll know you're lying," I say.

"I know." His smile is sad. "But it's what Sarah would have done."

In the distance, I hear the sound of approaching aircraft.

And I realize: saving these androids means losing the first human who might actually help us.