The echo of Solace and Miri's voices still lingered in the air long after the corridor had gone quiet again.
Elena leaned over the map table Reign had projected against the far wall—two blinking red markers glowing like blood vessels on a dying body. Caucasus. Greenland. Ridgepoint ruins, allegedly sterilized years ago. Now pulsing like they had a heartbeat.
"They're alive," she said softly. "There are more girls, more like Solace—only… still trapped."
"And dangerous," Reign replied. "If they're active and still wired to command code, they're volatile. Think of what Solace could've done if she hadn't fractured out of their leash."
Elena didn't flinch. "She didn't want to hurt anyone."
"That doesn't mean the others won't."
Across the room, Liam sat against the edge of the terminal desk, arms resting on his knees. He hadn't said much since they'd returned from the chamber.
Not since Cassian's words.
Not since the others.
He stared at the blinking markers on the map like he could will them to stop.
Elena turned toward him. "You're too quiet."
He didn't look up. "I'm thinking."
She stepped closer. "Don't start building walls again."
"I'm not."
"Liam—"
He raised his eyes.
And for the first time in days, she saw the thing behind them he rarely showed: doubt.
"I made all of this possible," he said, voice low. "I was the first. The prototype. Solace, the others—they were built because I succeeded. That was my legacy."
"No," Elena said. "You ran from that legacy. You burned it behind you."
"Did I?" he asked. "Because now I'm right back in it. And this time it's not me they want. It's Miri."
He stood abruptly and walked to the wall, knuckles tight, shoulders locked.
"Cassian wasn't wrong," he added. "We can't save them all."
"We're not trying to save everyone," Elena said. "We're trying to do what's right. For Solace. For Miri. For us."
Liam's voice was a razor's edge. "And if doing what's right means losing her? Losing you?"
She crossed the room and touched his face.
His breath caught.
"We've already lost too much to silence," she whispered. "Don't go quiet on me now."
He closed his eyes. "I don't know how to fight a war where the enemy is what I used to be."
"You're not them."
"I could've been."
"But you weren't."
He opened his eyes. Looked at her. "Promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"If this goes sideways—if it's me or Miri—you choose her."
Elena's jaw locked. "Don't make me answer that."
"I need to hear it."
She stepped back.
Tears welled behind her eyes, but she blinked them away.
"I choose both. You hear me? Every damn time. We don't sacrifice anyone else. Not her. Not you. Not again."
Behind them, Reign cleared her throat.
Neither of them turned.
"I've been through a lot of corridors with a lot of people," she said. "Most of them never made it out. You two?" She shook her head. "You're the first ones I've seen keep each other alive."
Elena swallowed hard. "We're not done yet."
Reign motioned toward the map. "Greenland's cleaner—less interference, colder terrain. That site should be more stable. Caucasus is deeper. Underground. No viable exit path once you breach."
Liam joined them at the table. "Then we split."
"No," Elena said instantly. "We stay together."
"Miri stays behind. With Solace."
Elena's eyes snapped to his. "Absolutely not."
"Miri's the tether," Reign said slowly. "If what Solace said is true, she's the beacon that woke them. Taking her in could trigger one of the other hosts. If they're unstable…"
"She stays," Liam said again.
Elena's voice rose. "She stays with me."
The silence that followed was sharp.
Liam didn't respond.
Not with words.
Just the haunted look of a man whose every instinct screamed to shield something too pure to survive the war.
Reign exhaled and folded her arms. "We've got less than twelve hours before one of those sites lights up hard enough to draw a real signal. We pick one. Now."
Liam nodded. "Greenland."
Reign turned to Elena.
She hesitated.
Then nodded too.
"Greenland."
Later, Elena stood alone in the corridor just outside Solace and Miri's door.
She could hear them talking softly, like sisters who'd never met but had always known each other.
She pressed a hand to the wall and whispered, more to herself than anyone—
"Let this be the fight that ends it."