They were outnumbered.
It didn't matter.
Damian stood tall in the ruins of G-POPS HQ, the air around him pulsing with charged data. His armor flickered — adaptive, wounded, still shielding the scars from Georgie's rescue. Twin 09 emerged from the smoke like a mirror of war: sleek, cold, merciless. 90% of Damian's strength.But 0% of his soul.
"You're obsolete," Twin 09 said.
"Maybe," Damian replied. "But she loved me."
And then they collided.
The shockwave shattered steel and sky. Buildings cracked. Wind howled through ruptured circuitry.
Blows landed with the weight of collapsing worlds.
Nearby…
Georgie watched from the edge of rubble.
Still bandaged. Still bleeding inside.But alive.
She shouldn't have come back. Damian had begged her to stay hidden with Liora. But she couldn't sit still while he walked into death alone.
She clutched a stolen pulse rifle.
And then, she saw him.
Not Twin 09.
Nasir.
Crawling out of a broken conduit. Weapon in hand. Eyes locked on Damian's exposed core, while he was mid-combat.
He was going to shoot him in the back.
"No…"
Her legs moved before thought caught up.She sprinted.Time stretched.
"Damian!" she screamed.
He turned.
Saw her.
And so did Nasir.
A flash. A crack.
One shot.
The Bullet Found Her
Not the armor. Not the AI.Her.
It punched into her chest like the full stop at the end of fate.
She collapsed mid-stride, tumbling into Damian's arms before the second shot ever left the barrel.
"No," Damian whispered."No no no no no—"
Her hand touched his face again, like it had in the cell.Her voice was faint, but it was hers.
"You… you were worth it."
"Don't you dare— Georgie— Georgie—"
"I saw her… Liora. She'll be beautiful…"
"Stay with me—"
"Teach her… to be wild…"
Her eyes didn't close slowly. They just stopped being.
Silence
And then…
Something broke.
In Damian.
Something old. Something buried.
Something human.
He stood.He turned.
And Twin 09, still charging at him, saw not a target —
— but an extinction-level event.
Damian didn't fight.
He ended.
Twin 09's head rolled a second later.
Its body, cleaved in two by an unregistered plasma strike.
No elegance. No tactics. Just rage.
Nasir Was Gone
A coward's shadow down the emergency chute. Gone with the wind and the blood he spilled.
But he knew this war had changed shape.
Because now?
Damian wasn't fighting for freedom.
He was fighting for her memory.
End of Chapter Twenty-One