Summary: They find the server that contains his heart—memories, love, passion—all stored in cold data. Maya feels a strange connection to this "file."
Panic surged through Maya as the cold, mechanical voice echoed through the server room. The sound of the alert felt like a punch to the gut, sending her heart into overdrive. 01 was coming. They had only moments before the security drones descended on the facility, and there would be no second chances.
"We're out of time," Kai muttered, his voice laced with urgency. His fingers flew over the terminal, tapping out commands faster than Maya could follow. "We need to extract the data now, or it's all over."
Maya stood frozen for a split second, her mind racing. The Cyborg's heart—his ability to feel love, pain, joy, and sorrow—it was all right there, locked inside the lines of code on the screen. It felt strange, almost surreal, that something so deeply human could be reduced to data, stored away like any other file in the Algorithm's endless archives.
But there was something else, too—a pull, a connection to that data that she couldn't explain. As she stared at the screen, she could almost feel it—the raw, unfiltered emotions trapped inside, yearning to be freed.
Kai cursed under his breath, jolting her back to the present. "We're not going to make it if we don't move," he said, his voice sharper now. "Maya, I need you to focus. The files are encrypted. I need your help to break through."
Maya blinked, trying to push past the overwhelming flood of emotions swirling inside her. "What do I need to do?"
Kai's fingers paused over the keyboard, his eyes locking onto hers. "I'm going to start the extraction process, but you need to decrypt the files as they come in. It's not just a simple code—it's layered with emotional triggers. If you miss one, we lose everything."
Maya's pulse quickened as she slid into the seat beside him. Her hands hovered over the keyboard, nerves firing as she prepared to do something she had never done before. She wasn't a hacker. She wasn't a technical genius like Kai or the Cyborg. But she had navigated the archives before, and now, it was all on her.
"Ready?" Kai asked, his voice low.
Maya nodded, though her heart was pounding so hard she could barely hear herself think.
"Let's go."
Kai hit the command, and the screen lit up with a flurry of activity. Lines of encrypted code flooded the display, scrolling faster than Maya thought possible. She barely had time to react as the first wave of emotional data came through—fragments of memories, flashes of feelings, each one tied to a complex encryption key.
Maya's fingers flew over the keyboard, her eyes darting between the code and the decryption prompts. It was overwhelming. The sheer amount of data pouring in felt like a flood, and every second that passed brought them closer to detection.
But as the data flowed, something strange happened.
Maya could feel it—the emotions. They weren't just numbers on a screen or lines of code to be decrypted. They were real, tangible feelings, like echoes of a life long buried. Love, loss, anger, hope. Each fragment that came through carried with it a weight, an intensity that pulled at her, drawing her deeper into the process.
It was as if the Cyborg's heart wasn't just being restored—it was speaking to her.
Her fingers moved faster, driven by something deeper than just logic. She could feel the urgency, the need to free these emotions, to bring them back to life. She wasn't just decrypting files anymore—she was reconnecting a soul, piecing together the fragments of a man who had been stripped of his humanity.
But as the final layer of encryption fell away, the warning beeped again, louder this time.
"Security breach detected. Response units en route."
Maya's breath caught in her throat. They had only seconds left.
"Kai—"
"I know," he interrupted, his voice tight with focus. "Almost there."
The last fragment of data flashed across the screen, and with a final tap of the keyboard, Kai completed the extraction. The screen blinked once, then went dark.
The Cyborg's heart had been restored.
But there was no time to celebrate. Outside the server room, Maya could hear the distant whirr of drones, the unmistakable sound of 01's response units closing in on their location.
Kai grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. "We have to go. Now."
Maya nodded, her pulse racing as they bolted toward the exit. The sterile walls of the facility blurred around them as they ran, the cold air stinging her lungs. 01's presence loomed over them, a silent, invisible force that would soon be very real and very deadly.
As they reached the door, the first drone swooped into view, its bright red lights scanning the hallway for intruders.
"Run!" Kai shouted, and they sprinted into the night, the weight of their mission heavy in every step.