"You tried to bury us," Pivithuru growled.
"No," the Architect replied, "I gave you purpose."
He turned to Sashini. "You were my best creation."
She stiffened. "I'm not yours. Not anymore."
The Architect raised a device. "You think this ends with me? I've already uploaded Black Echo to the cloud. The next wave is self-generating AI, smarter than either of you."
Sashini tossed a small orb onto the floor—a ghost drive.
"Good thing we brought a virus."
She launched herself at the Architect while Pivithuru hacked the mainframe, initiating the ghost drive sequence.
Screams. Sparks. Silence.
The zero signal was burning out from the inside.
---