The battle for the Praetorian's soul was silent, invisible, and lasted only a fraction of a second.
The hulking guard stood frozen, its hand inches from Ryu, as two consciousnesses warred for control of its body.
Vex watched, his amusement turning to horrified disbelief as his perfected weapon—his masterpiece—began to twitch and spasm.
The air around the Praetorian crackled with uncontrolled energy, its internal systems caught in a feedback loop of conflicting commands.
Then, with a scream of tortured metal and a flash of blue-white light from its visor, the Praetorian turned its head, its movements jerky and unnatural, and looked at its twin.
"Brother," a voice came from its speakers, but it was not the Praetorian's.
It was Jax's, strained and laced with static.
"You are relieved of duty." The hijacked Praetorian then did the unthinkable.
It attacked its own partner. It was a clumsy, uncoordinated assault, the movements of a puppet whose strings were being pulled by an inexperienced master.
But it was an attack from a being of immense power. The second Praetorian, caught completely by surprise, was forced to defend itself against its own brother-in-arms.
The two titans of Vex's creation crashed against each other, their battle a chaotic, brutal affair that shook the very foundations of the elevator bay.
It was the ultimate perversion of Vex's dream: his perfect soldiers, his new world order, tearing itself apart.
This was the opening they needed.
"Go! Now!" Kiera screamed, pulling the dazed Ryu into the freight elevator.
Joric, his face a mask of awe and sorrow, followed, dragging the freed prisoners with him. The last thing they saw as the heavy doors ground shut was Jax, his physical body slumping to the floor, the light in his neuro-link halo flickering and dying, having poured the last of his consciousness into his final, defiant act.
He had sacrificed his own digital existence to buy them their escape. The hijacked Praetorian, its pilot now gone, went limp.
The remaining guard, seeing its chance, immediately turned its attention back to the elevator, but it was too late.
The doors sealed, and Ryu, his mind a whirlwind of grief and fury, slammed his hands against the control panel, pouring his ChainForce into the machine and sending them rocketing upwards, away from the impending doom.
As they ascended, a profound silence fell over the group. They had escaped.
They had the prisoners. They had won.
But the cost was immeasurable. Ryu felt the hole in his life where his friend, Jax, used to be.
He had called him back from the void, only to watch him sacrifice himself. The guilt was a physical, crushing weight.
Kiera, her arm throbbing, her sword shattered, looked at her hands. She had been saved, again, not by her own legendary clan skill, but by the desperate acts of the two people she had once seen as burdens: a dust-rat and a broken technician.
Her entire understanding of strength, of honor, was being rewritten. The explosion, when it came, was not a loud bang, but a deep, world-shaking rumble.
The Correction Center, Vex's monument to his own genius, had been wiped from the face of the earth.
They had survived. They were free.
But they were also irrevocably changed, haunted by the ghost of the man who had given everything to ensure they could continue the fight.