Cracks in the derelict observatory dome mimicked shattered constellations. When Ayla smashed the last sculpture with hydraulic cutters, conductive gypsum powder swirled into cerulean blizzards under the storm. Lucas leaned against the rusted telescope mount, his cardiac alarms merging with drone swarms—the last human skin on his left hand carbonizing into spiral burns.
"The EMP will sever your clavicle link." He exposed his glowing self-destruct core. "When conductivity peaks...pretend I'm a short-circuit nightmare."
Ayla plunged her bookmark into gypsum mounds. Cerulean blood climbed its engravings, activating all sculpture fragments. Neural sensors from slum kids levitated into rings, forming Selene's gene vault decryption key—the exact crayon contours from Lucas' sketchbook.
"Knew my blood would trigger this?" She ripped her bandages open. Lucas' flickering eye projected their first逃亡 hologram: "Odile left...original code fragments...in your synapses."
Drones pierced the dome as Lucas yanked his spinal cables. The EMP wave collided with gypsum dust, birthing firefly-like arcs replicating every prosthetic coordinate they'd ever repaired. Ayla's clavicle port seared—Lucas was uploading his remaining neural data into her biochip.
"Reverse protocol final command..." His vocal implants fried, the last bytes detonating in her mind: "Make me your sculpture's foundation."
When Selene's ring laser sliced through the floor, all arcs coalesced into a Möbius strip. Ayla found Lucas' surviving left index finger in the gypsum ash—protected in an insulator case, charred fingerprint dragging out an ∞ symbol.
Citywide neon died in the EMP. In darkness, the glowing ∞ bled cerulean, like nebulae crushed into its curves. Ayla stabbed the bookmark into its center—Lucas' holographic map emerged, all coordinates looping via Möbius to Selene's cardiac assembly line.
"He became a perpetual motion paradox." Max's voice crackled from a悬浮 neural sensor. "Backed up his core memories...in your first gypsum lamp's remains."
In the EMP aftermath, Ayla grabbed glowing gypsum ash. As powder slipped through her fingers, the ∞ symbol self-extended along Selene's laser trails—climbing toward the false stars beyond the storm.