Morning in the abandoned tunnel was quiet. Instead of city noise, only the steady drip of rainwater.

Battery 8%. Bit's phone: 3%. A matching set.

"What do I even tell my mom…"

"Text her you're sleeping over at Dot's. …It's only me at my house anyway."

Bit almost asked what that meant — and decided not to. Instead, he sent the text.

The reply came in three seconds. — Who's Dot?

…The explanation could wait.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "The problem is power. The rig is in your yard, and there are no outlets here."

"…There is one place to get electricity. We'll go tomorrow. Today, we find a place to hide."

The place Dot led them to was a junkyard at the edge of the city.

"You hide a leaf in a forest. One car playing dead — among the dead ones."

Volt slid slowly in between the junked cars. And then — stopped.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…Every car here stopped on the night of the Blackout."

Hundreds of cars had been sleeping in the same posture for ten years. In the morning mist it looked less like a graveyard — and more like a sleeping fleet.

Volt's headlights blinked once, very quietly. A greeting, or a eulogy — nobody asked which.

Before hiding, Dot went for the practical things first. A working wiper. A bundle of cables. A fuse box.

"Look at this! An old game cartridge!"

"What use is that now?"

"I'm not picking it up because it's useful. I'm picking it up for the romance."

Spark called it 'inheriting' — when a living car takes up the parts of a dead one. It was the etiquette of the junkyard.

That evening, the dashboard switched itself on.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…Volt wants to show you something. This time — he'll open it himself."

The memory fragment that played this time was from a few days before the Blackout. An underground workshop. The sound of tools.

Dad's hands were sliding something small into somewhere inside Volt. Where, exactly — was erased by the noise.

"Listen carefully. What's inside you can turn the darkened city back on — or keep it dark forever. It depends on who holds it."

"So before the Grid Lords find it — you carry it, and you hide."

And at the end of the fragment, the voice dropped low.

"If anyone ever finds you… go to Madam Watt at the market. She'll know."

The video cut off.

"Madam Watt…? You know her?"

"The scariest person in the electric market."

"…How scary is she?"

"Rumor has it that if you buy on credit twice, your life is over."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…I never knew what was inside me. For ten years, I was protecting it. Without even knowing."

For a while, none of them spoke. The junkyard wind passed between the dead cars.

The night deepened. Bit's phone died, and tomorrow's worries were left to tomorrow.

Battery 7%. And Volt spent 1% of it warming the children's night.

Tomorrow — they head for the electric market. To meet the scariest person in this city.