Night at the junkyard. Madam Watt's storage pack was hooked up to Volt. Battery 35% — the best since they'd gone on the run.

"35%! A new record!"

"…We've seriously lowered the bar."

The children shared what they'd seen at the workshop. The blueprints. The Heart. Dad's message.

Spark stayed quiet the whole time. Only after a long while did it speak, softly.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "The Heart… I feel like I've heard that word before. A very long time ago. Where… I can't remember."

Just before midnight. Outside the junkyard fence, a modified kick scooter came to a silent stop.

Joule peered in through a gap in the fence. In the middle of the forest of dead cars — one car that was bad at playing dead. From behind its dashboard, an amber glow was leaking out, ever so faintly.

"…Found you. Finders keepers."

The moment Joule pulled the wanted poster from his pocket —

from the sky, red dots began to come down.

Midnight. Spark's light stood on end.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…Coming. And this time, it's not just one."

In the gray sky, red dots — one, two… six. Descending in a ring around the junkyard.

"We're surrounded."

The drones' scan-beams began slicing across the junkyard. But — something was strange.

All six threads of red light were converging on a single point. Not on Volt — on the dashboard. On Spark.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…They're looking for me."

Spark's light trembled.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "The small thing dad put inside Volt. …It was me. From the very beginning — I am the Heart."

Volt's headlights blinked quietly, twice. It meant: I knew.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…You knew. That's why you stayed dark for ten years. To keep me asleep."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "If I go out there, you'll be safe. I'm what they want."

"Hey."

Bit's voice was low. It was an angry voice.

"Family doesn't get left behind."

"We break out. Spark — you've still got some charge, right? I have a plan."

"The cars here aren't completely dead. There's a little left at the bottom of every battery. Enough for one light."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "And I'll split my waveform into hundreds of pieces and broadcast it. The heartbeat they're hunting — this whole yard is about to sing it."

Spark's signal spread out over the midnight junkyard. One second. Two. And then —

hundreds of dead cars switched their headlights on, all at once.

The junkyard — had become a galaxy.

Each lit its lamp with the last electricity in its bones — and sang Spark's waveform. On the drones' sensors, hundreds of identical heartbeats appeared at once.

"Now!"

Volt ran through the forest of light. Which light was real — the drones could not tell.

"The exit's north! Under the crane!"

Bit's voice opened the way. Alley or junkyard — a map was a map.

As they cleared the junkyard, in the mirror — the lights went out, one by one, slowly.

The dead cars, with the last warmth they had, helped Volt get away.

For a long time, Volt did not fold in its mirror.

From the top of the fence, Joule had watched it all.

Hundreds of dead cars opening the road with the last of their warmth. One old car running out through that light.

From Joule's hand, the wanted poster caught the wind — and vanished into the dark.

He did not pick it up.

Dawn at the new hideout. Spark's light was dimmer than it had ever been.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "I'm fine. Just… a little tired."

But a waveform once given away never fully comes back.

From that night on — Spark's light began, little by little, to fade.