The warehouse was drowned in a silence sharp enough to cut through steel. North stood perfectly still, eyes locked on the captured android as if staring into a distorted reflection of herself. The flickering light above her cast uneven shadows across her face, revealing a tension she rarely let slip.

Slow footsteps echoed behind her. The group’s leader approached cautiously, watching North the way someone studies a bomb seconds before detonation.

“Are you alright?” he asked, voice low, almost careful.

North didn’t take her eyes off the android.

“I hate this…” she muttered, more to herself than to him.

He frowned. “Hate what?”

She finally turned her head, and for a split second… there was too much emotion trapped in her gaze.

“Looking at something I was forced to be.”

Silence fell again. Heavy. Uncomfortable.

She looked back at the motionless android.

“She has no idea what they did to her. I didn’t either.”

A distant metal creak echoed down the corridor. North immediately stiffened, dropping into combat readiness. He instinctively took a step forward, but she lifted a hand, signaling him to stop.

“They’re coming,” she whispered.

He placed a hand on her shoulder — a light, steady touch that she didn’t push away. From her, that was the closest thing to an embrace.

“We’ll finish this,” he said.

North inhaled slowly, regaining her iron composure, burying any trace of vulnerability.

She cast one last glance at the android, as if making a silent promise.

Then she turned, cold and resolute, walking toward the dark corridor — ready to face whatever waited, carrying all the scars only she knew how to bear.

Even hardened warriors tremble. But North… North never backs down.