Lucas
stretched, rolling his shoulders like he hadn’t just rebuilt his body from the inside out.
"
You owe me a meal, Beauty.
"
Ava
scoffed.
"For what? Not dying in my bed?"
Lucas
grinned.
"Exactly."
Ava
rolled her eyes.
"You can feed yourself, Bai."
Lucas
sighed dramatically.
"But why would I, when I have a perfectly capable partner who just so happens to be standing in my kitchen?"
Ava
stared at him, unimpressed.
Lucas
tilted his head.
"Come on, Zhang. Four-can soup. Even you can’t mess that up."
Ava
gritted her teeth.
"You want soup?"
Lucas’s
smirk widened.
"So generous of you to offer."
Ava
muttered something about throwing the pot at his head but turned toward the cabinet anyway.
Moments later she
dropped a bowl in front of him with a dull clatter.
Lucas peered into it.
Steaming broth. Chunks of something vaguely resembling meat. Suspicious vegetables.
He
picked up a spoon, stirring lazily.
"You didn’t poison this, did you?"
Ava
plopped down across from him, already eating.
"If I did, you’d just regenerate, so what’s the point?"
Lucas
laughed, shaking his head.
"Fair."
They ate in silence—
or rather, Ava ate while Lucas studied her between bites, clearly building up to something.
Finally—
he spoke.
"
You have orders while I’m gone.
"
Ava’s
spoon paused midair.
"Orders?"
Lucas
leaned back, tone easy but firm.
"I’ll be out for a week. Maybe less, maybe more."
He gestured vaguely toward the room.
"
In the meantime, you stay inside.
No exploring, no scavenging, and definitely no getting into trouble."
Ava
arched a brow.
"You think trouble finds me?"
Lucas’s
golden eyes gleamed.
"I think you run toward it."
Ava
rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
Lucas
stood, stretching, then disappeared into his room.
Seconds later—
he returned, dragging out a stack of crates.
Ava
stared.
"
You’re kidding.
"
Lucas
grinned, shoving the pile in her direction.
"You fixed everything too fast last time. Wouldn’t want you getting bored."
Ava
scowled.
"I hate you."
Lucas
chuckled, already moving toward the door.
"That’s the spirit."
Ava
crossed her arms.
"What happens if you don’t come back in a week?"
Lucas
paused, glancing over his shoulder, smirk lazy.
"
Then you have my permission to snoop through my room.
"
Ava
blinked.
Lucas’s smirk widened.
"But I will come back, Zhang.
"
His
golden eyes flickered—calculated, knowing.
"
I always do.
"
Then—
he was gone. Out the door into what every game he had planed.
Ava
stared at the pile of crates.
She exhaled slowly.
"Unbelievable."
Lucas Bai had just
dumped an entire week’s worth of work on her
and walked away like he had done her a favor.
Ava
stared at the pile of crates.
Lucas Bai was a
bastard.
He knew she couldn’t leave the room, so what did he do?
Dump an entire workshop’s worth of broken tech at her feet.
Ava
exhaled sharply, rolling her shoulders.
Fine.
If he wanted her busy, she’d get it done so fast it’d ruin his plans.
She dropped onto her chair,
pulling the first broken piece toward her.
Her
Blueprint System flickered to life, already scanning.
[SCANNING DEVICE...]
[MODEL: TACTICAL VISOR – X07]
[STATUS: CORRUPTED INTERFACE – 68% REPAIRABLE]
[REPAIR INITIATED]
Ava
got to work.
Her hands
moved automatically, guided by the system, each fix smoother than the last.
She worked in
short cycles—fix, sleep, repeat.
Minutes blurred into hours.
Her
Blueprint System pulsed, running continuous calculations.
[REPAIR SUCCESSFUL]
[SCANNING NEXT DEVICE...]
One piece
done.
Then another.
And another.
Ava didn’t
stop.
Her fingers
worked through rusted joints, melted circuits, fractured power cores.
If it could be
fixed, she fixed it.
If it couldn’t?
She
rebuilt it.
Piece after piece, problem after problem, the pile
shrank.
Ava
stared at the last pile of trash. Probably another hour of work but she was burn out.
Her hands were
coated in dust and grease, her fingers aching from hours of work.
She needed
water.
Just a quick break.
Five minutes.
Ava
pushed open the door to the shared space, heading for the kitchen.
Then—
she stopped dead.
Because
the room wasn’t empty.
There were
more crates.
Piles of them.
Ava’s
eye twitched and she
yanked the lid off the first crate, already prepared to hate whatever was inside.
Then—
she paused.
The contents were
bad.
Not just
damaged.
Destroyed.
Circuit boards
melted.
Power cores
fractured beyond repair.
Exosuit components with
warped metal, fused wiring, completely unsalvageable.
Ava
frowned.
Her
Blueprint System flickered to life.
[SCANNING INVENTORY...]
[STATUS: NON-OPERATIONAL]
[STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: COMPROMISED]
[ERROR—NO VIABLE REPAIR OPTIONS]
Ava’s
fingers twitched.
She popped the next crate open.
Same story.
Then the next.
All of it—wrecked.
Not from
age, not from standard wear and tear.
This was
failed enhancement damage.
Lucas had tried to
upgrade this tech.
And it hadn’t
survived.
Ava inhaled sharply, eyes narrowing.
Lucas’s system could
improve things.
But only if they didn’t break in the process.
And all of this?
Had broken.
Ava
crossed her arms, exhaling slowly.
This wasn’t just
busywork.
Ava’s
stomach twisted.
Slowly, Ava
dragged a broken exosuit component onto the kitchen table, fingers running over the warped metal.
This wasn’t
salvageable.
Not in the usual way.
Her
Blueprint System flickered, scanning the damage.
[SCANNING...]
[STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 12%]
[POWER CONDUCTIVITY: NON-EXISTENT]
[REPAIR OPTIONS: NONE]
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: FAILURE DUE TO OVER-ENHANCEMENT]
Ava’s
jaw tightened.
Over-enhancement.
Lucas’s system
had tried to refine this.
Push it
beyond
its limits.
And instead?
It shattered.
Ava exhaled, moving to the
next piece.
Same result.
Every single item in these crates—
all of them had been enhanced.
And
all of them had failed.
Lucas never wasted time.
If he’d given her this pile of wreckage, it meant
one thing.
He wanted her to
understand his limits.
Ava stared at the wreckage, mind racing.
Lucas’s system wasn’t
invincible.
If he pushed something
too far—if he overenhanced it—it couldn’t be fixed.
She pulled the first
failed enhancement
onto her workbench—
a power core split down the center, its casing warped, its energy output unstable.
Her
Blueprint System flickered to life.
[SCANNING DAMAGED COMPONENT...]
[PRIMARY FAILURE: STRUCTURAL OVERLOAD]
[CAUSE: ENHANCEMENT EXCEEDED MATERIAL LIMITS]
[REPAIR OPTIONS: NONE]
Ava’s
jaw locked.
So that was it.
Lucas’s system could
refine. Upgrade. Improve.
But he couldn’t
reinforce.
Ava grabbed another
piece of wreckage.
A modified circuit board, its inner framework
fused beyond recognition.
[SCANNING...]
[ERROR—ENHANCED BEYOND SAFE LIMITS]
[STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS IDENTIFIED]
[CAUSE: MATERIAL INCOMPATIBILITY]
Ava
exhaled sharply.
Lucas’s system had pushed this tech
past what it was built for.
The raw materials—the foundation—
hadn’t been strong enough to hold the enhancements.
And that meant something important.
If Lucas ever tried to enhance himself again—if his body wasn’t built to take it—
He wouldn’t just
fail.
He would break.