The city breathed wrong.
Zza heard it before she saw anything move. A slow, steady inhale through the cracks in the asphalt, then a faint glow slipping up the sides of buildings like the structures were waking from a long sleep. The coalition froze behind her. Scarabs shifted uneasily. Glowbeetles dimmed their lights without being told. Even the Weaverworms curled tighter into their own silk, as if shrinking made them invisible.
Zza stepped forward anyway.
Her claws landed on concrete that still radiated the pulse of the network. Buzz's pulse. The same rhythm she used to fall asleep beside. The same beat that now crawled up her shell like cold fingertips.
She touched the ground, letting the vibration run through her arm.
It wasn't just him.
