They didn't leave right away.
The man at the bus stop was sitting again now, a paper cup of water in his hands, nodding as someone spoke to him. He looked shaken, embarrassed more than anything else. Alive. Present.
Liora stood a little apart from the crowd, arms wrapped around herself. Her head still throbbed, but the sharp edge of pain had dulled into something manageable.
"You shouldn't have touched him," Aiden said quietly.
"I know," she replied. "But I couldn't just watch."
"I'm not saying you were wrong," he said. "I'm saying it cost you more than you think."
Seren glanced around, scanning faces, reflections, movement. "We should go," she said. "Nothing else is going to happen here, but this place isn't invisible anymore."
They walked away at a normal pace. No running. No urgency that might draw attention. Liora focused on breathing, on the feel of the pavement beneath her feet, on the fact that the city hadn't swallowed anyone else in front of her today.
After a few blocks, Aiden slowed and stopped beneath an overpass where the noise of traffic muffled everything else.
"Tell me exactly what you felt," he said.
Liora leaned against the concrete wall. "Resistance. Like pushing against a current. It wasn't violent. It was… persistent."
"That's consistent with active correction," Aiden said. "You're not stopping them permanently. You're interrupting the process."
Seren nodded. "Which means they'll adjust the method, not abandon it."
Liora exhaled. "So I bought him time."
"Yes," Aiden said. "And you proved something."
She looked up. "What?"
"That memory isn't as fragile as they pretend," he said. "It can be anchored. Reinforced."
The idea settled slowly in her mind. Not erased. Not saved forever. But held long enough to matter.
They stood there for a moment, the city flowing above and around them.
Finally, Seren pushed off the wall. "We should lay low tonight. No experiments. No heroics."
Liora gave a tired half-smile. "I don't feel heroic."
"Good," Seren said. "Heroes burn out fast."
As they headed back toward the street, Liora glanced once over her shoulder. The bus stop was out of sight now, swallowed by distance and concrete.
But the feeling lingered, not fear, not triumph.
Just awareness.
And the quiet certainty that whatever she was becoming, it wasn't something the city had planned for.