Freda walked into her apartment with Violet under her arm, after spending another blissful day with Sysko. Her head was in the clouds and she felt like she was walking on air. Every day she spent with Sysko got better and better. Not to mention the extraordinary feeling of the dragon emerging inside her. She sat Violet on the couch and changed her nanotech outfit into pajamas before washing her face and climbing into bed. Violet walked into her bedroom and jumped on the bed, snuggling at her feet like a dog.

“Is it okay if I sleep in here, Mommy?” Violet asked.

“Of course it is, dear.”

It was strange to be so attached to a robot, but at the same time, it felt completely perfectly natural. She fell asleep and dreamed of Sysko and the emerging sensation at the back of her mind. The dragon inside her was coming to life. In her dream, she could see it visually and give it a name. It was herself, yet it wasn't. It was something more. Still so small and immature but growing with each passing moment.

In the morning, she went to school. Instead of bringing Violet with her, she left her at home and left the schematics in a hole under the carpet in her bedroom. She didn't want anyone to know about her discovery so she spent all day re-creating a machine that looked exactly like Violet. On her way out of the building, Dr. Higgins stopped her.

“It's you that was mated to the dragon, wasn't it?” Dr. Higgins asked.

“What makes you say that?” Freda asked, clutching her backpack.

“The description of the girl in the news sounds like you. You're driving a new sports car and you're doing suspicious things with school property.”

“Suspicious?” she asked, growing more nervous.

“I checked the computer program for your project, and I know that it's been changed. What are you up to, Freda?” he asked.

“I'm just trying to finish my dissertation during a very difficult time. My parents went missing in New York. I've been taking care of my sister this whole time.”

“I know you're lying,” he said, his eyes glowing red.

Her mouth dropped. It had been there before. She’d just thought it was exhaustion.

“What are you talking about?” she said, backing away.

It was dark outside and there were no students anywhere nearby on campus. He grabbed her arm and squeezed, his strength too great for a man his age.

“Stop it,” she growled. “You're hurting me.”

“Don't worry, Freda,” he said, his voice coming out eerily robotic. “Once we're done with you, you will never hurt again.”

“They've gotten to you, haven't they?” she screamed as he pulled her down the hall.

“You will never get away with this. Sysko will see you leaving the planet.”

“Oh, but we won't need to leave the planet, dear,” he said, pulling her into the parking lot and shoving her into a van.

There were several other faculty members in the vehicle with them. They all had the same glowing red eyes. And now that she looked closer she could see that there were tiny implants in Dr. Higgins ears. One of the men in the back of the van, Dr. Pacer from the English department, pulled her wrist com off and dropped it in a vat of acid. It disintegrated into nothing and her last hope for rescue was gone. They started the car.

“Where is the robot?” Dr. Higgins asked.

“You'll never find her.”

“We’ve have already sent agents to your apartment.

Violet and the schematics for the Draxos’ firewalls were both in her apartment. It would be so easy for them to find them. The van started and they began to drive away. Fear gripped her heart and throbbed in her chest. Sysko was supposed to come pick her up at her apartment in just a few minutes. She prayed he made it to there before the cyborg agents.

“Where are you taking me?” she screamed as they drove down the streets of Boston.

“You are going to be upgraded,” Dr. Higgins said. “We need minds like yours in the collective.”

“I'll never become one of you!”

“That's what they all say. Myself included. Until I saw the error of my thinking. Now I’m much better off,” Dr. Higgins said.

One of the cyborg professors shoved a wadded-up cloth into her mouth and covered it with duct tape so she could no longer scream. They duct taped her hands behind her back and drove who knows how far before stopping. It must have been at least sixty miles, and she knew that by this time Sysko had either made it to her apartment or the agents had taken Violet and the firewall schematics.

If they found the schematics for the Draxos firewalls, all would be lost. And it would be all her fault. They parked and pulled her out of the van and into a small warehouse. They crunched over the gravel of the dimly lit parking lot and walked through a metal door. Inside, a dozen cyborgs worked on “upgrading” several other students from her school. Freda screamed under her gag. They were drilling into people's heads. Bloodcurdling screams filled the space as they cut into a young man’s skull without any anesthesia.

“No, no!” she screamed under her gag, but it just came out as a muffled moan. They threw her into a chair and tied her down.

“If this one is the mate of the dragon leader, she is worth more to us intact than upgraded,” one of the cyborgs said to Dr. Higgins.

“She has the information we need inside her brain. Even if we can’t find it at the apartment,” Dr. Higgins said.

“Her mate intervened at her apartment,” the second cyborg said.

Freda sighed with relief knowing that Sysko had found Violet and the schematics before the cyborgs arrived.

“All of our agents are dead. And the data we needed is lost to us.”

“We still have her brain. I see no reason to wait on upgrading her,” said Dr. Higgins.

“I concur,” said the other cyborg. “You may proceed.”

The technician who had drilled the man's skull and implanted his first cybernetic device, turned on the drill and aimed it at Freda. She screamed at the top of her lungs. Even through her gag, the sound echoed against the walls of the small warehouse. The drill grew closer and closer to her temple. Her eyes bugged out, and her body broke out in a cold sweat.

She tried to rip her hands out of the bounds, but they held her tight. If she were to die, so would Sysko, and all would be lost. Who else would lead the Draxos space navy with such resolve and bravery? The fate of the entire galaxy hung in the balance as Freda tried to keep herself from fainting.

She saw darkness encroaching around the sides of her vision as her heart whacked against her chest. The drill grew closer until she could no longer contain her anxiety and she began to fade. At that very moment, the door of the warehouse burst open.

That's when the lights finally went out and Freda fainted.