Aja drags Darrow before Octavia on a holopad for a live execution. Octavia removes Darrow’s muzzle to make an example of him while Cassius stands among Praetorians and the Jackal readies to execute Darrow with Sevro’s gun. Octavia delivers a unifying speech and pronounces sentence as the broadcast begins.

Darrow howls, the Jackal pulls the trigger, and the gun fails. In that heartbeat, Cassius reveals his turn: he kills three Praetorians and unlocks Darrow and Mustang. Darrow surges forward and stabs Octavia repeatedly, mortally wounding her on the live feed. Mustang blasts Aja off her charge; Cassius kills the Truth Knight. Darrow pins the Jackal’s arm to the floor, and together he and Cassius cut down the Joy Knight.

They face Aja, who cradles the dying Octavia while Lysander pleads. With the door trapped by their standoff and the broadcast still running, the trio coordinates. Aja attacks first, choosing to crush Darrow, then uses gravBoots to smash Cassius and slashes Mustang. Darrow scrambles for weapons and briefly escapes her strikes, but Aja regains dominance.

The three try to pin Aja, who methodically targets tendons and armor gaps, bleeding them out. She drives a two-handed thrust into Darrow’s ribs, badly injuring him. Octavia fades, Aja grows frantic, and Cassius tosses Darrow a syringe, urging him to act before they all die.

Darrow crawls to Sevro’s seemingly dead body and reveals the ruse. He plunges Holiday’s “snakebite” into Sevro’s chest, gambling on Narol’s earlier cocktail. Sevro jolts awake with a curse as Aja continues to press the battered Mustang and Cassius.