Wren spends a sleepless night at the safe house, remembering how Julian Ash became “Uncle Jim” and gave her the name Wren when he rescued her as a child. Determined to save him, she leaves at dawn, evading patrols and drones to reach South Plaza outside the Sanctum Point Command base, where public executions are held.

Unarmed and ignoring repeated telepathic link attempts from Declan and Tana, Wren forces her way to the front as a Command truck emerges from the tunnel. Jim is brought onto the platform in cuffs, dirty but largely uninjured. When Jim links to warn her to leave, the crowd notices the metallic sheen of his veins, marking him as Modified, and pelts him with a rock. A firing squad of eight soldiers mounts the platform as a colonel reads the Tribunal’s verdict: guilty of treason and concealment, sentenced to death.

Jim refuses public last words but tells Wren privately that he loves her. As the colonel orders, “Weapons up,” Wren, filled with panic and rage, decides to intervene. She projects a mental command at the firing squad. One by one, their rifles lower, then, under her escalating incitement, the soldiers raise their weapons to their own heads despite confusion and resistance.

The sustained multi-target incitement drains Wren. Dizzy and struggling to breathe, she tries to force the final command—“pull the trigger.” Her control falters. The compelled order persists, but her grip on their aim slips. As her command breaks, all eight rifles snap back toward Jim while retaining the shoot order.

The squad fires. Jim is struck in the chest, thrown back, and dies instantly. His final telepathic message to Wren—“Goodbye, little bird”—cuts off as their link ends. The crowd erupts in a mix of ecstatic and horrified reactions, some whispering “Inciter,” underscoring the capital danger Wren now faces.

Trying to avoid suspicion, Wren moves with the dispersing citizens toward the exit. Just before the gates, a uniformed Command figure seizes her shoulder from behind, brandishes a handgun, and demands to know where she thinks she’s going, trapping her at the threshold of escape.