The journey back to the base felt quieter than it should have been. No celebratory words. No relief. Just a mutual silence stitched by exhaustion and the tremors of what they had witnessed. Kael held Dex tightly on the hover platform as it glided through the broken corridors of fractured time, their shadows bending strangely across the walls. Jessa walked ahead, eyes scanning for temporal spikes. Kura stayed close, her gaze drifting between Dex's shallow breathing and Kael's haunted expression.
Aya and Erik met them halfway. Aya's eyes widened at the sight of Dex, his condition, and the smoldering, half-fused Null Core pulsing faintly in Erik's arms.
"You're late," Erik said, voice dry.
"You're welcome," Kael muttered, not looking up.
Aya approached Kael quickly, her voice low. "Is he stable?"
"Barely," Kael replied. "He warned us. About the Rift. Said it's not just waking—it's choosing."
Aya's breath hitched.
They didn't linger in the corridor. Together, they moved swiftly through the returning corridor shifts until they reached the hidden base nestled inside the shell of a time-frozen mountain.
Dex's body was lowered into the base's only active healing pod. It sealed around him with a slow hiss, the light inside flickering to life in pale golds and blues. Erik monitored the controls, adjusting bio-temporal vitals as Aya input stabilization parameters.
Kael stood just outside the chamber, watching.
"Any chance he wakes soon?" Jessa asked.
Erik shook his head. "His body's exhausted. His neural strain is… extensive. He's been caught in a recursive pocket. His brain's still trying to catch up to the present."
Aya touched the glass of the pod gently, like anchoring herself. "He held the line… longer than anyone should've. We were lucky to reach him in time."
The air in the room felt warmer than usual, like the base itself exhaled slowly now that they were all under one roof again. Aya turned to Kael.
"You got the Null Core?"
He nodded toward Erik. "He has it."
Erik set it on the table. The core throbbed faintly, its containment shell groaning.
"It's… changed," Aya said, kneeling beside it. "The signatures are entangled. Almost like it fused with Rift residue."
"That's bad, right?" Kura asked.
"It's unpredictable," Aya replied. "But it's still a power source. A dangerous one. We'll have to study it carefully."
For the first time in days, the team had a moment to breathe.
Jessa sat beside Kura in the mess hall, nursing a cup of bitter stim-coffee while staring into the distance. Kura had Dex's coat back over her shoulders again. She fiddled with a loose thread, her mind miles away.
"I still see it sometimes," Kura murmured.
Jessa turned. "The vision?"
Kura nodded. "That version of me. Alone. Fighting nothing but shadows."
"You're not her," Jessa said. "You're with us. We're not letting that become real."
Kael stood in the upper overlook, staring out the glass dome at the fractured sky. The horizon rippled with faint distortions, barely visible, but present. Ghosts of the Rift lingering, even here.
He didn't know how long he stared. But then, something shifted.
A pressure. A presence.
He blinked. The room blurred, not visually, but temporally. His mind didn't lag, but reality around him did.
And then he heard it.
A voice, not in sound, but in meaning. Like a thought not his own being whispered directly into his understanding.
"Kael…"
His body locked. The air thickened. His fingertips tingled with static.
He turned around instinctively, but nothing was there.
Then came the pulse.
From the Null Core chamber.
He moved fast.
Aya and Erik were already there when Kael entered. The Null Core was glowing brighter now, veins of violet light streaking through it. Aya was running scans, eyes wide with disbelief.
"What's happening?" Kael demanded.
"It's resonating," she said. "With something… external. Something ancient."
Erik cursed under his breath. "It shouldn't do this on its own."
Kael stepped closer, and felt the same pulse again.
"We see you."
His breath caught.
"One spark, among many. But your flame burns closer."
"Did you hear that?" Kael asked.
Aya looked up. "Hear what?"
Kael staggered back. "It spoke. It's speaking to me."
Aya and Erik exchanged a glance.
Suddenly, the Null Core pulsed once more and the lights in the room dimmed.
A figure appeared within the core itself. Faint, cloaked in shadow, its face obscured. But its presence was overwhelming. Cold. Endless. Watching.
Kael backed up instinctively. The Sovereign was not physical—but it didn't need to be.
"You tread a path not meant for you. Yet you are chosen by what should not choose."
"What do you want?" Kael asked aloud.
"To see… what you become."
And then the vision collapsed inward.
The Null Core cracked—not broken, but changed. Its glow returned to a soft thrum.
Kael sank to his knees, drenched in sweat.
Aya rushed to him. "Kael, what happened?"
He looked up, voice raw. "It's not over."
Later, in the briefing chamber, Kael recounted everything—the voice, the image, the Sovereign's words. No one interrupted.
Dex still lay unconscious in the healing pod. But his last words echoed in Kael's mind: "It knows you now. And it's listening."
Aya sat back in her seat, brow furrowed. "The Sovereign is awakening faster than I anticipated. The Rift is reacting… shaping possibilities around you."
Kael stood. "Then we can't just sit here."
"And do what?" Erik asked. "We don't know where it's anchored. Or how it spreads."
Kura stepped forward. "We start with what we know. The Core. Dex. The visions. Something in all of this ties back to the Sovereign's origin."
Jessa nodded. "We dig deeper. We trace the fractures."
Kael looked at them all, his voice steadier now. "We go back into the Rift. On our terms."
Aya hesitated. "If we do this… we won't be the same when we return."
Kael met her eyes. "We already aren't."