The stillness after the Rift's ripple felt heavier than any silence they'd known before.
Kura sat on a jagged crystal outcrop, Dex's old coat draped across her lap. The frayed edge between her fingers felt unreal, part memory, part artefact, and it gnawed at her.
"Why did I take his coat?" she murmured, mostly to herself.
Jessa looked up from where she was double-checking the energy levels on her anchor. Her voice was quieter than usual. "You think he's going to die?"
Kura didn't answer immediately. She just kept staring at the dark blue fabric, weathered by time and soot, smelling faintly of scorched wire and lavender oil. Dex's scent.
"I don't know," Kura said finally. "But I didn't hesitate. I saw myself wearing it… like it was mine. Like he left it."
Jessa nodded, then leaned against the curved wall of the chamber. Her own vision had been no less disturbing, herself walking away. Back to her family. Back to a quiet life, far from time fractures and Sovereigns.
"Do you think I'm going to be too broken?" she asked. "Too tired to keep fighting?"
Kura tilted her head. "What?"
Jessa gave a soft, almost guilty laugh. "The vision. I saw myself walking away from all this. Safe. Alive. Just… not with you guys. What if that means I won't make it through what's coming?"
Kura stood. Her tone sharpened, not out of anger, but to break the thought before it took root. "That's not what it means. They're just images. Tricks. The Rift throws them at us to make us question ourselves."
"Then why did Kael see nothing?" Jessa asked, shifting her gaze toward the silent figure standing at the edge of the chamber.
Kael hadn't said a word since they entered the Null Core Cradle. His face was unreadable, his posture unmoved. But Kura had been watching him long enough to recognize the signs.
"He saw something," Kura said.
Jessa frowned. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure." Kura stepped closer to Kael. "You didn't flinch. Didn't blink. But your shoulders tensed. You swallowed hard. Whatever you saw… it shook you. You just didn't want us to know."
Kael didn't turn. His eyes remained locked on the swirling tendrils of the Null Core.
Inside, he was screaming.
He had seen himself in the mirror of memory, not as a child, not as a hero, not even as a broken man, but as a killer. Cold. Ruthless. Standing over a lifeless body with blood on his hands and no remorse in his eyes.
The worst part was the face of the person he killed. It was blurred, indistinct. That made it worse.
Was it someone he hadn't met yet? Or someone he already cared about?
"Why him?" Kael whispered internally. "Why did I kill him? Am I going to become that person?"
He clenched his fists, trying to shake the image loose, but it clung like dried blood.
Kura stood beside him now. "Kael, talk to us."
He didn't.
Jessa approached too, her voice softer. "Whatever you saw, it's not set in stone. These aren't prophecies. They're just possibilities. Fears."
Kael turned slowly, meeting her eyes. "You saw yourself leaving."
"Yeah."
"And you're still here."
Jessa smiled, though it trembled. "Because this? You all? This is my family now. And I'm not going anywhere."
Kura glanced at her, surprised by the emotion in her voice. She hadn't expected Jessa to say it aloud. Not now. Not like that.
Kael looked between the two of them, and some of the storm in his eyes faded.
That's when it happened.
He felt it.
A tremor beneath the surface of the chamber. Not a physical one, something deeper. Sub-chronal. A pulse. No… a cry.
He staggered back a step.
"Kael?" Kura asked.
He held up a hand. "Quiet."
There it was again. Faint, but growing louder. A frequency layered in emotion, fear, desperation, defiance. And a voice, fraying through the cracks in reality.
Dex.
Kael's heart jumped.
"I know where he is," he said.
Kura blinked. "What?"
"Dex. I can feel him. The Rift's opening up. Something's calling out from below. He's there. He's alive, but… terrified. It's not just pain. It's terror."
Jessa looked around. "How do you know?"
Kael had already turned, moving quickly toward the tunnel that forked off from the chamber. "Because whatever I felt from that vision… this is worse."
They didn't argue. They followed.
The tunnel bent and breathed with pressure. The deeper they went, the more unmoored time felt. Some sections dragged seconds out like syrup, others snapped whole minutes forward in a blink. But Kael moved like a hound on a trail, fast, focused, driven.
Around them, fragments of the past blurred against the walls. Dex's face, laughing, shouting, crying, flickered like fading photographs. The Rift was unraveling something personal.
The further they descended, the louder the hum grew. Not mechanical. Organic.
Alive.
"I don't like this," Jessa said under her breath.
"You don't have to," Kura replied. "We just have to find him."
They turned the last corner,
and stopped.
Kael didn't wait.
The moment the lock cracked and the chamber door hissed open, he darted inside, leaving Kura and Jessa behind at the threshold.
The chamber was crumbling. Walls pulsed with unstable light, and the air buzzed like reality itself was tearing. Chunks of ceiling drifted weightlessly before vanishing into nothing.
And there, at the center, Dex knelt, barely upright, swaying.
"Dex!"
Kael ran. The ground quaked beneath him, a fissure slicing across the floor as the Rift's pull intensified. Time here was no longer fixed, it bent, warped, screamed.
Dex looked up weakly, his voice a rasp: "Kael… get out. It's waking,"
His knees buckled.
Kael reached him just in time, catching his weight and slinging Dex's arm around his shoulder.
"I've got you," Kael said through gritted teeth.
Behind them, the chamber let out a guttural groan. The archway flickered, shrinking, fading.
Kael pushed forward, dragging Dex toward the door.
The floor gave beneath one foot, Kael stumbled, but held on.
One final lunge.Finally they were out of that chamber.
Dex turned, barely holding himself upright. His eyes were bloodshot, his face pale, jaw trembling.
"You're here," he rasped.
Kael caught him before he fell. "We've got you."
Dex grabbed his shirt weakly. "No. Listen."
Kael leaned in.
Dex's voice was breaking. "The Rift… it's not just waking. It's choosing. And it's hungry. It—"
His breath caught.
"It knows you now. And it's listening. Always."
"What does it want?"
Dex smiled faintly, a horrible, exhausted smile. "To see if we break… before we become."
He slumped forward, collapsing fully into Kael's arms.
"Dex?" Kael shook him. "Dex!"
No response.
Jessa knelt beside them, checking his pulse. "He's alive. But barely. He's burned out."
Kura looked up. "We have to move him. Now."
Kael nodded, lifting Dex gently.
The chamber began to tremble.
And something in the dark beyond the Rift stirred.