The world came back in pieces.
Pain first white-hot and pulsing, like lightning had decided Liam's chest was prime real estate. Then sound the sharp hiss of static, distant shouting, the unmistakable thrum of activated containment fields. Finally, sight blurry shapes forming into walls, consoles, restraints, faces.
Liam blinked hard.
He was strapped to a surgical platform inside ASTRA-NOIR's underground containment unit—the one designed for Vector-class anomalies. The walls shimmered with kinetic dampeners. The air buzzed with suppressor fields.
And standing beside him, arms crossed, was Zorren Kael.
"You're awake," Zorren said, sounding like he wished otherwise.
Liam tried to sit up, and the restraints hissed, locking tighter.
"Yeah," he croaked. "Nothing says good morning like a titanium chokehold."
"You should be dead," Zorren said flatly. "Your body's been pulsing on and off for three hours. The Override was meant to neutralize you."
"Sorry to disappoint."
Zorren stepped closer. "You don't understand what's happening to you."
"No one does," Liam snapped. "That's the problem. You're all guessing with bigger and shinier guns."
Zorren leaned in, eyes sharp. "You are becoming a threat to this timeline. Not just our city. Reality. Your synchronization is now at 83%. Once it hits 100, there's no going back. You'll trigger the Cascade."
"Then stop pushing me toward it."
"I'm not the one accelerating you," Zorren said. "She is."
Liam stilled.
"…Nova?"
Zorren nodded. "The link between you isn't stabilizing you. It's synchronizing you. The closer you get, the faster the pulse builds."
Liam shook his head. "No. That's not she wouldn't."
"She doesn't know. But she's the final trigger. Your Singularity won't happen because of Vex. It'll happen because you chose her."
The words cut deeper than any blade.
Zorren stood back. "We can isolate the link. Sever the feedback. If we do it now, you might survive."
"And Nova?"
Zorren didn't answer.
And that was all the answer Liam needed.
Meanwhile, Nova slammed her fist into a control panel.
"She's in there, I know it!"
The console sparked and sputtered. Juno grimaced beside her, holding a toolkit she'd definitely borrowed without permission.
"You can't just punch science into working."
"No," Nova growled. "But I can punch my way into a locked corridor if I have to."
Juno whistled. "Someone's on a romantic warpath."
"You didn't see him," Nova snapped. "You didn't feel it."
"I did see the part where he went blue-flame nuclear and exploded into the sky like a glitchy firework. That was memorable."
Nova turned to her. "Juno… I think I'm the key. Not just emotionally. Biologically."
Juno blinked. "Wait, like… they built you to control him?"
"No. Worse. I think they built me as a backup."
Juno's jaw dropped. "Holy plot twist, Batman."
"They called it the 'Convergent Lineage,'" Nova said quietly. "Two hosts. One pulse. One becomes the Rift. The other becomes the anchor."
Juno leaned against the wall, thinking. "So either you stop him… or you go with him when he collapses reality?"
Nova didn't answer.
Because deep in her chest, her pulse had started syncing again. The rhythm was no longer just hers. It hadn't been for a long time.
Inside containment, the door hissed open.
Cyn Dravus entered, his footsteps nearly silent, face unreadable.
Zorren nodded once. "Remove the straps."
Ardent, monitoring from the corner, snapped his head up. "What?"
"You heard me," Zorren said. "If he's going to break, let's see who he breaks with."
Cyn stepped forward, pressed his palm to the table and the restraints hissed open.
Liam sat up slowly.
"I don't trust you," he said.
Cyn shrugged. "Good. That's how you stay alive."
Zorren turned away, hands behind his back.
"You have one chance, Liam," he said. "Walk back into containment and help us stabilize the field. Or walk out and start the collapse."
Liam stood.
His bones ached. His skin still glowed faintly. His thoughts felt like they belonged to three different versions of himself but he looked Zorren in the eye, steady.
"You built me to be a weapon. And I believed you."
He stepped forward.
"But I'm not your weapon. I'm not his either. I'm my own."
Zorren didn't blink. "Then we'll bury you with your name carved into the wreckage."
"Try it," Liam said, and stepped past Cyn toward the exit.
Ardent stood to block him.
Liam didn't stop walking.
Ardent raised a hand some kind of neural disruptor glowing in his palm.
Cyn moved faster than sound.
His blade flashed once.
The device fell in pieces.
Ardent looked at his own hand, sliced clean at the wrist, and screamed.
Cyn sheathed the blade without a word.
Liam kept walking.
Nova turned as the doors hissed open.
And Liam stepped through, barely standing, eyes exhausted, but still him.
Their eyes met.
No words.
Just the echo of the same heartbeat in both their chests.
Then Juno cleared her throat. Loudly.
"Okay, I'm all for dramatic reunions and probably world-ending romantic energy, but we've got incoming."
Kairo's voice buzzed through the comms:"We've got Wane movement. Multiple operatives. Eira's leading them. Looks like… they're not here to fight."
Nova looked at Liam.
"What does that mean?"
Liam exhaled, energy building in his hands.
"It means we've got another fracture coming."
And then the base shook
and the Rift split open again.