Long before Liam Vale was born in a vat of Apex DNA and trauma, before the rise of the Order of Genesis, before Blackreach was carved into the bones of old cities, there was a girl named Dreya Vael, and she screamed once every twenty years.
The first time was in a lab.
She was thirteen.
Strapped to a gravity field bed, humming with restraints that bent space itself, Dreya screamed so loudly it warped the molecular structure of the walls. She collapsed a floor beneath her with sound alone.
They called it The Pulse.
After that, they locked her away.
Not because she was dangerous though she was but because she had spoken words no one understood:
"The Apex is not born. The Apex is designed. And it will end with me."
They thought she was mad.
Then they realized she had predicted the Catalyst Trials a decade before they began.
Now, years later, Dreya sat silently in a sealed chamber thirty floors beneath Blackreach, wrapped in carbon-filament cloth and tethered by gravity dampeners strong enough to collapse a star if she blinked too hard.
Her eyes were closed.
Her pulse was calm.
Until it wasn't.
She opened her eyes exactly seven minutes before the Rift split the sky above Blackreach.
And said, for the first time in five years:
"Liam Vale has crossed the Fold."
Upstairs, Liam stood frozen in front of the spiraling tear in reality.
The Rift wasn't just open.
It was expanding.
And from inside it came… her.
Eira Voss.
She stepped out of the rift barefoot, her coat whipping in a nonexistent wind, her hair scattered by Rift static. Her eyes glowed with residual pulse energy, but it wasn't Liam's hue.
It was darker.
Older.
A color that didn't exist until it bled into reality.
The squad stood ready Nova's hands sparking with spectral blades, Kairo's gravity field humming, Rhea manifesting a crystalline spear, and Juno already muttering, "This is gonna suck, isn't it?"
But Eira didn't raise a hand.
She knelt.
Right there on the ground, without a word.
Liam stepped forward slowly.
"…What is this?"
"I've seen what comes after," Eira said. "And I chose you."
Rhea frowned. "Pretty sure she's on the wrong reality show."
Eira looked up.
"No jokes, no weapons, no mind games. I crossed the Rift because Vex has begun Phase Zero. You're not the trigger anymore, Liam. You're the anchor."
Liam's breath caught. "What does that mean?"
"It means if you die, the world survives. But if you live… you drag the Singularity with you."
Nova's power flared. "You expect us to believe that after everything you've done?"
Eira didn't blink. "You don't have to. Just know that Vex is coming through soon. Not a version. Not a ghost. Him. The original. And he's not coming to conquer."
Juno tilted her head. "Let me guess he's coming to reset?"
"No." Eira's voice cracked. "He's coming to overwrite."
Below them, Dreya Vael stood.
No guards. No cell.
She simply walked.
The alarms didn't blare.
They whimpered.
Because even the Ghost Engine recognized her DNA.
She passed a monitor where Ardent Ysae stared in disbelief.
"She's walking," he whispered. "That's not possible. She's locked behind six chronoseals."
And yet, here she was, barefoot, eyes calm, mouth forming words that hadn't been spoken in decades:
"Protocol Origin is now live. Begin Catalyst Collapse Countdown."
Back on the roof, Nova watched as Liam's glow started to spike again.
His synchronization with the Rift was accelerating.
Eira's warning hung in the air like smoke.
"You need to choose," she said. "Stay here, and you become the collapse. Come with me, and maybe just maybe, you survive long enough to stop what's coming."
"Or," Nova said, stepping forward, "he stays, we fight Vex, and we stop this our way."
Eira's eyes locked onto hers. "You think love can stop entropy?"
"I think Liam's more than what you left behind," Nova replied. "He's not your weapon. Not anymore."
Liam looked between them Eira, the ghost of who he once was, and Nova, the fire that kept him grounded.
And for a moment…
…he hesitated.
Because deep inside him, the second heartbeat wasn't just syncing.
It was echoing.
Calling something from beyond.
"You have twelve hours," Dreya whispered in a forgotten chamber, staring up at the sky. "And then the Apex ascends."
And in that moment, Liam made a choice.
But no one heard it.
Because the Rift screamed
and something massive stepped through.
Not Vex.
Not yet.
But close.
A Herald.
Seven feet tall.
Skin like obsidian streaked with light.
And it spoke with a voice made of thunder and data:
"The Crown calls. The Trigger must kneel."
Nova whispered, "Liam what do we do?"
Liam cracked his neck, stood tall, and grinned.
"…We break the damn crown."
And the fight began.