The bunker's heavy doors slammed shut behind them with a seismic thud. Kael leaned against the wall, sweat dripping from his brow, his pulse thudding like war drums in his ears. The rush of the escape still hadn't faded. Beside him, Seris gave Nira a wary glance, her fingers twitching near her gauntlet.
Nira, however, was calm.
Too calm.
She moved with a poise far beyond her years, every step calculated, her ember-like eyes watching everything. She looked around the bunker with the quiet scrutiny of someone who had dreamed this place before ever setting foot in it.
Vorn was waiting at the core chamber, arms crossed and scowl ready.
"You brought another?" he growled. "We're barely holding it together with one unstable shard-bearer—now we've got two?"
Seris stepped forward, shielding Nira with her body. "She is the Sixth. The shard chose her. She didn't ask for this."
Nira tilted her head. "None of us do."
Kael looked at her closely. Her voice carried weight, but there was a tremble under it. A tremble he recognized—fear wearing the mask of fate.
"She was waiting for us," Kael said quietly. "She knew I was coming. There's a connection between the shards."
Vorn rubbed his cybernetic temple. "Great. Now they're talking to each other."
"It's not just talking," Kael said. "It's… vision. Memory. Like they're pieces of something that remembers being whole."
Seris narrowed her eyes. "The Origin Mind."
Kael turned. "What's that?"
She hesitated. "It's a theory the old Resistance leaders had. That the shards weren't just weapons or fragments of energy. That they were parts of a larger entity. Conscious. A force of will—broken during the Gatefall."
Vorn grunted. "So now you're saying the shards are alive?"
"I'm saying," Seris said, "that if two shards are reacting like this, it means the rest are stirring too. The Syndicate won't stop. They'll hunt every bearer down."
Nira finally spoke. "They won't just hunt. They'll harvest. That's what they did to my sister."
Everyone turned.
Kael stepped closer. "Your sister was a bearer?"
Nira nodded. "She bore the Shard of Clarity. They captured her. Plugged her into a resonance reactor. Burned her mind to power machines."
Kael's fists clenched. The image burned into his thoughts—people turned into batteries, their lives converted into silent screams and electric pulses.
"We won't let that happen again," he said.
Vorn growled. "You keep saying that, kid. But words don't hold the line. Action does."
Kael stepped forward, fire quietly flaring behind his eyes. "Then let's act."
Hours passed.
Seris debriefed Nira in a private chamber, running scans, testing resonance compatibility. Vorn ran interference with the other bunker leaders, most of whom were still skeptical of harboring not one but two active bearers.
Kael sat alone in the old comms room, staring at the flickering screens showing the ruined skyline above. Somewhere out there, the other shards still waited. Hidden. Scattered. Guarded by time, by war, by fate.
The shard in his chest hummed again—this time not urgently, but rhythmically. Almost like it was syncing with his heartbeat. A new pattern.
He closed his eyes.
And drifted.
He stood in the Echo Drift.
Only this time, it wasn't empty.
Columns of data streamed like rivers across an endless black field. Above him, the sky was fractured into thousands of mirrored fragments—each showing a different bearer in motion.
A woman made of starlight danced through a collapsing nebula.
A man with metal wings soared above a crimson sea.
A child no older than ten tore through a battlefield with laughter and living flame.
And in the center—once again—that shadowed figure.
His future self.
Kael stepped forward.
"What are you?"
The older Kael didn't answer at first. He simply stared, his blade sheathed in smoke, the shard in his chest blackened but alive.
"You want to stop the Syndicate," he said finally. "You want to save people. Good. But you still think this story has heroes."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Doesn't it?"
His echo's voice was low. "There are no heroes in convergence. Only catalysts."
The world cracked.
Kael snapped awake.
He shot up from the chair, gasping, the shard in his chest glowing bright gold for the first time.
The door burst open.
Seris and Nira stood there, eyes wide.
"You felt that too?" Nira asked.
Kael nodded. "It's calling again."
Seris moved toward the console. "Another shard?"
"No," Kael whispered. "A bearer. Someone's awakening."
Vorn's voice crackled through the comms. "We've got a breach. South tunnels. Energy spike off the charts. It's not Syndicate."
Kael was already moving.
They reached the lower tunnels in minutes.
Smoke hissed through the air. A wall had collapsed inward, debris scattered across a central platform. In the center of the rubble, a figure stood.
Young. Broad-shouldered. Covered in dust. Eyes wide and glowing with the unmistakable light of resonance.
A third bearer.
Kael approached slowly. "Hey. I'm Kael. It's okay. You're safe."
The boy looked at him, voice shaking. "I didn't mean to. The ground just… it opened. I couldn't stop it."
Nira stepped beside Kael, her voice calm. "It's your shard. It woke up. What's your name?"
"Bren," he said. "I was just running from patrols. Then my skin started burning. I fell through a wall. Then…"
He looked at his hands—now laced with faint glowing threads of molten metal.
Seris stepped forward. "Looks like we found the Seventh."
Kael turned to her. "Or it found us."
Suddenly, the shard in Kael's chest pulsed hard.
Not just his.
Nira gasped. Bren stumbled.
Outside, alarms blared.
Vorn's voice boomed over the system. "We've got incoming! Syndicate dropships! They're here!"
Kael turned to Seris. "We hold them."
Seris drew her blaster. "We fight."
And for the first time, Kael didn't feel like he was being hunted.
He felt like he was standing at the center of something vast.
Something waking.