The sky cracked.
Not metaphorically—literally.
As Kael, Nira, and Bren raced toward the Core District on their hovercraft, the clouds above twisted into a spiraling wound of violet and black, with pale lightning dancing through its heart. It looked less like a storm and more like a scar in the fabric of reality itself.
"Seris wasn't exaggerating," Nira murmured, eyes locked on the growing rift. "That's not natural. That's tech-shifted resonance on a planetary scale."
"The Syndicate is trying to summon something," Kael said. His voice was tight. "Or someone."
Bren glanced between them. "Maybe we should call in Vorn and the other cells? You know, so we don't get obliterated?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. His eyes were locked on the sprawling ruins of the Core District ahead—once a shining capital, now a graveyard of shattered towers and drifting debris. Somewhere inside that chaos was a girl.
His sister.
Lira.
The shard pulsing in his chest responded more strongly the closer they came, like it was reaching out to her… or being drawn in by something darker.
"She's here," Kael said softly. "I can feel it."
They landed on a fractured bridge that hung like a broken rib over the city's remains. Beneath it, dust and resonance mist swirled between skyscrapers that leaned at impossible angles. The Syndicate's black ships hovered above, releasing drones and scout squads into the ruins.
Kael stepped forward, then paused.
The air was singing.
A faint, eerie hum. Not mechanical. Not natural.
It was resonance.
But twisted.
"Do you hear that?" Nira asked, voice barely a whisper.
Bren nodded. "Yeah… it's like a melody with no tune."
Kael adjusted the blade strapped to his back. "Keep your senses sharp. This place is no longer just ruins—it's become a conduit."
They made their way into the hollow remains of a government facility, its signage barely visible through scorch marks and age. A massive crater had torn through the middle, leading deep into the earth.
The shard in Kael's chest tugged toward it.
"She's down there," he said. "I'm sure of it."
Bren frowned. "You're suggesting we climb into the glowing abyss that even the Syndicate troops seem to be avoiding?"
"Yes."
"Great. Just checking."
Nira smiled. "Welcome to the resistance."
They descended into the crater, past layers of melted steel and shattered crystal growths—remnants of failed experiments, no doubt. The hum grew louder. It was no longer just in the air—it was inside them, vibrating through bone and breath.
Kael reached the bottom and stepped into what had once been a containment chamber. Everything here was wrong.
The walls shimmered with unstable resonance. The floor was cracked like old glass. And in the center—on a raised platform of obsidian and glowing circuits—stood a girl.
Lira.
She looked exactly as he remembered, only older. Taller. Her hair was longer now, streaked with silver, and a shard burned bright in her chest.
But her eyes—
They were closed.
And her lips moved silently, repeating words they couldn't hear.
"Lira!" Kael shouted, stepping forward.
Her eyes opened.
And the room exploded with light.
Kael was thrown backward, landing hard against a wall. Nira caught herself mid-roll. Bren yelped and hit the ground with a groan.
Lira hovered now—three feet off the platform, her body wreathed in shifting resonance that moved like fire and water at once.
Kael pushed himself up. "Lira! It's me—Kael! I'm your brother!"
Her gaze flickered. The resonance pulsing from her body faltered for half a second. A memory? A fragment?
Then her expression shifted—cold, blank, unseeing.
"She doesn't recognize you," Nira said. "Something's been done to her."
Bren scanned the walls. "This chamber—it's a binding matrix. Look, those runes—they're Syndicate scripts! She's not controlling the resonance, Kael. It's controlling her!"
Kael's heart twisted.
They hadn't found her.
They'd activated her.
Lira raised her hand, and the air around them turned heavy. Kael's shard screamed in his chest.
"She's initiating a rift cycle," Nira gasped. "If we don't stop her, this entire city's going to collapse into that sky breach!"
Kael stepped forward. "Lira, please—remember me!"
She didn't speak.
Instead, her shard flared—and dozens of resonance blades formed around her in a floating ring.
"Incoming!" Bren yelled.
Kael leapt into action.
He deflected one blade, dodged another, spun forward through the chaos, and reached the platform.
He grabbed her wrist—his shard flaring to match hers—and for a moment…
He was inside.
A memory.
Not his.
A child, crying in a cold Syndicate lab.
Voices screaming.
A doctor saying, "This one's unstable. Transfer her shard to a containment vessel—"
A flash of pain.
An explosion of light.
Kael jerked back.
Lira gasped.
Her body trembled—and the resonance storm faltered.
"Kael?" she whispered. Her voice—soft, unsure. But real.
He held her face in his hands. "I'm here. You're safe now. You're not alone."
The shard light dimmed.
The rift above pulsed one last time—and then closed.
Bren let out a breath like he'd been underwater for hours. Nira collapsed onto a nearby pipe.
The chamber fell silent.
And Lira began to cry.
---
Later, on the hovercraft, Kael sat beside her. She hadn't said much. Just held his hand like she was terrified to let go.
"They took everything," she whispered. "Memories. Time. Even my voice. I thought I'd forgotten what family felt like."
Kael wrapped his arm around her. "You didn't forget. You just… paused. And now you're pressing play."
She gave a small, broken laugh.
Nira leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "That makes eight."
Bren added, "Which means there's only one more left."
Kael nodded slowly. "The Ninth."
But as the city faded behind them, the resonance in Kael's chest stirred.
Because deep down…
He already knew who the Ninth was.
And they were closer than anyone realized.