The moment they ascended from the deepest layer of Vault Ten, the air changed.
Not gradually.
Violently.
As soon as Juno's foot hit the upper floor, alarms blared across the entire structure—metal shrieking, lights turning blood-red, sirens pulsing in a pattern none of them had heard before.
Milo's eyes widened. "That's a breach signal. External. Someone's trying to force their way in."
Idris moved fast, unsheathing his blade. "Council?"
"No…" Seth stepped to the side of the wall where faint tremors vibrated through the metal. "Worse."
Juno looked at him. "What's worse than the Council?"
Seth didn't answer. Because the wall exploded inward a second later.
A humanoid figure stepped through the smoke and fire. Covered in matte-gray plating, its skin looked metallic, but its movement was far too smooth—liquid grace hiding monstrous force.
Where its face should have been, there was a mask: mirrored, reflecting each of them in warped, fractured forms.
Milo gasped. "A Hollow."
Juno didn't recognize the name—but her body tensed anyway. Her instincts knew it. So did the Vault.
The Hollow raised one hand. Time bent outward like a ripple in still water.
Idris threw a blade.
It never landed.
The moment it left his hand, it hung suspended in midair, frozen. A full second passed before it dropped like a dead thing.
Seth grabbed Juno's shoulder. "We need to move. Now."
"What is it?" she asked, already running.
"A time-harvester," he said. "The Vault waking up drew it. It doesn't just erase people—it unmakes their impact. It eats your existence."
The Vault's doors began to shut behind them as they sprinted through the town square. Other figures began appearing—some wearing Council insignia, others marked with symbols Juno had only seen in the deepest journal pages.
Enemies.
And something worse.
From the collapsing ruins behind them, the Hollow let out a soundless screech—like a scream that existed in negative space.
Milo turned just long enough to toss an EMP disk. It hit the side of the Vault entrance and detonated.
Not enough to stop it—but enough to slow it.
They hit the train station, barely catching the pre-coded escape pod Seth had hidden weeks ago—just in case.
As the pod launched into the sky, Vault Ten collapsed behind them in a singularity of memory and light.
Juno stared down at the explosion.
"Vault Nine woke me up," she whispered. "Vault Ten told me what I was."
She looked at her reflection in the escape pod glass. The violet ring in her eyes was glowing brighter.
"What's next?" Idris asked.
Juno's expression hardened.
"We find the others like me," she said. "And we end the loop. Before the Hollow finishes what the Council started."
Seth said nothing.
But in his hand, he held a slip of paper.
Old. Burned at the edges. With a symbol none of them had seen yet.
> A vault marked Thirteen.
And below it,scribbled in familiar handwriting:
"This is where it ends.
Or begins again."