Three days later.
The skies above the Outer Rifts were blood-orange, streaked with lightning that never struck. Below, a canyon stretched like a scar across the earth—unnatural, endless, and humming with residual time energy.
The escape pod touched down just outside a shattered outpost.
They stepped out quietly. Dust kicked at their boots. The wind whispered names that didn't belong to anyone alive.
Milo checked his device. "This is where the signal led. One of the markers from the journal lit up here yesterday."
Idris scanned the jagged rocks ahead. "Nothing but ash and bad vibes."
"No," Juno said, kneeling to the dirt. "Not nothing."
She brushed away a layer of dust—and found it: a sigil carved deep into the stone. The same one from the note Seth carried.
A Vault symbol. But this one was different.
Cracked.
Broken.
> Vault Thirteen.
Juno stood. "We're not the only ones who made it through the loops."
Seth stepped beside her. "I told you there were others like you. Survivors of Event Zero. Fractured, like glass—but still breathing."
Milo approached a half-collapsed door at the edge of the cliffs. "Guys… someone's already opened this."
As the team entered, the air thickened.
Inside: a corridor lined with empty stasis pods. Some shattered. Others… scratched from the inside.
Idris muttered, "Whatever was sleeping here? It woke up angry."
They reached a central chamber. Symbols lined the walls. Different from the other vaults—more erratic, unstable, written as if by someone losing their mind while remembering too much.
At the center stood three chairs. All empty.
And on the wall, scrawled in blood:
> WE ARE THE ECHO CHILDREN
AND WE REMEMBER HER TOO.
Juno stared at the words. Her pulse spiked.
"Me?" she whispered. "Why would they remember me?"
Seth was quiet, then finally said:
"Because once... you led them."
The chamber lit up.
And from the shadows behind the wall, a figure stepped forward—no armor, no weapons. Just eyes glowing faintly gold and a voice calm and steady.
"You finally came back," the strangersaid.
"Juno Kerr, the girl who broke the world and forgot why."