(Final Version — Observatory is ruined, the basement houses the Rift Device, Rain will one day restore it once he masters a technique from his first GTN lesson)
Scene 1: Moving Into the Observatory
The gang stands before the Observatory — once celestial, now cratered. The cosmic manor is cracked open like a broken crown. Massive support beams bend toward collapsed hallways, and shards of stained glass sparkle like forgotten constellations.
DAWN (wide-eyed):"This joint looks like it caught a meteor to the face."
RAIN (quiet):"It did. His name was Mourn."
They drag in duffel bags, wrapped blankets, and plastic bins marked with graffiti, memories, and city street stickers. Just four kids from the hood — now tenants of a god's mausoleum.
Inside, it's eerie. Glorious in ruin. Glowing tiles still flicker. Holographic doors stutter open. One room breathes.
KAI (running his hand along a cracked wall):"It's still alive. Just… sleeping."
RAIN (gruff):"I broke it. I almost died here."
KAI (looking him dead in the eyes):"No. You woke it. This place is linked to you now. It's a part of your power. When you learn how to use that power right… it'll answer you."
Rain doesn't respond, but his eyes linger on the fissures in the floor — like they're waiting on him to return whole.
Scene 2: Basement — Rift Device Activation
They descend into the Observatory's underbelly. The basement is quiet, almost untouched. In the center, a humming Rift Device floats — a ring of raw starlight encased in alien alloy.
KAI:"This is how you'll move between Earth and the GTN."
LUNA:"That's it? No fancy keys?"
KAI (shrugging):"Blood memory does the trick."
Kai raises his palm. The device pulses, and a tear in reality opens like a whisper through fabric. They all feel the pull of space folding.
DAWN (backing up):"That's gonna give me motion sickness."
RAIN:"You get used to it. Kinda."
Scene 3: Settling In
They each claim a wing of the Observatory, cleaning out rubble and dragging in their lives piece by piece. Rain stares at the old battlefield — cracked stone from his duel with Mourn, blood dried into the seams.
His fingers brush the wall. Nothing happens. Yet.
DAWN (offscreen):"Rain! Your room's got a damn black hole in the closet!"
RAIN (mutters to himself):"Guess I'll keep my shoes on the ceiling then."
Scene 4: Moonlight Argument
Kai opens a rift without asking. Rain follows, silent.
They stand on the dead side of the Moon — barren, silver, starlit. Earth glows in the distance. Below them: the crater where Rain bled out.
RAIN:"This the part where you say 'I told you so?'"
KAI:"No. This is the part where I tell you to stop bitching."
Rain laughs once — cold.
RAIN:"You really think I wanted this?"
KAI:"Doesn't matter. You have it. So do something with it."
RAIN (shouting):"I didn't ask to be anyone's chosen one! I didn't ask to carry stars in my chest! I just wanted to survive, man. Not—this!"
KAI (approaching him):"You think I did? You think any of us did?"
Beat.
KAI (cont'd):"You were given power. Yeah, it's unfair. Yeah, it's heavy. But you wanna know the truth?"
RAIN:"Hit me."
KAI:"The universe didn't give a fuck what you wanted. But now it's yours. Own it. Or it'll own you."
They lock eyes — predator and mirror. Rage, exhaustion, fear, defiance.
Rain finally exhales. Not peace. But the start of acceptance.
Scene 5: The First Real Lesson — Trial Attempt
Back at GTN, Rain begins his first real training: "Soul Threading."
He's tasked with threading his inner light — his raw star energy — through broken celestial matter and make it whole again. A lesson in control, harmony, and intent.
He fails. Over and over.
RAIN (growling):"Come on, you glowing bastard…"
He pours power into it. It shatters in his grip.
Kai watches from the edges — silent. His fingers flick a hidden panel. A readout glitches. Something's wrong with the system calibration.
Kai says nothing.
KAI (thinking):"He shouldn't even be able to pull that much light..."
Scene 6: A Spark of Mastery
Eventually, Rain stops forcing it. He closes his eyes. Breathes.
No rage. No panic.
Just control.
The energy flows. The object begins to restore.
The same technique he's learning now — mending broken celestial constructs — echoes what Kai told him before.
Rain doesn't notice the connection.But the reader does.
He opens his eyes. The shard glows — intact.
Final Narration:
Rain still doesn't know what he's becoming.But the Observatory waits.And when he's ready… it'll rise again — not because it was rebuilt......but because he became whole.
CHAPTER 21 — "THE ONES WHO CAME BEFORE"Scene 1: The Second Dream
[VISUAL: An endless desert baked under three blood-red suns. The air shimmers like it's been screaming for centuries. Rain kneels, but it's not his body. The hands are thinner, older, weathered. Slender fingers covered in blackened star-ash. Thousands of melted corpses line the field — armor fused to bone.]
PAST STAR BEARER (female, calm):"We don't shine to save anyone.We shine so the darkness knows where not to step."
Rain stands slowly. Feels the weight of an ancient blade on his back — a greatsword made of dead light, pulsing like a heartbeat long forgotten.
He turns. Behind him, the source of the voice — a woman in torn robes. Her face is wrapped in galactic silk. Her eyes glow like broken moons.
RAIN (within the dream):"Why the fuck do I keep seeing you people?"
HER:"Because we never left.Because you're the last one that hasn't died yet.Because the stars don't forget."
RAIN (gritting his teeth):"Then why me? Why the fuck do I keep waking up with someone else's scars?"
HER (walking past him):"You're not the first flame, Rain. Just the one still burning."
Her silhouette walks into the desert — and the three suns overhead collapse into black holes.
Scene 2: Waking Up (Furious)
[VISUAL: Rain jolts up in his bed back on Earth — the Observatory bedroom. He's drenched in sweat. Breathing like he just got pulled out of space.]
He sits up, yanks off the covers. Slams his fist into the nearby wall — cracks it.
RAIN (shouting):"FUCK OFF WITH THESE DREAMS!"
Luna runs in, startled. Dawn follows.
DAWN (softly):"Rain…"
RAIN (seething):"I don't care if they were gods, warriors, fucking prophets — I'm not them.I'm me. And I didn't sign up for this fucking horror movie in my head every goddamn night."
LUNA (timid):"Maybe it's not about being them… maybe it's about learning from them."
Rain doesn't answer. He glares at the mirror. A scar — faint but growing — is now etched across his collarbone.
Scene 3: GTN – Lesson 2: "Weightless Combat"
[VISUAL: The gravity room at GTN resembles a cosmic torture chamber. The walls shift inwards, fold into themselves. Spiked drones float by, scanning. The air itself fights you.]
Kai watches from a control platform above.
KAI:"Lesson Two: Movement in chaos. Strike without weight. Adapt to laws that don't exist."
Rain launches in — immediately flung sideways, spinning violently through artificial black holes. Slams into a gravity wall. He floats, trying to stand, but up no longer exists.
RAIN (frustrated):"This is bullshit. I can't even walk in here."
KAI (unimpressed):"Good. Because walking is the slowest form of power. Learn to fly, dumbass."
Rain grits his teeth. The room goes from zero gravity to crushing pressure in seconds. He throws up. Stands. His body trembles.
Then he remembers how he fought on Earth — quick, close, reactive.
He shifts. Adjusts his balance. Uses the slingshot of a gravity field to boost his speed. Slices through a training bot mid-spin.
He misses. Bot smashes him into a wall. Blood on his teeth.
Montage (not time skip, just longer training):
Rain bounces between gravity wells, using the pull to launch surprise strikes.
He starts incorporating feints and mid-air flips, turning sloppy movement into improvised rhythm.
He grabs a star-dagger mid-air and throws it at a drone — dead center.
Finally, he slices through a hovering blade-bot with a clean cut, using gravity to accelerate instead of resist.
KAI (watching):"…He's learning."
Scene 4: Earth Interlude – The Observatory Responds
Rain walks back through a cracked hall. Rubble. Dust. The hallway damaged from the fight with Mourn months ago.
He yawns. Doesn't notice that as he passes under the crumbled ceiling — the dust floats up, stone slides into place, and the crack repairs without a sound.
Dawn sees it from behind. Luna stares.
DAWN (whispers):"Did he do that…?"
LUNA:"I think he's always done it. We just didn't know what it meant."
Final Panel: Rain, Alone
[VISUAL: Rain sits outside the Observatory roof, hood up, watching the stars. He stares at his hand.]
RAIN (quietly, to himself):"…What the fuck are you turning me into?"
Above him, the stars shift. One moves unnaturally. Watching.In the reflection of the window near him, his eyes glow faintly — gold, not human.
[VISUAL: A massive chamber with no ceiling — a boundless void above, constellations spinning like slow blades.]
Rain stands alone on a floating slab. The stars swirl in lazy loops around the perimeter, distant, like wolves watching a campfire.
KAI (offscreen):"They're not yours. Not really.They don't answer to desperation.They answer to alignment."
RAIN (quietly):"I'm already aligned. I'm pissed, I'm broken, I'm awake."
Kai's voice echoes with half a laugh.
KAI:"Then let's see if they agree."
Rain breathes. Centers himself.
He whispers:"Astrael."
A low vibration hums through his sternum. A flicker. A pressure behind his ribs — like a door unlocking inside his body.
He doesn't scream. Doesn't beg.
He just opens his arms.
A faint flash.
Three stars spiral out of his chest. Drifting. Alive. Unchained.
They circle him — not like weapons. Like old friends. Cautious. Curious.
Rain collapses to his knees, sweat pouring down.
RAIN (gasping):"I did it…"
Kai steps forward, eyes unreadable.
KAI:"You released them.But releasing isn't mastering."
Scene 2: Earth — Observatory Rift Room
[VISUAL: Red warning lights strobe. The Rift pulses like a stressed heartbeat.]
DAWN (panicked):"Something's trying to force its way through."
LUNA:"That's not our portal. That's someone else's."
KAI (cold):"Brace yourselves."
The Rift explodes open. Out steps Cipher — tall, draped in thin, mirrored cloth. His eyes are glassy, unmoved by emotion.
CIPHER:"Mourn sends his regards."
RAIN (appearing):"Then he should've sent someone stronger."
Rain doesn't wait.
He tackles Cipher — and opens a manual rift mid-fall, dragging them both through it.
Scene 3: GTN Borderworld — Wrecked Outpost
[VISUAL: Cracked stone bridges over black fog. Half-built towers lean into nothingness.]
Rain and Cipher tumble out.
Cipher lands with feline grace.
CIPHER (smiling):"Nowhere to run. No one to protect.You ready to be judged?"
RAIN:"I'm done being judged.Let's go."
They clash.
Cipher's speed is unnatural — each strike measured, elegant, lethal. Rain counters with raw aggression, his sword carving wild arcs. He's fighting harder than ever — but still barely keeping up.
Cipher pins him. Blade inches from Rain's neck.
CIPHER:"Call your stars.Let's see what you've really learned."
RAIN (through gritted teeth):"I already called them once."
He breathes in.
RAIN (low):"Astrael… Kaelum… Lirae… Come on."
Nothing.
The stars hover in the back of his mind — watching, but distant.
They don't move.
RAIN (straining):"You saw me. You know I can do this."
Cipher drives his blade into Rain's shoulder. Blood sprays.
Rain grits his teeth. Pushes back.
RAIN (yelling):"I let you go once!Come back! Don't leave me out here!"
The stars flicker — one twitching like it wants to answer.
But it doesn't.
Cipher smirks.
CIPHER:"They don't trust you. You haven't earned them."
Rain gasps, blood-soaked. Eyes flashing.
He stops begging.
He stands tall — blade down, chest up, arms out.
RAIN (flat):"I'm not here to earn their trust.I'm here to burn everything in my way.So either move—Or die beside me."
And then—They come.
Like lightning drawn to a storm.
Astrael slams into orbit first — blazing gold. Then Kaelum. Then Lirae. Three lights circling him like war gods waking from a nap.
Rain exhales.
RAIN (smirking):"Took your sweet-ass time."
Cipher lunges again.
But Rain moves different now.
Every swing is a signature — every parry a sentence. His sword glows not with flame or lightning — but memory. Legacy.
Cipher lands a blow — and his own arm shatters from the impact.
CIPHER (shocked):"What—?"
RAIN:"They remembered what I forgot.This isn't about control.It's about connection."
He slams Cipher down.
Sword to throat.
RAIN (quiet):"Tell Mourn I'm not running anymore."
Cipher vanishes in a swirl of code — recalled.
Rain drops to one knee. Not from weakness. From relief.
The stars drift above him, silent.
Then fade — back inside.
Scene 4: GTN — Registry Chamber
Kai watches Rain limp through the archway.
No words.
Just a slow nod.
Rain smirks, bloody and exhausted.
RAIN:"They're still assholes."
KAI:"Good.That means they're listening."
Scene 5: Final Dream Fragment
Rain walks a beach made of ash.Sky lit with dying suns.
Ahead — dozens of shadows.
Some hold swords.Some kneel in prayer.All watch him.
At the front — a child with burning eyes.
CHILD (smiling):"You're late."
RAIN:"Late for what?"
The child turns, pointing up.
Stars begin returning to the sky.One by one.
TO BE CONTINUED...