Chrono: +14 Days Since Rift StabilizationLocation: Crosswind – Rift Dive ChamberThe chamber pulsed in silence as the Rift-child hovered at the center, a sphere of pale light wrapped in its newly chosen form—a cloaked figure with no face, only a shifting galaxy beneath its hood.Nyah, Ethan, Mira, and Zeke stood on the transport platform, gear in hand. Each wore the same matte-black field armor adapted for high-dimensional transitions, though none of them had ever used it for this.Ethan stepped forward. “We’re sure this is safe?”The Rift-child tilted its head.“No. But I will walk with you. You will not be alone.”Zeke muttered, “That’s either comforting or terrifying.”Mira checked her systems. “Probably both.”A beat passed.Then the chamber bloomed open.Rift Corridor: Transition StateThere was no tunnel.No motion.

 Location: Crosswind – Rift Return DockChrono: +16 Days Since Rift StabilizationThe transport bay sealed shut behind them with a hiss.Ethan stepped off first, pulse rifle slung, face unreadable. The Rift-child floated behind him in silence, dimmer now. As if flickering under the weight of what it had shown them.Cade met them at the checkpoint, flanked by Mara and two Echo-guards. “Decon’s cleared. What the hell did you walk into out there?”Ethan shook his head. “Not what. Who.”Nyah followed close, face pale. “The Hollowing. A fragment of the Rift’s original consciousness. Left behind when it evolved. Pure entropy wearing a face.”Mira added, “It infects timelines. Not by violence. By erasure.”Cade frowned. “You saying it can come through?”Zeke, grim: “It already has.”Holographic projections of Echo-Terra

 Location: Crosswind – Neural Diagnostic CoreChrono: +18 Days Since Rift StabilizationCade sat alone in the isolation chamber. IV lines snaked into his arms, feeding him stabilizers and memory anchors. But they weren’t working.He stared at the walls—cold, bright, familiar.And he didn’t recognize any of them.Mira watched through the glass as his biometric data deteriorated: delta-wave collapse, spatial dissonance, loss of temporal self-location.“He’s slipping fast,” she muttered. “His mind’s being rewritten.”Zeke stood beside her. “That’s what the Hollowing wants, right? To wear someone like a mask. Slip into our world and make us forget who we even were.”Ethan entered quietly. “Then we need to stop it before Cade stops being Cade.”Nyah added, “Or worse—before we forget he ever was.”Rif

 The sky over Neo-Geneva flickered in unnatural pulses—violet veins laced through clouds like warning signals in the firmament. Deep beneath the blinking skyline, the resistance’s last hidden enclave—Sublevel Orpheus—buzzed with energy, panic, and momentum.Ava ducked under the low conduit arches of the comms chamber, eyes darting to the edge of her HUD. Her pulse was still spiking from the confrontation with Zarek—her brother, now fully consumed by the Omega Directive. His voice still echoed in her mind: “You were never the solution, Ava. You’re the proof that the equation breaks.”She shoved the thought aside. “Status?” she barked, stepping up to the main terminal where Calyx was rerouting Quantum Gate energy protocols.“Not good,” Calyx muttered. “The cascade fault has reached the Singularity Core. That means if we don’t isolate the feedback loop in the next seven

 The sky fractured.For a second, maybe less, time itself shuddered—like a machine grinding against itself—before snapping back into motion. Colors inverted. Gravity bent. The atmosphere grew too still. And then, with a deafening silence, the temporal veil was torn apart above them.Elias staggered on the ledge of the Paradox Engine’s outer ring, one hand gripping the fractured railing, the other holding tight to the crimson-wired memory core humming with unstable quantum charge. Behind him, Seraphina’s scream was barely audible over the howling wind of reality collapsing.“Get it inside!” she shouted, pointing toward the inner gate—where the stabilization field was buckling.But the moment Elias took a step forward, the rip opened wider in the sky. Not just a tear in space, but in choice, in consequence, in the very web of causality.Below them, the Chrono-Anchor—a tower made from crysta