The stars went dark. Not one. Not a thousand. All of them. For a single heartbeat, the entire Weave became black. Jason stopped breathing. Prime looked around, searching for even the faintest pulse of light. Nothing. No worlds. No threads. No Source. No Silence. No Wanderer. Nothing. Then Jason heard a voice. His own. “This is wrong.” Prime turned. Jason was standing beside him. But another Jason was standing behind him. The second Jason looked exactly the same. Same face. Same eyes. Same scar. Except. He was smiling. Jason stared at him. “Who are you?” The other Jason didn't answer. Instead, he looked beyond them. At the darkness. And whispered: “The version that survived.” The stars returned. All at once. Jason screamed. Prime grabbed Jason's shoulder. “Are you okay?” Jason stumbled backward. “Yeah.” He looked around. The Weave had returned. The worlds were still there. The threads were glowing. The Defender stood where it had been. The Wanderer was still beside the silver thread

The darkness moved toward them. Not through space. Through memory. Jason felt it before he saw anything. A pressure behind his eyes. A distant vibration beneath his thoughts. Something was approaching from a place so old that even the concept of distance seemed meaningless.Prime stood beside him. “Whatever is coming…” Jason nodded. “I know.”“It knows us.” Jason looked toward the empty place where Aria's thread had disappeared. “Then let's hope it remembers her.” The Wanderer said nothing. For once, they looked completely lost. The Defender turned toward them. “You know what this is.” The Wanderer slowly shook their head. “No.” Prime frowned. “You said you've seen other stories.”“I have.”“Then you've seen this.” The Wanderer looked into the darkness. “No.” Their voice dropped. “This existed before stories.” The first sound was not a voice. It was a heartbeat. Boom. The Weave shook. Boom. The Source flickered. Boom. The Silence withdrew. Jason stared. “The Silence is afraid.”Prime l