Fractured Echo

Prime's hand hovered over the controls. His face, usually unreadable, was now a battlefield of doubt. The core pulsed behind him, the energy within it shifting, flickering—waiting.

The station trembled again. The walls shuddered as the fabric of reality continued to collapse. Outside, the Vanguard stood motionless, their glowing eyes locked onto the scene.

Kieran took a slow step forward. "If you reset it, we lose everything," he said. "But if we don't…"

Prime exhaled sharply. "Then we risk losing control of whatever comes next."

"Maybe that's the point." Kieran gestured toward the Vanguard. "They've had every chance to stop us, but they haven't. You know what that means, don't you?"

Prime's jaw tightened. He did. He just didn't want to accept it.

Kieran continued, his voice steady. "They were never our jailers. They were our watchers. Testing us, seeing if we could make the right choice."

Prime's fingers twitched. The control panel pulsed beneath them, awaiting input.

Kieran took another step forward. "You were ready to wipe everything clean because you thought it was the only way. But what if it isn't? What if the Firewall wasn't holding back the end of the world—but the beginning of something new?"

Prime's gaze flicked toward the core. The swirling energy inside it looked less like a machine now, and more like something alive.

A seed of a new reality.

Prime closed his eyes for a brief moment, his shoulders rising and falling with a measured breath. Then, finally, he stepped back.

Kieran moved to the console, his hands hovering over the controls. The station was still unraveling—but now he understood why.

It wasn't collapsing.

It was transforming.

Kieran placed his palm against the interface. The system pulsed in recognition, data flooding his mind.

He didn't trigger the reset.

Instead—he let go.

He released the last remnants of the Firewall, allowing whatever was beyond it to finally take form.

The station stabilized. The shaking ceased. The error messages on the holo-displays vanished.

The Vanguard stepped forward, their forms no longer flickering. They were clearer now. More defined.

And as Kieran locked eyes with them, a single thought echoed in his mind—

Welcome to the next reality.