The silence was wrong.
It wasn't peaceful or sacred—it was expectant, like the entire universe was holding its breath, waiting for someone to bleed.
Kael stepped forward, boots crunching on fractured timeglass scattered across the platform. Every shard reflected a different moment—Aeris laughing, Sol dying, Null ascending, the Architect whispering promises into forgotten ears.
And on the throne sat her.
The dark version of Aeris, cloaked in shadows spun from collapsed timelines. Her crown was forged from the regrets she had buried, her eyes swirling voids. Behind her, the Architect loomed—taller than he should be, draped in robes stitched from paradoxes.
"I killed this part of me," Aeris whispered from behind Kael. "I buried her."
"Then why is she smiling?" Sol asked, voice barely a breath.
The throne-Aeris rose. She moved like smoke—effortless, ethereal, inevitable.
"Because you never buried me," she said, voice echoing through the bones of time. "You became me."
Kael turned to Aeris.
She was shaking.
"I didn't—Kael, I didn't—"
"I know," he said, but his eyes flicked between the two versions of her. Doubt. A sliver, but it was there.
The Architect stepped forward.
His face was veiled by a constantly shifting mask—Kael's face, Sol's, Aeris's… even Null's.
"You want freedom," he said in a voice that was every voice. "But freedom from what? Fate? Guilt? Each other?"
He lifted a hand.
The platform fractured into floating pieces, spinning in orbit around the throne. On each piece, a memory played out—moments they tried to forget:
Sol begging Kael not to erase a doomed timeline.
Aeris slitting her own throat to stop the Null version of herself from rising.
Kael choosing power instead of love, once. Just once.
"These are your anchors," the Architect hissed. "Let them go—and I'll give you peace. One timeline. One truth. No more chaos."
"No more choices," Sol said, voice sharp.
"Exactly," the Architect smiled.
But Aeris stepped forward. Past Kael. Past her shadowed self. She looked at the throne.
"You're not me," she said to her darker reflection.
"I'm who you have to become to survive what's coming."
"I already survived it."
Her hand lit with golden fire—the same energy that had saved a collapsing universe once. She turned to Kael.
"Do you trust me?"
"Always," he said.
They reached for each other—
And that's when the throne exploded.
Time shrieked.
A vortex opened beneath their feet, dragging Kael, Aeris, and Sol in different directions. The platform shattered into billions of clockwork gears.
The Architect laughed as Aeris was pulled into a tunnel of mirrors.
"This is your final lesson," he said as Kael clung to a dissolving ledge."You are not fighting fate anymore, Kael. You're fighting what you've already become."
Kael's hand slipped.
Scene Shift: Unknown Timeline
Kael woke up in a white room.
It was sterile. Cold. Empty.
Except for one thing.
A girl stood across from him. Not Aeris.
Not anyone he knew.
But she had his eyes.
"Dad?" she asked softly.
Kael's blood turned to ice.
"…What year is this?"
The girl tilted her head.
"It's the year the universe ends. Didn't Mom tell you?"