The silence that followed Aeris's return wasn't peace.
It was the stillness of galaxies holding their breath. Of timelines halting mid-sentence. Of love balanced on a razor's edge.
Kael stared at her—the woman he had died for, killed for, rewound the very fabric of reality for—and for a moment, he didn't recognize her.
Her feet touched the scorched platform with unnatural grace. The flickering flames around her boots left no scorch marks. Her hair floated as if underwater, drifting with echoes of time itself. And her eyes—
They were silver.Not just shining—reflective. Like mirrored gates that showed every possible future and dared him to choose wrong.
"Aeris?" Kael called out, voice cracked with hope and terror.
She turned to him, head tilting in that slow, too-perfect way.
"Kael," she said—but it wasn't her voice. It was hers and something else. Something deeper. Hollow. Eternal.
Behind him, Lyra staggered to her feet, blood trickling from her nose.
"That's not mom. Not all of her."
Aeris took a step forward, and the air around her shimmered like heat off broken glass.
"I saw it," she whispered, touching her own temple. "All of it. Every timeline. Every death. Every version of you. Of me. I saw what love costs."Her gaze burned into Kael."And what losing it becomes."
Kael stepped closer, hands raised.
"You fought her. You beat Null."
Aeris blinked, slowly.
"I became her."
Flashback Fragment: The Rift Core, One Second Before Detonation
She stood before Null, both blades broken. Both hearts bleeding. All hope flickering like dying starlight.
"You can't win," Null said."You can't carry all of time in your bones."
"No," Aeris agreed.
Then she embraced her.
A fusion of flame and darkness, of past and future, of hate and love.
She didn't destroy Null.
She absorbed her.
Scene Return: Reality
Kael stumbled back.
"You… merged with her?"
Aeris looked up at the sky—fracturing again as the Paradox Guild returned, sensing the imbalance.
"To fix the timeline, I had to become its wound. The multiverse chose me as its carrier. But I am still me." She looked at Lyra."And I am still your mother."
Lyra hesitated.
"Then prove it. Tell me the name of the lullaby you used to hum when you thought I was asleep."
Aeris smiled—but it wasn't soft. It was haunting.
"There are over 4,000 versions of you now, Lyra. But only one sang back."
Lightning cracked the sky.
Reality began to scream.
Scene Cut: The Architect's Return
In the void cathedral, the Architect watched the shifting between Aeris and Null with rising amusement.
"She thinks she carries power," he murmured. "She doesn't realize she's my key."
He lifted his hand.
Across all timelines, the seals shattered.
"Kael will either destroy her... or be forced to become what I once was."
Final Scene: Kael's Choice
Back on the broken tower, Kael reached for Aeris—desperate, trembling.
"I don't care if there's darkness in you," he said, voice raw. "We were born from fire. I'll burn with you again."
Aeris didn't flinch.
But from behind her, a shadow began to rise—another version of her. Null's purest remnant. A timeline where Aeris never fell in love.
"You're out of time," that version whispered.
The two Aerises turned toward each other.
And Kael realized—
He had to choose.
One Aeris would save Lyra. The other would end the Architect.
He could only reach for one.