Time: Unknown Location: Mmirabe / The Aquatic Chamber

Inside the tank, Val looked at Vaelor one last time, closed their eyes for the final time, and smiled.

It happened almost instantly. Their body began to dissolve, every inch of their being eaten away by a different elemental force.

Val’s body dissolved into a billion tiny, shimmering bubbles. The energy they had absorbed—the Fire, the Storm, the Life, the Water, the Resonance, the Spirit—was released into the water, then imploded into itself, until there was nothing left.

The glass sphere shattered on impact.

"NO!" Vaelor screamed as the pressurized water crashed into the control room, sweeping him and Zhajul away in a torrent of sea-foam and debris.

Time: Unknown Location: The True Inbetween

Val opened their eyes.

They weren't underwater. They weren't in the torture room. They weren't even in the memory of Rajas or Rulljah.

They were in a space of pure, endless darkness.

Floating around them were lights. Thousands of them. Like fireflies. Val looked at their hands. They were translucent. Made of starlight and mist.

Around them were endless doors and openings. Val looked through them, each playing a myriad of images that flickered like movies. The memories they'd just lived had homes where Val stood. It was quiet, yet through the quiet, a subtle ringing filled the space, holding it all together.

One door caught their eye, the frame glowing with the blue energy of water. They watched their Selu with their Tama, the memories of her past playing out before them. They walked further, seeing so many different faces at once. At the very end was a door, one unopened unlike the others. Val followed the memories to the pitch-black opening.

As they entered, they felt the familiar shift in gravity. This was the Inbetween they knew.

"Welcome home, Harmonic One," a voice echoed.

Val stepped further in.

Sitting on a floating island of moss was Li. Their Tama.

And she wasn't alone. Behind her stood the spirits of every Elder who had ever lived.

Li stood up. She didn't speak, she had given her voice away, after all. But she smiled, and the sound of it in Val’s mind was like wind chimes.

She reached out a hand.

Val took it.

I'm dead, Val thought.

Not dead, the collective voice of the Elders whispered. You've returned home to us.

Time: 08 // 50 Fade Location: Mmirabe / Sector Zero

The Thunderwave breached the outer wall of the facility just as the shockwave hit.

"Brace!" Saje screamed, throwing his hands over the console.

The water around them churned violently, slamming the vehicle against the tunnel walls. Debris—metal plates, glass shards, scientific equipment—swirled in a chaotic vortex. The reinforced hull groaned under the pressure of the collapsing facility.

"Hull integrity holding," Gwen announced, though her voice wavered, her hands flying across the holographic interface. "But external sensors are blinded. The water is saturated with... foam."

"Get us in there," Sarode commanded, clutching his chest. He felt cold. Sick. A phantom pain was radiating from his very center, a hollowness that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Something’s wrong. Like very wrong. It’s too quiet."

The vehicle pushed through the debris field, grinding against twisted metal, until they broke through into the Aquatic Chamber.

It was a ruin. The massive containment sphere was gone. The control room was flooded. Vaelor’s forces were gone, swept away by the current or retreated into the depths.

The chamber was silent, except for the hum of the Thunderwave's engines and the creaking of settling wreckage.

"Where are they?" Gwen whispered, scanning the murky water through the viewport.

Hanjhit maneuvered the vehicle to the center of the room, where the tank used to be. The headlights cut through the gloom, illuminating the devastation.

There was no body. No blood. No Vaelor. Nothing.

Floating in the water, caught in the beam of their headlights, was a single object.

The Harmonic Stone. Li's amulet.

It drifted aimlessly, its violet light pulsing slowly, faintly, like a dying heartbeat.

"No," Sarode breathed.

He fell to his knees in the cabin. The tether—the golden thread that had connected him to Val since birth, the one that hummed in the back of his mind even when they were apart—was deathly silent.

"They're gone," Sarode whispered, his eyes wide with horror. "I can't feel them. I can't feel anything."

Saje didn't wait. He hit the airlock release, ignoring the pressure warning flashing red on the console.

"Saje, wait!" Hanjhit shouted.

Saje dove out into the dark water. The pressure was crushing, but he didn't feel it. He swam toward the violet light. He grabbed the Stone. It was heavy in his hand.

He held it to his chest, closing his eyes, searching for a resonance, a frequency, anything.

But the water was quiet.

Saje floated there, suspended in the dark, clutching the only piece of Val left. He screamed, a sound of pure rage that cracked the remaining glass in the room, but the ocean swallowed it whole.

Time: Unknown Location: The Inbetween

"How will they beat them without me then?" Val was pacing around the floating moss island. The peace of the afterlife was agonizing when their family was suffering.

"The universe chose you because you would hold the answers," Aeliana began, stepping out from the circle of Elders.

"Yeah sure! But that doesn't make the answer magically come to me. I have to get back to them," Val looked back at the door they'd entered from. "Could I see the overworld from those portals?"

"No," Aeliana held a hand out. A small ball of light reflected something from within it. "But think bigger. How did those portals become? What are they made of? What are you asking to happen?"

Val began to think, their pacing increasing, until they stopped in their place. "You taught me the shadow trick. Cycling the energies. I want a glimpse into the overworld so I'd what? Cycle the waters... and light?"

Val looked up, their face settling into focus. Val, truly for the first time, looked inward. They let their fingers dance in a way that felt right, weaves of water spiraling into a sphere. They pulled from the air different threads of blue and white, until the sphere grew into a perfect ball. It glowed with light so pure it collapsed into itself, forming a reflective surface.

Inside, Val could see Wren. She was alone in the dark, huddled in the obsidian wastes of Jefue.

"Something's not right. Wren is alone," Val whispered. "Show me, Wren."

The ball zoomed, the image spinning around until it settled back at the place Val was taken. Val watched the scene, Wren’s breakdown, the fire, the fear in the team’s eyes.

"I broke her," Val confessed, their hands gripping the orb.

"No, you gave her time," Aeliana corrected gently. "The one thing she feared most. You gave her time to understand. Now that she does, you must help her understand."

Val nodded. They leaned into the sphere.

"Wren!" Val screamed, trying to get the sobbing Ide's attention.

"Those on the other side cannot hear you," Aeliana warned.

"She can! I know she can. Wren!" As Val spoke, tears began to pour from their face. They poured everything into their cries, their voice echoed with power. "Wren listen to me! I'm here." 

The orb shook at Val's words.

"Do not strain your tired body, Harmonic one. Your efforts are pointless," the Elder of Storm said, holding a small cloud within their hands.

"NO!"

Val's scream echoed in every direction. It wasn't just sound; it was will. The roar that left them vibrated the sphere with vigor, shaking the very foundations of the Inbetween.

In the vision, Wren slowly raised her head, looking around the empty wasteland.

"Valode?" Wren's eyes looked intently at nothing.

"Wren! Wren can you hear me?" Val called back. They wiped away at the tears pooling in their vision.

"Yeah... Val where are you?" Wren asked, her voice trembling.

"Wren listen to me. Where are the others?" Val asked.

"I... I don't know... I had to leave or else I would hurt someone," Wren confessed, tears returning.

"The longer you see yourself as a weapon the longer you ignore the gift that everyone else sees," Val said, their voice firm and loving. "We're all more alike than you could possibly imagine. The universe sculpted you to be exactly who you are and I need you to be exactly you to help us. I need the whole group together if we're going to win this thing. I need you to believe in you like I believe in you. Like we all do."

"You didn't see them," Wren continued. "How afraid they were. I broke everything you fixed."

"It was never about fixing you. When we first connected my thought wasn't to fix you, but to protect you, protect everyone. It wasn't just me who did it, but it was you, Wren. It's always been you. And right now I need you. Please."

Wren looked around the dark wasteland. She stood up. The white fire in her eyes didn't look scary anymore; it looked like a star, like Kira.

"Okay," Wren whispered. "What do I need to do?"

Time: 09 // 17 Fade Location: The Thunderwave

The team sat in the wet, ruined cabin. Saje was still holding the amulet.

Suddenly, the amulet pulsed. Brighter. Faster.

Thump-thump. THUMP-THUMP.

"Could it possibly be Val's residual energy?" Saje questioned, looking up.

The lights within the Thunderwave grew blindingly bright, almost as if the suns were shining in the deeps. Slowly the light began to build from inside the vehicle. The light flurries collected into a pool of pure radiance, slowly forming a silhouette.

"Guys," Romar called out, shielding his eyes.

FWWPPP.

The light dissolved, revealing a familiar figure. But she was changed. The matte black armor was now fused with white circuitry that glowed with a steady, calm hum. Wren had fully become Kira, and Kira now represented Wren fully.

"WREN?" Talia called out, scrambling over the seats to wrap her arms around the other.

The pair embraced, their touch lingering. Wren didn't burn her. She was warm. Safe.

"How the hell did you find us?" Emerjn questioned.

"How did you get all the way down here?" Irame added.

"I had some help from our fearless leader," Wren smiled, a genuine expression. "But they need our help! If we're going to win this fight we have to leave our baggage at the door. We enter the Inbetween one more time, we each master our gifts, and learn to coordinate together."

"What about Val?" Romar asked, looking at the empty seat. "We can't do any of this without them."

"Yes we can!" Wren said, her voice ringing with authority. She pointed to the glowing Harmonic Stone in Saje's hand. "Even if they aren't here with us physically, Val lives within all of us. It's our duty now to give back what they gave each of us. So we fight regardless, in Valode's honor."

She looked around at each of them.

"We all must open the door now," Wren commanded. "In Val's name!"