At 06:41 Galactic Core Time, the Council transmitted an emergency code to all high-priority nodes.
BREACH EVENT: CASCADE CONDITION.
ALL NON-PHASED PERSONNEL TO SEEK NULL DAMPENERS.
IF PRIMARY ANCHOR IS LOST, AVOID ECHO TRANSMISSIONS.
It was the last thing the Gossamer Network ever broadcast.
Back aboard the ship, the team huddled around the breach platform.
The spiral was cold.
Still.
But Cassian's sensors picked up a slow pulse from deep within the fracture—a pattern forming across all failed sectors.
The same glyph.
Repeating.
Not Julia's.
Not Praxis's.
Something new.
Evolving.
Alive.
Julian's hand pressed to the spiral floor.
He closed his eyes.
And whispered:
"Please come back."
___________
She stood at the center.
And the spiral stood around her.
A room without borders, lit by a pulse that moved like breath.
Each time it exhaled, another figure appeared.
At first, Julia didn't realize they were all versions of her.
Not until the sixth stepped forward.
