Three Days Later – Silent Reconstruction
The compound felt hollow without Thorne.
Even though the damage from the Wraithborn attack had been contained, something more foundational had cracked. The courtyard's scorched tiles, the broken flux sensors, the silent training platforms — all of it testified to a battle no one had truly won.
Inside, Team Flux sat in quiet disarray.
Zara hadn't spoken in days. She walked the halls like a ghost, memory shard in hand, murmuring names they'd never heard before.
Elena spent hours trying to train, but nothing felt right. Her gravity spirals lacked rhythm. Her footwork was sloppy. Her flux flared unevenly. Every time she tapped into it, she felt the void Thorne had left behind — not just in the room, but in her.
Rico didn't train at all.
He was in Thorne's study, tearing it apart.
________________________________________
The Ledger
It took him six hours to crack the bracer-lock on Thorne's desk drawer. Another two to decipher the encryption on the files inside.
He expected blueprints. Old battle reports. Maybe something about Casian or the Circle.
What he found instead was a list.
Handwritten. In Thorne's own script.
Project Vanta: Surviving Subjects
There were 37 names.
Next to many of them: "Deceased." Others were marked "missing," "unstable," or "potential Wraithborn."
Rico's breath caught when he saw the one circled in red.
Santos, Rico. Status: Latent Type. Not yet activated.
Potential Risk: High.
He sank into the chair, heart racing.
"I wasn't just some lonely kid who awakened randomly.
I was designed. Trained. Buried."
________________________________________
Fractures Forming
Later that night, Rico gathered the others.
He dropped the folder onto the common room table, the name "Vanta" burned into its top.
"I was one of them," he said. "Like Elena. Like that Wraithborn. Only difference is, my time bomb hasn't gone off yet."
Marcus read the file, his jaw tight. "Why didn't he tell us?"
"Maybe he didn't know about you," Zara said softly. "Or maybe… he knew exactly when your Awakening would come."
Elena, still silent, lifted her gaze. "Do you feel it? Anything… off?"
Rico didn't answer right away.
Then he nodded.
"When I use my copies now, I don't just make projections.
Sometimes they talk back."
"They remember things I didn't do."
________________________________________
Casian's Message
As the storm outside surged once more, a pulse of flux triggered the courtyard beacon.
A projection flared to life: Casian Vale — clean-cut, calm, wearing the same unsettling smile as always.
"Apologies for the intrusion," he said. "If you're seeing this, it means Thorne is dead."
No one breathed.
Casian continued.
"He was a good man. Flawed, but good. He believed in you more than he admitted. But now that he's gone, his leash is broken — and mine… is finally loose."
He leaned forward, his voice sharpening.
"Project Vanta was never truly shut down. Just hidden. And I never stopped expanding it."
"Some of you are remnants. Others, evolutions. But all of you were meant for more."
The message ended with a map — a live flux signal ping.
Location: Site Omega. A ruined underground facility buried beneath the northern cliffs.
Rico stared at it. "He's baiting us."
Elena stood, finally steady. "No. He's inviting us."
________________________________________
New Leadership, Old Ghosts
That night, Elena sat beneath the stars, gravity stabilizer humming softly around her.
Zara joined her, shoulders stiff from too many days without rest.
"He didn't want to lead us," Zara said. "But he still died protecting us."
Elena nodded. "Now someone has to take the weight."
Zara glanced at her. "You sure it should be you?"
Elena met her gaze — not defiant, not uncertain.
"No. But I'll carry it anyway."
In the shadows behind them, Rico watched silently.
He was already fading from the group — unsure if the next copy that formed would be him, or something else entirely.
________________________________________
Far Below – Site Omega
Casian Vale stepped into the dark lab as machines stirred to life.
Behind glass, suspended in fluid, a dozen half-formed Wraithborn pulsed with dark flux.
Beside him, a new figure emerged from the mist — tall, feminine, draped in black flux threads. Her face was porcelain-pale. Her eyes glowed with memory.
Casian smiled at her.
"Welcome back, Subject Zero."
"It's time to bring the others home."