EXT. MACAU STREETS - NIGHT (CONTINUOUS)
The episode begins split-seconds after Episode 9 ended. The team sees the figure in the crowd staring at them—a young man with haunted, hollow eyes. This is ELIAS, Malakor's first successfully "awakened" psychic hunter.
KAELEN:(whispering) > The hunter. Run!
A chaotic chase erupts through the glittering, crowded streets of Macau. Elias doesn't run; he flows through the crowd, his movements unnaturally fluid. His power is raw and aggressive. As the team flees, streetlights flicker and shatter around them. A psychic shockwave ripples through the air, causing people in the crowd to stumble in a wave of collective vertigo.
KENJI pulls out his laptop as he runs.
KENJI:He's not just psychic, he's a walking EMP! He's disrupting every piece of tech around him!
JULIAN provides cover, firing the "magic gun" on its stun setting. The blue pulses hit Elias, but he just stumbles, shaking his head as if annoyed by a fly. His raw power is too unstable for the focused temporal effect to work properly.
INT. A HIGH-END CASINO - NIGHT
The team bursts into a casino, hoping to lose Elias in the maze of slot machines and gambling tables. The plan backfires spectacularly. Surrounded by thousands of blinking, noisy electronic devices, Elias becomes even more powerful.
He raises a hand, and with a scream of psychic feedback, every slot machine on the floor goes haywire, spewing coins and flashing jackpot symbols. The chaos is a perfect cover for him to close in.
THE BIG EVENT - PART 1: THE CONFRONTATION
The team is cornered near the casino's private ferry terminal. Elias confronts them, his face a mask of pain and confusion. He is not a willing villain; he is a tormented victim, his mind fractured by Malakor's forced awakening.
ELIAS:He... he promised he would make the noise stop... He said you were the noise...
He unleashes a wave of telekinetic force, sending a row of heavy baggage carts flying towards them. INEZ REYES, terrified, is frozen in place. Kaelen shoves her out of the way, raising her modified gun and firing the Containment Field. A silver bubble of frozen time envelops Elias.
For a moment, it holds. They can see him trapped inside, screaming without a sound. But his raw, chaotic power is too much. Cracks like shattered glass appear in the time bubble.
KAELEN:It's not holding! He's too unstable!
Julian makes a split-second decision.
JULIAN:(to Aris and Kenji) > Get her out of here! Go!
Julian tackles Kaelen, forcing her towards the escaping ferry while Aris and Kenji provide covering fire with their own stunners. The time bubble shatters. Elias, enraged, lunges forward. He is too fast for Julian to intercept. He grabs the person closest to him: Dr. Inez Reyes.
Suddenly, every screen in the ferry terminal—every TV, every monitor—flickers to life. On every screen is the face of MALAKOR. He is not in the room, but he is watching through Elias's eyes. This is the first time Kaelen has come face-to-face with him since she left the future.
MALAKOR: (his voice calm, amplified through the terminal) > Well done, my little hunter. You brought me the key.
He looks directly at Kaelen, his expression not of triumph, but of cold pity.
MALAKOR:You still don't understand what you're fighting for, do you, Princess? You think you're saving a perfect past. But I have seen the truth. I have seen the great silence that waits at the end of all things. The Chronovore.
The name hangs in the air. Inez gasps, a flicker of recognition in her eyes from a deep, ancient echo.
MALAKOR:Your precious Oracle didn't create a utopia. It built a cage. A quiet, boring little reality to hide from the predator that feeds on paradox. I am not a tyrant. I am the only one with the will to forge a weapon strong enough to fight it. My order is humanity's only shield. Your chaotic "free will" is its dinner bell.
Elias drags the terrified Inez away as Analog Ghost agents, led by a frustrated ANJA VOGEL, arrive, too late to do anything but witness the scene.
THE BIG EVENT - PART 2: THE AFTERMATH
The episode ends with the remaining members of the team—Kaelen, Aris, Julian, and Kenji—on the ferry, escaping Macau. They have the crystal lens, but the victory is utterly hollow. They have lost Inez.
Kaelen is emotionally shattered, her entire mission thrown into question by Malakor's horrifying revelation. Was he telling the truth? Is she accidentally helping a cosmic horror consume their reality?
The final shot is of Malakor in a hidden laboratory, placing a neural interface on a weeping Inez Reyes.
FADE TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 10