"They said the planet we used to live on died long ago… but it still screams beneath us."
The voice echoed through the emptiness like a forgotten god's whisper.
Somewhere, beneath broken skies and shattered soil, that scream was still echoing.
The boy dreamt of fire.
Not flames that burned, but a fire that wept.
The kind of fire that remembered.
Aarav stood at the center of it all — alone — surrounded by ash, stone, and the howling winds of a place that felt both too ancient and too familiar. Cracks split the sky like veins of black lightning. Time here didn't move. It pulsed.
He looked down.
Blood? No… stardust.
Shimmering, falling from his hands like broken echoes of something he hadn't yet lived.
A presence loomed behind him. Something watching.
He turned.
There was nothing.
Yet he heard it.
A voice buried deep beneath memory:
"You're not ready… but you will be."
Reality tore itself awake.
Aarav's eyes snapped open. He gasped, half-rising from the reinforced steel bunk inside Cadet Barracks Delta-17. His shirt clung to him, drenched. Breath short. Heart racing.
3:47 AM.
Dreams again. Always those dreams.
"Another one?" a voice muttered groggily nearby.
It was Kairav, still lying on his side, barely cracking an eye open. His voice carried that usual amused curiosity — soft, but sharp enough to stab into concern if needed.
Aarav nodded once. "Yeah… Rift echoes. Stronger this time."
Kairav didn't respond right away. Just rolled over, muttering, "You're always getting the weird ones…"
But his silence afterward meant he knew it wasn't a joke.
Because dreams like that weren't just dreams in the Riftborne Era.
Dawn came cold and hard.
In the distance, the shattered remnants of the old Earth still floated in fractured orbit — glowing chunks of what was once civilization, now a graveyard of ancient wars.
Cadet squads marched across the cracked plains of Zone 4-Beta, a Rift-active perimeter where anomalies were still considered volatile. Columns of recruits moved like insects beneath towering exo-watchtowers and Rift-suppression pylons.
Overhead, skyships crossed like sharks — hunting for tears.
Aarav marched in silence. So did Reyan Kaul, at his right — too perfect, too calm. Reyan always walked like the ground owed him steadiness.
Instructor Mira Veil stood waiting at the rendezvous point — violet scarf fluttering in the wind, twin energy-blades crossed on her back, arms folded.
Her voice was crisp. Controlled.
"Today's simulation is real. Sector 7-Rift has destabilized. It's now a combat zone. You move in as Cadets. You come out as survivors. Or you don't come out at all."
Several cadets stiffened. Even Aarav swallowed.
Reyan stepped forward. "Orders, Instructor?"
A nod. Mira's pale violet eyes didn't blink.
"You are Alpha squad today. That makes you lead. Aarav and Kairav support. The rest follow perimeter formations. Expect Class B Rift anomalies. Use caution."
Kairav muttered under his breath. "I thought this was a training run…"
"It was," Mira said. "Until the Rift changed its mind."
[ENTRY POINT - SECTOR 7-R]
RIFT-TEMPORAL STABILITY: LOW
PREDICTED ANOMALY TYPE: ECHO-BORNE / PHASE-DRIFTERS
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 43%
The portal shimmered in front of them like liquid glass, humming with unstable frequencies. Aarav stared into it.
He'd been through small Rifts before — stable tears used for drills or data extraction. But this one… it felt like it knew him.
As if the Rift remembered his name before he ever gave it.
Mira's voice cut the silence.
"Move."
Reyan stepped first.
Then Aarav, teeth gritted. Then Kairav, quiet but alert.
The others followed.
Inside the Rift, color bent.
Sound faded. Space cracked.
The world twisted into impossible angles — floating ruins of cities half-dissolved into white voids, staircases that ended mid-air, and Echoes drifting like shadows of forgotten souls.
They weren't alone.
"Cadets, report," Mira's voice came through the com-link.
"Visual confirmed," Aarav said, ducking behind broken stone. "Multiple hostiles. Echo-Borne. Drifting movement. They don't see us yet."
Reyan raised a hand. His palm emitted a soft glow — a temporal sync forming around him.
"They're not alive," he said. "Just memories caught between collapse."
Then he attacked.
Reyan moved like he was born to fight in chaos.
His weapon — a phase-spear — extended in a blink, cutting clean through the first Echo. The creature let out a shriek that wasn't a sound, but a reversal of time itself — glass unbreaking, screams flowing backwards.
Kairav covered the flank, launching pulse mines. Each detonation created micro-gravity implosions, forcing the Echoes to slow. He wasn't strong — but he was fast, smart, and precise.
Aarav hesitated.
Something about this Rift was off.
Each Echo he looked at… felt familiar.
Then they turned toward him.
One of them whispered:
"Why didn't you save us…?"
He froze.
Reyan turned. "Aarav! MOVE!"
An Echo lunged.
Aarav reacted too late — but Mira's blade cleaved it apart before it reached him. She landed beside him with catlike grace, not looking at him.
"You're syncing already," she said quietly. "Control it… or it'll control you."
Aarav exhaled. Grounded himself. The whispers dulled.
Then he activated his weapon — a temporal blade of his own, unstable and humming. When he struck the Echo, it didn't just die — it unhappened, disappearing from time altogether.
Something in him... shifted.
The Rift began to collapse.
Mira gave the signal. "Fall back. Rift closing. Extraction in 30 seconds!"
As they ran, something massive stirred beneath the floating ruins — a Greater Echo, incomplete, pulling in fragments of other beings to build itself. It didn't chase them… but it watched.
Aarav felt it watching him.
And in that moment, he heard the dream-voice again.
"It begins again, Child of the Rift."
They jumped through the collapsing portal.
Back in the real world, the sky was darker.
Mira stood silent as medical bots scanned the team.
"Reyan. Top marks again," she said flatly. "Flawless sync. Zero hesitation."
Reyan only nodded. "Aarav showed signs of unstable resonance. He needs control training."
Aarav clenched his jaw but said nothing.
Mira studied him. "He's not like you, Reyan. He hears things you can't."
Reyan tilted his head. "That doesn't make him stronger. Just more… breakable."
Kairav intervened with a grin. "Maybe. But sometimes the broken ones bend better under pressure."
Mira's eyes flicked toward the distance. Toward the horizon where new Rift storms brewed.
"A storm's coming," she whispered.
And the screams beneath the earth echoed once more.
To be continued...