The chamber was still humming when Eris pulled himself upright, the faint glow of the Heart now tracing beneath his skin. Jonas muttered a prayer under his breath, while Mara kept her hands firm on Eris's shoulders as though anchoring him.
Liora leaned closer, her voice low. "The Heart didn't just test him. It… called something."
Before Eris could ask what she meant, a faint scrape echoed through the chamber. The sound of boots on stone.
Everyone froze.
From the shadowed passage opposite the Heart, a figure staggered forward. She was thin, her suit battered and patched with makeshift repairs. Her helmet was missing, revealing tangled hair streaked with silver though her face was far younger than the years implied. Her eyes flicked across the group with wild disbelief.
"Humans…" Her voice cracked, hoarse with disuse. "Actual humans."
Jonas lifted his rifle instinctively, but Mara hissed, "Wait."
The woman stumbled again, nearly collapsing, but forced herself upright with a stubborn will that spoke of years of surviving against the impossible.
"I thought… I thought I was the last." Her gaze landed on Eris, and she froze, eyes widening at the glow beneath his skin.
"No," she whispered, almost reverent. "You touched it. You woke it."
"Who are you?" Eris asked, his voice rough.
The woman's lips trembled into something between a laugh and a sob. "Selene. Commander Selene Arctis… Mars Expedition, Year 27."
Mara's eyes widened. "That's impossible. That mission disappeared more than forty years ago."
Selene gave a hollow smile. "Then I've been dead for forty years. Yet here I stand."
She swayed. Liora rushed forward, catching her before she fell. The moment their hands touched, Selene shuddered, as if some current passed between them. Liora gasped softly, but steadied herself.
"You've been living here," Liora murmured. "The crystal… it kept you alive."
Selene closed her eyes. "Alive. Changed. Bound. This planet doesn't let go easily."
The chamber pulsed faintly, as though agreeing.
Eris felt the Heart beat inside him again, echoing Selene's words. He realized her presence wasn't coincidence — she was part of its will.
Jonas lowered his weapon reluctantly. "If she's been here this long, she knows things. Things we'll need."
Selene's eyes flickered to the Heart, then back to Eris. "You don't understand. What you've woken can't be carried lightly. If you keep it… the shadows will never stop hunting you."
Her warning hung heavy in the air. For the first time since setting foot on Mars, they realized: they weren't explorers anymore. They were prisoners of something ancient, and Selene was living proof.