Light.
For the first time in what felt like eternity, Riven awoke to sunlight.Warm. Ordinary. Almost comforting.
He was lying on a bed — a real one — in a small apartment overlooking a living city. The sound of traffic, laughter, life.It was… impossible.
He sat up slowly. His hands looked human again. No circuits, no glowing veins, no sign of the Architect's infection. The neural band on his wrist was gone.
On the table beside him lay a photo frame — himself and Lira, smiling. A normal couple. No loops. No ruins. Just… peace.
Riven whispered, "What is this…?"
"It's home," said a voice behind him.
He turned. Lira stood by the window, her hair catching the morning light. Her eyes — still that same gentle brown — watched him with an expression that almost broke him.
"You're awake," she said softly. "Finally."
He wanted to run to her. To hold her. But something inside screamed that it wasn't right.
He stepped back. "Where are we?"
Her smile faltered for just a moment. "Don't you recognize it? It's the world before the experiments. Before everything. You're safe, Riven. We're both safe."
Riven shook his head. "No. The Traveler… the Clockwork Sea—"
"Dreams," she interrupted quickly. "Just dreams. You've been sick for a long time. You kept talking about time loops and… monsters. But that's over now. You're home."
She reached for his hand. It was warm. Real. But when her skin touched his, the faintest flicker of blue light pulsed between them — too fast for her to notice, but enough for him to feel it.
A glitch.
Riven's heart pounded. "Lira… what did you do?"
Her smile froze. "What do you mean?"
"This world. It isn't real. You built it — didn't you? Out of the fragments of the loops."
Her eyes dimmed, and the sunlight outside began to waver. Buildings flickered. Distant sounds distorted like echoes underwater.
"I did it for us," she said quietly. "You were dying. The Traveler wanted to erase you, and I couldn't let that happen. So I rewrote the end. I made one last cycle — where we could be happy."
Riven's voice cracked. "You trapped me in a lie."
She stepped closer, desperation trembling in her voice. "It's not a lie if we both want it. We can live here. Grow old here. No death. No loss. Just us."
He stared at her — the woman he loved, the reason he built the Chrono-Gate, the reason the world burned. And now, the reason it was reborn.
"Lira…" he whispered. "You turned love into a cage."
Tears welled in her eyes. "Then stay in it with me."
The ground beneath them trembled. The sky fractured like glass, revealing glimpses of other timelines — cities in ruins, alternate versions of Riven and Lira screaming, dying, vanishing.
From the cracks above, a voice boomed:
"The system is collapsing."
Riven looked up — the Traveler's silhouette loomed beyond the cracks, massive and ghostlike.
Lira screamed. "No! Stay out! This is my world!"
The Traveler's voice thundered, shaking the false sky.
"You can't stop entropy, Lira. The equation was never yours to own."
She turned to Riven, gripping his face, tears streaming down. "Please… don't let them take this away from me again."
He looked at her — the woman who gave him everything, and took everything away.
"I can't," he said. "Not again."
And as he kissed her forehead, the world exploded into light.
When the light faded, he was alone again. Floating in darkness. The fragments of the false world drifted around him like broken glass in a void.
The Traveler's voice echoed softly, distant, almost mournful:
"Now you see, Solas. Love and time are the same thing — both will kill everything they touch."
Riven whispered back, his voice shaking but steady:"No… they only kill when someone tries to own them."
He looked down at his hands — now glowing brighter than ever, the Architect's energy fully awakened.
"Then I'll set her free," he said."Even if I have to burn eternity itself."