Part 1 — A Promise Broken
The Academy had grown quiet beneath the night sky.
David Wyn stood alone at the rooftop railing of Dormitory Building One, looking out over the empty courtyards. The walkway lights illuminated the grounds below, while the distant military towers stood beneath the moon.
A gentle breeze carried the scent of the gardens across the rooftop.
Everything seemed peaceful.
David almost hated it.
Tomorrow morning, the Academy would begin emptying as cadets departed for summer break. After months fighting on Kharos Vale and two weeks spent unconscious, everyone was finally going home.
But David couldn't bring himself to feel excited.
He glanced toward the empty space beside him.
Nyra should have been there.
He could almost picture her leaning against the railing, her silver-white hair moving gently in the breeze, the faint scar along her cheek visible whenever she turned toward him.
She would have smiled and told him he was worrying too much again.
David swallowed.
"I would've listened this time," he whispered.
His gaze drifted toward the gardens below.
They were supposed to spend the summer together.
He remembered how excited Nyra had been when he promised to visit her father's lake house. She had talked about all the places she wanted to show him, never imagining they would never get the chance.
David tightened his grip on the railing.
"I'm sorry, Nyra."
His voice trembled.
"I promised you."
He lowered his head, struggling against the familiar ache in his chest.
Everyone kept telling him the same thing.
She was gone.
There was nothing anyone could have done.
She had died saving him.
He understood what death meant. But understanding didn't make the empty space beside him any easier to bear.
And beneath his grief, a question had been growing since the day he awakened in the Academy hospital.
David lifted his eyes toward the sky.
The full moon hung above the distant buildings, its brilliant white surface slowly developing a faint crimson tint along one edge.
He barely noticed.
His thoughts were elsewhere.
There was someone who had been with him through everything. Someone who spoke when no one else could hear and seemed to know things David himself couldn't understand.
For the first time since Nyra's death, he wanted to speak to that presence.
Not about quests or abilities.
He wanted answers.
"I AM?"
The rooftop remained silent.
David waited.
"I know you're there."
No response came.
"You've been with me for so long. You've warned me about things I couldn't understand, and you've spoken to me when I didn't ask you to."
He looked down at his hands.
"So why won't you talk to me now?"
Silence.
David's expression tightened, exhaustion weighing more heavily on him than anger.
"Please."
His voice trembled.
"I just need to talk to you."
For several moments, nothing happened.
Then the distant lights of the Academy began to fade.
David blinked.
At first, he thought his vision was blurring through the tears gathering in his eyes.
But the lights continued disappearing.
The nearest training building lost its shape, its pale walls dissolving into darkness. The gardens below faded next, followed by the walkways and the distant towers.
David straightened, his hands still resting on the railing.
"What...?"
The breeze stopped.
The quiet hum of the Academy's nighttime systems vanished.
Even the faint sounds of the city beyond the walls disappeared.
The world was becoming unnaturally still.
David turned toward the rooftop entrance.
It was gone.
The door, the surrounding walls, and the stone beneath his feet were dissolving into an expanding darkness.
He instinctively reached for the railing.
His fingers passed through empty air.
A sudden sensation twisted through his stomach.
The ground disappeared.
David gasped as his body dropped into the darkness.
He couldn't tell whether he was falling downward or being pulled through something far larger than the space around him. There was no rushing wind, no movement of air against his skin, and no visible point by which he could judge his direction.
Only the unmistakable sensation of falling.
He reached outward, trying to steady himself.
Nothing was there.
Then the sensation stopped.
David's boots settled against a surface he couldn't see.
He stumbled forward a step before catching his balance.
For several seconds, he remained motionless, breathing heavily as his eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness.
There was nothing.
No Academy.
No moon.
No stars.
An endless black expanse stretched in every direction, so vast and featureless that David couldn't distinguish the ground beneath him from the emptiness ahead.
He looked down.
His boots rested against what felt like a smooth, solid floor, yet there was no visible texture, no reflection, and no indication of where it ended.
David slowly turned.
He knew this place.
The memory returned immediately.
The last time he had experienced something like this, he had been in his dormitory. The room around him had disappeared, leaving him standing in an impossible darkness while an ancient voice spoke to him.
He had never understood what this place was.
He still didn't.
But this time, he wasn't interested in understanding the space itself.
He had come here for something far more important.
"I AM?"
His voice carried into the darkness without producing an echo.
A familiar presence stirred somewhere beyond his sight.
**I AM:** "David."
The voice was ancient and measured, neither loud nor quiet, yet perfectly clear.
David closed his eyes for a moment.
Hearing that familiar voice brought a strange mixture of relief and sorrow.
"I need to talk to you."
**I AM:** "I know."
David looked around.
He couldn't tell where the voice was coming from.
It seemed to exist everywhere at once, surrounding him without possessing any direction.
He remembered how unsettling that had felt during their previous encounters.
Tonight, he found himself wishing for something different.
"Can you show yourself?"
Silence followed.
David turned toward the empty space ahead.
"Please. I know you're here somewhere."
**I AM:** "I am here."
"I know you are."
He exhaled slowly.
"But I don't want to keep talking to the darkness. Not tonight."
His eyes began to sting again.
"I've spent the last few days talking to people who can't give me answers. Everyone keeps telling me they're sorry, that they wish things could've been different."
David looked into the emptiness.
"I don't want another voice telling me everything is going to be all right."
His expression tightened.
"I just want someone to look me in the eye and tell me why."
The darkness remained unchanged.
David waited.
Then he spoke again, more firmly.
"Show yourself. We need to talk, and I'm done talking to an empty room."
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Then a small point of white light appeared high above him.
David lifted his head.
The light was distant at first, no larger than a star against the endless black. Slowly, it grew brighter, expanding until its brilliance began illuminating the darkness immediately around it.
A narrow beam descended.
It widened as it approached the invisible floor, becoming a brilliant column of white radiance that reached the surface several paces in front of David.
He raised one arm against the sudden brightness.
The light touched the black floor, forming a perfect circle of pale illumination.
Yet beyond that circle, the darkness remained absolute.
David slowly lowered his arm.
There was no figure within the light.
No face.
No body.
Nothing he could recognize as a person.
Only a column of radiance extending upward into an unseen distance.
He stared at it.
"Is that you?"
This time, the voice came directly from the light.
**I AM:** "It is how I have chosen to make my presence known to you."
David studied the column.
It gave off no noticeable warmth. Despite its brilliance, he could look toward it without pain.
He took a cautious step closer.
"So you still won't show me what you really look like?"
**I AM:** "There are forms of existence that cannot be understood through sight alone."
David let out a quiet breath.
"All right."
He wasn't interested in arguing about appearances.
Not when there was something else he needed to know.
He approached the edge of the illuminated circle and stopped.
For a moment, he struggled to find the words.
He had imagined this conversation several times since waking in the hospital. In some versions, he had shouted. In others, he had demanded explanations before allowing I AM to speak.
But standing here now, facing the light, he discovered that the questions he had rehearsed no longer seemed important.
There was only Nyra.
David looked down.
"She's gone."
The words came out quietly.
**I AM:** "I know."
David nodded faintly.
"Of course you do."
He rubbed a hand across his face.
"You know everything that's happened to me, don't you? You were there when I found that book. You were there when the System first appeared. You were there on the unknown planet, and you were there on Kharos Vale."
He paused.
"You were there when she died."
The light remained still.
David's breathing became uneven.
"I held her."
He stared at the black floor.
"She was right there in my arms. I could feel her getting weaker, and I kept telling her to stay with me."
His voice trembled.
"I thought if I just held on long enough, someone would come. Vance, Lucian, Cass... anyone."
He swallowed painfully.
"But nobody could do anything."
The memories came rushing back with a clarity he wished he could escape.
Nyra's face.
The warmth of her hand.
The way she had looked at him as her strength faded.
And the words they had finally spoken to each other when there was almost no time left.
David pressed his lips together.
"We spent so long pretending we didn't know how we felt."
A fragile smile touched his face before disappearing.
"Everyone else knew. Even June knew, and he never lets anyone forget when he's right about something."
He gave a faint, humorless laugh.
"She was supposed to meet me after summer started. We were going to spend time at her father's lake house. She wanted to show me where she grew up."
His eyes filled.
"She had so many things she wanted us to do."
David looked toward the light.
"She wasn't asking for anything impossible. She just wanted us to have some time together."
His voice broke.
"And I wanted that too."
For several moments, he couldn't continue.
The silence around him seemed endless.
When he finally spoke again, his words were barely audible.
"I love her."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
"I didn't even get the chance to tell her enough."
**I AM:** "Your love for her was known."
David shook his head.
"That doesn't make it better."
He wiped at his face.
"I keep thinking about what I could've done differently. If I'd been faster, if I'd noticed what was happening sooner, if I'd been stronger..."
He stared at his trembling hands.
"I've spent all this time trying to become stronger. Every battle, every creature, every time I nearly died, I kept telling myself it would mean something if I could protect the people around me."
His fingers curled slowly into fists.
"But when she needed me most, none of it mattered."
**I AM:** "David, you cannot place every consequence upon yourself."
"Then who am I supposed to blame?"
The question came out more sharply than he intended.
David immediately lowered his head.
"I'm sorry."
He took a breath.
"I'm not trying to argue with you."
He looked back toward the light.
"I just don't understand."
The ancient presence remained silent, allowing him to continue.
David took another step forward.
"You've helped me before."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"You've warned me when I was in danger."
**I AM:** "I have."
"And you know things about me that I don't even know myself."
There was a pause.
**I AM:** "There is much you have yet to understand."
David nodded slowly.
"Then maybe there's something you can do."
His voice changed.
For the first time since entering the darkness, a fragile hope appeared beneath the grief.
He looked directly into the column of light.
"I don't know what you are. I don't know where you came from or why you've been helping me."
He swallowed.
"But I know you're not like anything else I've encountered."
David moved closer.
"So I'm asking you."
His hands trembled at his sides.
"Please."
He struggled to steady his voice.
"Can you bring her back?"
The light remained unchanged.
David waited.
He could hear his own breathing in the silence.
"Please, I AM. If there's anything you can do..."
**I AM:** "David..."
Something in the ancient voice made his chest tighten.
But he refused to let go of the possibility.
"You don't have to explain how. I don't care how it works."
Tears gathered in his eyes again.
"Just bring Nyra back."
A long silence followed.
Then the voice answered.
**I AM:** "I cannot restore the life that was lost."
David stared at the light.
For several moments, he said nothing.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"No."
His voice was quiet.
"No, there has to be something."
**I AM:** "There are limits to what may be changed, David."
"Limits?"
David repeated the word as though he were trying to understand its meaning.
"You're telling me there are limits?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
He lowered his head.
For several moments, he stood silently, struggling to organize the thoughts rushing through his mind.
He remembered the hospital.
The moment he'd awakened and realized Nyra wasn't there.
The way everyone had looked at him when he asked where she was.
Castiel had tried to tell him gently. Lucian had stood nearby, unable to meet his eyes. June had stopped making jokes, and Mira had looked as though she hadn't slept properly in days.
He remembered refusing to believe them.
Even after they told him what had happened, some part of him had expected Nyra to walk through the hospital door.
He still caught himself looking for her.
David slowly raised his head.
"What if it isn't bringing her back?"
The ancient presence remained silent.
"What if there's another way?"
**I AM:** "Explain what you mean."
David took a hesitant breath.
"I don't know exactly what you can do. But maybe you don't have to bring her back the way she was."
His voice gained a little strength.
"Maybe you could take us somewhere else. Somewhere none of this happened."
He looked into the light, searching for the smallest indication that his words might mean something.
"Or maybe you could change what happened on Kharos Vale."
**I AM:** "The events of Kharos Vale have already occurred."
"I know that."
David swallowed.
"But that doesn't mean there isn't something you can do."
He stepped forward until the pale radiance illuminated his face.
"Please don't tell me there isn't another way without even trying."
The light remained steady.
**I AM:** "Your desire to save her is understandable. But there are consequences to altering events that have already taken place."
David frowned.
"What consequences?"
There was a pause.
**I AM:** "Consequences that extend beyond a single life."
David stared at the column.
He waited for an explanation.
None came.
"What does that mean?"
**I AM:** "The passage of time is not without consequence."
David looked away, rubbing his forehead.
"You're doing it again."
**I AM:** "Doing what?"
"Talking like I'm supposed to understand."
His voice remained controlled, but frustration had begun creeping into it.
"You tell me there are consequences, but you won't tell me what they are. You tell me things can't be changed, but you won't explain why."
He looked back at the light.
"I'm trying to understand you. I really am."
His expression softened.
"But every time I ask a question, you give me another answer that doesn't tell me anything."
The darkness surrounding them remained perfectly still.
David drew a slow breath.
"Please. Just talk to me."
For a long moment, the ancient presence said nothing.
Then its voice emerged from the radiance.
**I AM:** "There was a time when the future before you was very different."
David blinked.
"What?"
**I AM:** "The path you now walk was not the first path laid before you."
David stared at the light, unsure whether he had heard correctly.
"What are you talking about?"
**I AM:** "There was another future, David. One that reached a conclusion far different from the events you remember."
His brow furrowed.
"Another future?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
David shook his head.
"I don't understand. Are you saying something was supposed to happen differently?"
**I AM:** "I am saying that events have already unfolded once."
The words settled over him with a strange, unsettling weight.
David took a step backward.
"Already unfolded?"
He looked around the black expanse, as though something in the darkness might help him understand.
"Are you saying I've lived through all of this before?"
**I AM:** "Not as you remember it."
David slowly turned back toward the light.
"Then tell me what you mean."
The column brightened almost imperceptibly.
**I AM:** "The battle on Kharos Vale was not always destined to end in Whitefall."
David's expression changed.
He remembered the battlefield.
The violent winds.
The brilliant white light spreading across the planet.
The transformation of the sky as the oppressive clouds dissolved, revealing blue beyond them.
He remembered the Celestial descending and declaring that Kharos Vale had achieved Whitefall, placing the planet under humanity's sovereignty.
"What do you mean?"
**I AM:** "There was a future in which humanity failed."
David stood motionless.
**I AM:** "The battle descended into chaos. Your forces had pushed the planetary conversion close to completion, but the Fallen launched an assault that humanity could not withstand."
David felt a chill settle through him.
"The Fallen stopped Whitefall?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
He remembered the thousands of soldiers who had fought across Kharos Vale, the creatures they had hunted, and the countless lives sacrificed to bring the planet closer to conversion.
All of it had nearly been lost.
"What happened?"
**I AM:** "Humanity's defenses collapsed. The Fallen overwhelmed the remaining positions, and the final opportunity to complete Whitefall was lost."
David swallowed.
"And the planet?"
A long silence followed.
**I AM:** "Greyfall occurred."
David stared at the light.
The words were familiar.
Every Academy cadet knew what Greyfall meant.
A planet claimed by the Fallen.
A world transformed under their control.
He had studied the subject in classrooms, memorized the differences between planetary conversion states, and listened to Commander Vance explain the consequences of losing strategic worlds.
But hearing that Kharos Vale had once suffered such a fate felt different.
He had been there.
He had fought for that planet.
And somehow, according to I AM, he had already lived through its defeat.
"That doesn't make sense."
David slowly shook his head.
"I remember Whitefall. I saw it happen."
**I AM:** "You remember the outcome of the path you now occupy."
"Then what happened to the other one?"
The ancient presence paused.
**I AM:** "It was changed."
David's breathing slowed.
"Changed?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
"By who?"
There was no immediate response.
David took another step toward the light.
"Who changed it?"
**I AM:** "I did."
For several seconds, David could only stare.
The silence seemed to press against him from every direction.
"You?"
**I AM:** "Yes, David."
David looked down, trying to understand the implications.
He had known I AM possessed abilities beyond anything he could explain. The ancient presence had spoken with a certainty that sometimes made David feel as though his life were unfolding according to a design he couldn't see.
But changing the future?
Changing events that had already happened?
"How?"
**I AM:** "I returned you to an earlier point in your life."
David's eyes widened.
"You sent me back in time?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
His mouth opened, but no words came.
He thought about the Academy.
His first day.
Meeting Castiel.
Meeting Nyra.
The training exercises, the examinations, the unknown planet, and everything that had happened on Kharos Vale.
Had all of those moments happened once before?
Had he lived through them without remembering?
"When?"
His voice was barely audible.
"When did you send me back?"
**I AM:** "To the time before your sixteenth birthday."
David froze.
The answer stirred memories he had carried for so long that they seemed inseparable from who he was.
His childhood home.
The familiar sound of his mother's voice.
His father's laughter.
The last weeks before their final expedition.
David stared at the light.
"Before my parents left?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
He felt something tighten painfully in his chest.
"Before they went to Verdalis?"
**I AM:** "Before their final expedition."
David slowly lowered his gaze.
He remembered the morning they had left.
His mother had hugged him longer than usual.
His father had promised they would be home before he knew it.
David had watched them leave, never imagining that he would never see them again.
For months afterward, he had replayed those final moments in his mind, wondering whether he should have said something different.
And now I AM was telling him that even those memories belonged to a life that had already been changed.
"Why?"
The question emerged quietly.
"Why would you send me back that far?"
**I AM:** "Because the future that awaited you was not one I wished you to endure."
David frowned.
"What does that mean?"
**I AM:** "You were given another opportunity. Time with your parents that had already been lost. A chance to make different choices and alter the events that would follow."
David shook his head.
"But I didn't know."
His voice trembled.
"I didn't know any of this."
**I AM:** "No."
"Why not?"
The light remained still.
David looked up sharply.
"Why didn't I remember?"
**I AM:** "Your memories of that future were taken from you."
The words struck him harder than he expected.
David stared at the column.
"Taken?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
He took a step backward.
"You erased my memories?"
**I AM:** "I removed your knowledge of the events that had already occurred."
David looked away.
For a moment, he felt as though the ground beneath him had become unstable, even though the black surface remained perfectly solid.
There had been another life.
Another future.
And someone had taken it away from him.
He pressed a hand against his forehead.
"All this time..."
He tried to remember something.
Anything.
A battle.
A face.
A conversation that didn't belong to the life he knew.
But there was nothing.
Only the memories he had always possessed.
He lowered his hand.
"Did I know Nyra?"
The question came so suddenly that he almost surprised himself.
The ancient presence did not answer immediately.
David looked toward the light.
"In that other future. Did I meet her?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
His chest tightened.
"Was she part of Gamma Squad?"
**I AM:** "She was."
David swallowed.
"Then we were together?"
There was another pause.
**I AM:** "Your lives became intertwined, though not every moment unfolded as it has in this timeline."
David stood silently, absorbing the answer.
He had known her before.
Somewhere in a future he could no longer remember, Nyra had been part of his life.
He wondered whether she had smiled at him the same way.
Whether they had trained together.
Whether they had sat on the rooftop beneath the stars.
Whether she had ever told him she loved him.
The questions hurt more than he expected.
He looked down at his hands.
"So you brought me back."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"And you gave me another chance."
**I AM:** "That was my intention."
David nodded slowly.
He wanted to be grateful.
He truly did.
If what I AM was telling him was true, then someone had given him something no ordinary person could ever hope to receive.
More time with his parents.
Another opportunity to change the outcome of a war.
Another chance to meet the people who had become his family.
But one thought refused to leave him.
Nyra was still dead.
He looked toward the light.
"Then why didn't you wait?"
**I AM:** "Explain."
David's expression tightened.
"Why didn't you wait until now?"
His voice grew stronger.
"If you could send me back before, why not wait until after everything happened? Why send me back before I turned sixteen instead of sending me back now?"
He took a step closer.
"I know what happened this time. I know about Kharos Vale. I know about Vireth. I know where we made mistakes."
His breathing quickened.
"If I went back now, I could change things."
**I AM:** "David—"
"No, listen to me."
There was desperation in his voice now.
"I could do it differently. I could warn everyone. I could keep Nyra away from that battlefield. I could make sure none of us ended up where we were."
He looked directly into the light.
"I could save her."
The ancient presence remained silent.
David continued, clinging to the possibility.
"And I wouldn't have to lose my parents again. I could warn them about Verdalis. I could tell them not to go."
His voice began to tremble.
"I could save all of them."
For a moment, hope returned to his face.
"Please tell me you can do that."
**I AM:** "The past cannot be altered without consequence."
David stared at the light.
"Then let me deal with the consequences."
**I AM:** "You do not understand what you are asking."
"Then explain it to me!"
His voice rose before he could stop himself.
David drew a breath, struggling to regain control.
"I'm sorry."
He wiped his face.
"I just..."
He looked down.
"I can't lose her again."
A long silence followed.
Then David raised his head.
"There's something else I don't understand."
**I AM:** "Speak."
David hesitated.
"You said the Fallen won. You said Greyfall happened."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"But what happened to us?"
The light remained silent.
David's brow furrowed.
"Gamma Squad. What happened to everyone?"
**I AM:** "The battle claimed many lives."
"I know battles claim lives."
His voice tightened.
"I'm asking about my friends."
There was no answer.
David stared at the light.
"Did we make it off the planet?"
**I AM:** "David, there are memories from that future that were removed for a reason."
His expression changed.
"That wasn't what I asked."
**I AM:** "Some knowledge carries a burden greater than you realize."
David slowly shook his head.
"You're doing it again."
He stepped closer.
"I asked you a question."
The ancient presence remained silent.
David felt the first unmistakable stirrings of anger beneath his grief.
"Why won't you answer me?"
**I AM:** "Because the knowledge you seek may cause you further suffering."
David stared at the light.
He thought about Nyra's empty place on the rooftop.
The flag-draped coffin.
The letter he still hadn't opened.
Then he looked back toward the radiance.
"Further suffering?"
His voice was low.
"You think there's something you can tell me that's going to hurt worse than what I've already been through?"
There was no response.
David's jaw tightened.
"Tell me what happened to Gamma Squad."
**I AM:** "David—"
"Please."
His voice broke again.
"I need to know."
The column of light remained motionless.
David stood near the edge of its pale illumination, his eyes fixed on the radiance as he waited for an answer. The darkness beyond it remained perfectly still, offering no indication of distance or time.
He had asked what happened to Gamma Squad in the original future.
I AM had refused to tell him.
And that refusal frightened him more than he wanted to admit.
"Did we survive?"
David's voice was quiet.
**I AM:** "The outcome of that battle was not one you were meant to remember."
David lowered his head, taking a slow breath.
"That's not what I asked."
**I AM:** "I understand."
"Then answer me."
Another silence followed.
David thought about the people who had sat beside him on the rooftop only a short while ago.
Lucian, trying to keep everyone together despite everything they had endured.
June, making jokes even when there was nothing particularly funny to say.
Mira, whose quiet presence had become as familiar as the others' voices.
Castiel, his closest friend, who had stayed beside him from their earliest days at the Academy.
And Nyra.
Always Nyra.
David looked back toward the light.
"Did Lucian make it?"
There was no answer.
"June? Mira?"
He swallowed.
"What about Cass?"
**I AM:** "David, I have already told you that some knowledge was removed to spare you from carrying it."
David stared at the radiance.
"Spare me?"
His expression tightened.
"You keep saying that, but you won't tell me what happened."
He took a step forward.
"I've already buried Nyra. I've watched people die. I've spent months fighting things that wanted to tear us apart, and I've seen what the Fallen do to anyone who stands against them."
His voice trembled.
"What could possibly be so terrible that you won't even tell me?"
The ancient presence remained silent.
David looked away.
For a moment, he wondered whether he should stop asking.
Perhaps there really were things better left forgotten.
But the thought lasted only an instant.
These were his friends.
If another version of him had lived through something terrible, then he deserved to know what had happened to them.
He turned back.
"Did Commander Vance survive?"
**I AM:** "The commander fulfilled her duty."
David frowned.
"What does that mean?"
**I AM:** "She remained with her soldiers when the defenses began to collapse."
David's stomach tightened.
"Remained with them?"
He waited.
"Did she get out?"
The light did not answer.
David felt a cold uneasiness spreading through his chest.
"No."
The word escaped almost involuntarily.
He shook his head.
"No, don't do that. Don't tell me she stayed behind and then stop talking."
**I AM:** "David—"
"Did she die?"
The question hung in the darkness.
At last, the ancient voice answered.
**I AM:** "Yes."
David stood motionless.
Commander Vance.
He pictured her standing before Gamma Squad during their first weeks at the Academy, her posture straight and her expression stern as she explained what would be expected of them.
He remembered her reprimands, the difficult training exercises, and the countless times she had pushed them harder than they believed they could endure.
He remembered how she had fought beside them on Kharos Vale.
And how she had stood before Nyra's coffin, her injured arm held in a sling, struggling to deliver her final farewell.
In another future, she hadn't returned.
David looked down.
"How?"
**I AM:** "She continued fighting after the defensive line had broken. She remained behind to protect those attempting to withdraw."
David closed his eyes.
Of course she had.
He could imagine Vance refusing to retreat while her soldiers remained in danger.
It was exactly the kind of decision she would make.
He opened his eyes again.
"And the others?"
**I AM:** "David, knowing their final moments will not change what has occurred."
"I know that."
His voice cracked.
"But they're my friends."
He stepped closer to the light.
"Please. I need to know."
A long silence followed.
Then I AM spoke.
**I AM:** "They did not survive."
David stopped breathing for an instant.
"What?"
**I AM:** "The members of Gamma Squad were lost during the final battle."
He stared at the column.
"No."
His voice was barely audible.
"No, that can't be right."
**I AM:** "It is the truth."
David shook his head.
"All of them?"
The light remained steady.
"Lucian?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
"June?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
"Mira?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
David's eyes filled with tears.
"Castiel?"
There was a pause.
**I AM:** "Yes, David."
He stepped backward.
The names echoed through his thoughts, each one bringing a familiar face.
Lucian had always seemed impossible to intimidate. June could turn even the worst situation into something that made the others laugh. Mira had a way of remaining calm when everyone else was losing control.
And Castiel...
David remembered their first conversation, the room they had shared, and the countless hours they had spent training together.
He remembered calling him Cass for the first time.
He remembered Castiel laughing at one of June's ridiculous remarks, then pretending he hadn't.
They had all died.
Every one of them.
David pressed a trembling hand against his mouth.
"And Nyra?"
He almost couldn't bring himself to ask.
**I AM:** "She was among them."
His shoulders sank.
For several moments, he could only stare at the floor.
Even in another future, he had lost her.
Somewhere in a life he couldn't remember, she had died before he could save her.
David swallowed painfully.
"Was I there?"
He almost couldn't bring himself to ask.
**I AM:** "Yes."
He slowly lifted his head.
"When they died?"
The ancient presence hesitated.
**I AM:** "You witnessed their deaths."
David stared at the light.
One by one, the faces of his friends passed through his mind.
He tried to imagine watching Lucian fall.
June.
Mira.
Castiel.
Nyra.
Vance.
The thought was unbearable.
"All of them?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
David staggered backward until he was several steps beyond the circle of light.
His breathing became uneven.
He looked down at his hands, almost expecting to find blood on them.
But there was nothing.
No memories.
No images of the battle.
Only the knowledge that he had once stood helplessly while everyone he cared about died around him.
And then that knowledge had been taken away.
David slowly looked up.
"Why?"
The question emerged as a whisper.
"Why would you take that from me?"
**I AM:** "Because I did not wish you to endure those memories again."
David shook his head.
"But they were mine."
The ancient presence remained silent.
"They were my memories."
His voice grew stronger.
"You said I watched them die. You said I lived through all of that."
**I AM:** "You did."
"Then what gave you the right to take it away?"
**I AM:** "I believed it necessary."
David stared at the column.
"Necessary?"
He let out a disbelieving breath.
"You brought me back, erased everything I knew, and sent me through my life again without telling me what had happened?"
**I AM:** "You were given an opportunity to alter the future."
"Without knowing what I was supposed to change!"
His voice rose sharply.
David caught himself and looked away, struggling to control his breathing.
For several moments, he remained silent.
Then he spoke again.
"If you'd let me remember..."
His voice faltered.
He looked toward the light.
"If I'd known what happened the first time, I could've warned everyone."
**I AM:** "Knowledge of the future does not guarantee the ability to change it."
"But it would've given me a chance!"
David stepped toward the column.
"I could've told Vance what was coming. I could've warned Lucian and June and Mira. I could've kept Cass away from whatever killed him."
His eyes filled again.
"And Nyra..."
He struggled to continue.
"If I'd known she was going to die, I never would've let her anywhere near that battlefield."
**I AM:** "The circumstances of her death were not identical in both futures."
David froze.
"What?"
**I AM:** "The events unfolded differently."
He stared at the light.
"So you knew things could change."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"Then why didn't you let me remember?"
There was no answer.
David waited.
"Why?"
**I AM:** "The future you experienced carried suffering that I did not wish you to retain."
David shook his head.
"You already said that."
The light remained silent.
"I want to know why."
**I AM:** "David—"
"No."
His voice hardened.
"Don't do that."
He stepped closer.
"Don't say my name and then give me another explanation that doesn't explain anything."
His hands curled into fists.
"You've been doing this since the day you first spoke to me. You tell me just enough to keep me moving, but whenever I ask something important, you refuse to answer."
He gestured toward the endless darkness.
"You bring me here, you tell me my entire life has already happened once, and then you expect me to accept that you took my memories because you thought it was best?"
**I AM:** "There are matters you do not yet understand."
"Then help me understand!"
His voice echoed through the emptiness, startling him with its intensity.
David drew a shaky breath.
"Please."
The anger in his expression briefly gave way to desperation.
"I'm trying to understand why you did this to me."
**I AM:** "My intention was to spare you from a future that should not have been yours."
David stared at the light.
"Why?"
There was no response.
He stepped forward.
"Why didn't you want me to remember?"
Silence.
"WHY?"
His shout seemed to disappear into the surrounding darkness.
"Answer me!"
The ancient presence remained quiet.
David's eyes burned with tears.
"Why won't you tell me anything? Why do you keep deciding what I should know and what I shouldn't?"
He pointed toward the column of light.
"You changed my life. You took my memories. You let me walk into another war without knowing what had happened before!"
His voice broke.
"And Nyra still died!"
The words tore from him.
He stood trembling, breathing heavily as tears streamed down his face.
"For once, I want an answer. A real answer."
He swallowed.
"I demand to know why."
The light remained still for several long moments.
Then its radiance seemed to deepen.
**I AM:** "Very well."
David slowly lowered his hand.
**I AM:** "I will answer this question."
The ancient voice carried a solemn weight that made him uneasy.
**I AM:** "But understand that what I am about to tell you cannot be forgotten simply because you wish it so."
David wiped his face.
"Tell me."
A pause followed.
**I AM:** "When the final defenses on Kharos Vale collapsed, humanity began evacuating the planet."
David frowned.
He had expected another explanation about his memories.
Instead, I AM was speaking about the battle.
**I AM:** "The Fallen had overwhelmed the remaining military positions. Whitefall was no longer achievable, and the planetary conversion had begun moving toward Greyfall."
David listened.
**I AM:** "Humanity's commanders ordered their remaining forces to withdraw. Transports were dispatched to recover those who could reach the evacuation zones."
David nodded faintly.
"That's standard procedure."
**I AM:** "Not everyone reached them."
His expression tightened.
"What do you mean?"
**I AM:** "The wounded were numerous. Some could not move without assistance. Others remained trapped beneath collapsed structures or surrounded by advancing Fallen forces."
David thought about the soldiers he had seen injured on Kharos Vale.
He remembered carrying wounded comrades, watching medics work under fire, and hearing evacuation requests over damaged communication channels.
"What happened to them?"
**I AM:** "Many were left behind."
David stared at the light.
"Left behind?"
**I AM:** "The transports departed when their departure windows closed. Those unable to reach them were abandoned."
David shook his head.
"No. They would've sent someone back."
**I AM:** "They did not."
"There would've been rescue teams."
**I AM:** "The evacuation had become a retreat. Humanity's command prioritized preserving the forces it could still withdraw."
David felt anger rising again.
"What about the wounded?"
**I AM:** "They were left where they had fallen."
He stared at the column.
"That's not how it's supposed to work."
**I AM:** "War does not always preserve the principles taught to those who fight it."
David remembered Commander Vance telling them that a soldier's responsibility extended beyond completing an objective.
Protect the squad.
Protect the wounded.
Never abandon someone who could still be saved.
Those lessons had been repeated so often that they had become part of how Gamma Squad operated.
He couldn't imagine simply leaving injured soldiers behind.
"What about the civilians?"
**I AM:** "Those who could reach the transports escaped. Many others did not."
David looked away.
For several moments, he struggled to understand how an entire military evacuation could abandon so many people.
Then another thought occurred to him.
"What happened when Greyfall finished?"
The ancient presence did not answer immediately.
David turned back.
"What happened to everyone who was still there?"
**I AM:** "They fell under Fallen control."
He frowned.
"What does that mean?"
**I AM:** "Those who survived the battle were taken captive."
David remembered the Academy's lessons about Greyfall.
The diagrams of planetary conversion.
The explanations of territorial sovereignty.
The warnings about losing strategic worlds to the Fallen.
He remembered being told that Greyfall meant the planet had been claimed by humanity's enemy.
But he couldn't remember anyone explaining what happened to the people who failed to escape.
"Taken captive for what?"
The column of light remained still.
**I AM:** "Slavery."
David felt his stomach tighten.
"What?"
**I AM:** "Humans left upon a planet after Greyfall are considered property by the Fallen. Those capable of labor are forced to serve their captors. Their lives are no longer their own."
David stared at the light.
He thought of the Academy classrooms.
The military history lessons.
The examinations.
The countless hours spent studying the consequences of planetary conversion.
"Nobody told us that."
**I AM:** "No."
"Why?"
**I AM:** "It is a truth omitted from the history taught to your cadets."
David shook his head.
"They teach us everything about Greyfall. The conversion process, the treaties, the territorial restrictions..."
His voice grew quieter.
"But not that?"
**I AM:** "No."
David stared at the black floor.
For the first time, he understood that there was something far worse than losing a planet.
The people who remained behind did not simply disappear from the war.
They became prisoners of it.
He swallowed.
"And me?"
The question emerged almost reluctantly.
"What happened to me after everyone else died?"
The ancient presence remained silent.
David slowly looked up.
"I was there, wasn't I?"
**I AM:** "Yes."
"Did I reach a transport?"
A pause.
**I AM:** "No."
His chest tightened.
"Was I wounded?"
**I AM:** "You were injured and exhausted. You had fought beyond the limits of what your body could endure."
David remembered the condition he had been in after confronting Vireth.
He knew what it felt like to push himself until his body could no longer respond.
"Then someone helped me, right?"
There was no answer.
David stared at the light.
"Someone must've tried."
**I AM:** "There was no one left who could reach you."
His breath caught.
He thought about the names I AM had spoken.
Vance.
Lucian.
June.
Mira.
Castiel.
Nyra.
All gone.
David slowly lowered his head.
"And the transports?"
**I AM:** "They departed."
He closed his eyes.
For a long time, he said nothing.
The image formed in his mind despite the absence of any real memory.
A battlefield covered in smoke.
Broken defenses.
Fallen forces advancing across shattered ground.
Transports rising into the sky while wounded soldiers cried out for help.
And somewhere among the abandoned, a sixteen-year-old boy who had already watched everyone he loved die.
David opened his eyes.
"They left me."
**I AM:** "Yes."
His voice became a whisper.
"I would've become a slave."
**I AM:** "That was the future awaiting you."
David stared at the column of light.
He could hardly comprehend it.
He had lost everyone.
Humanity had lost Kharos Vale.
And the people he had fought to protect had abandoned him to the Fallen.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
His voice was quieter now.
The anger remained, but something else had settled beneath it.
Horror.
**I AM:** "Because I did not wish you to remember watching those you loved perish, only to be abandoned by the very humanity you had fought to protect."
David looked down.
**I AM:** "You had given everything you possessed to that battle. Yet when the end came, you were left behind with the dead and the dying."
The light remained steady.
**I AM:** "That was not the future I envisioned for you."
David swallowed.
For several moments, neither spoke.
Then he slowly lifted his head.
"So you brought me back."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"Before my sixteenth birthday."
**I AM:** "Yes."
"And you took my memories because you didn't want me to remember any of that."
**I AM:** "I wished to give you an opportunity to begin again without the burden of what you had endured."
David looked toward the endless darkness.
He thought about his parents.
About the Academy.
About meeting Castiel for the first time.
About the day Nyra had walked into his life.
And about the terrible realization that, somewhere in a forgotten future, he had already lost them all.
He remained silent for a long time.
Then a thought began forming.
A desperate possibility that pushed through the grief and horror.
If I AM had changed the future once...
If it had sent him back before his sixteenth birthday...
Then perhaps there was still a way.
David slowly turned toward the column of light.