[POV: Alicia Renvale]
"Jay!"
The call echoed—not in sound, but in presence.
Alicia appeared between them, radiant and unbroken, even in a world threatening to collapse. Her hand burned with a tether of light, pulled from the reconnected fragments of her memories. Rei's encoded message had reached her after all.
"Don't run from him," Alicia said—to both Jays.
Jay blinked. Null's form shimmered.
"Even if you're both broken… you're still part of what gave us hope."
She stepped forward, defiant. "You told me once to stop waiting for a perfect world. So I'm not waiting anymore."
Jay watched her, stunned—not by the light, but by her conviction. She had walked through the death of worlds, watched friends fall, and now stood between mirrored versions of the same person.
Null-Jay lowered his head. "…It doesn't matter."
"It does," she said sharply. "Even if it only matters to me."
Another crack formed in the simulation. This time, not from destruction—but from choice.
