The streets of Atlanta felt even quieter than before.
Not the kind of silence that comes from peace—but the cold hush before a thunderstorm. A silence that waits. Watches. Hides teeth behind shadows.
We moved as one now. No longer scattered. The Renegades—Maddie, Jacob, Chase, Rev, and me—together again. We were making our way toward the shelter we'd marked before everything went sideways. It was a halfway point, a fallback plan. A network of tunnels hidden beneath what used to be a train station. Off-grid. Unmapped. If anything still offered safety, it was there.
I led the way, Jacob right behind me. His gauntlets glowed faintly, stabilizers flickering as he flexed his fingers. He didn't need them to blast—but they kept his bones from shattering every time he did.
"City feels different," he muttered, scanning the rooftops.
"Yeah," I said. "Like it's waiting to breathe."
We crept past the skeleton of a collapsed courthouse, its flagpole bent and rusted, the colors of the nation half-buried beneath shattered stone. Red light pulsed in the distance—android patrols, always moving. Always searching.
No one talked much. Not after what happened with Booker. The detox. The explosion. The illusions. Everyone had seen too much to pretend things were normal.
And me? I hadn't said a word about the last illusion.
The one where I killed them all.
"Eyes up," Maddie whispered from behind. "One o'clock. Something moved."
I scanned the windows of a nearby pharmacy. A curtain shifted.
Then stilled.
It could've been the wind. Or something else.
Either way, we didn't have time to check.
We turned down a narrow alley, barely wide enough for two, and moved fast. The shelter was close now—only ten or fifteen more blocks. But the deeper we went, the more… distorted things began to feel.
Reality didn't break.
It just bent.
The ground vibrated beneath my boots, barely noticeable. But enough. Like footsteps from something massive below.
Jacob noticed, too. "That feels real to you?"
I didn't answer.
Because I knew what it was.
The golden-red thread.
It spiraled into view like smoke drifting underwater. Coiling around me. Pulling.
The others didn't see it. They couldn't.
Then—reality cracked.
Everything around me slowed.
Sound collapsed inward. The air turned thick and electric. A scream echoed in reverse through my mind, and I dropped to one knee, gripping the side of my head.
No one else moved. They were frozen again—like last time.
Another fracture.
Chrono's fracture.
The alley stretched into a corridor of bleeding light. Shadows moved on their own. The walls melted like wax. And then—
I was somewhere else.
A corridor of glass and metal. Monitors lined the walls, showing dozens of images all at once—some real, some broken memories.
Then I saw her.
Aaliah.
Alive.
Bound to a table. Surrounded by machines. Pale. Breathing.
A gloved hand reached into the frame—adjusting a dial.
She screamed.
I surged forward—but the image rippled away, replaced by static. My heart thundered in my ears.
"Stop it," I growled.
"You wanted to know," came the voice behind me.
Chrono.
He stepped into the light, his mask gone now. Just a man with time scarred into his skin.
"She's alive," I snapped. "Where is she?"
"In a place you cannot reach," he said calmly. "Not as you are now."
I stepped forward. "Then change me."
He chuckled. "That's what I'm afraid of."
The world shifted again. We stood above Atlanta—but a version that had fallen completely. Fires scorched the sky. The ground was split in jagged veins. And floating in the center of it all… was me.
Or the thing I could become.
The Dark Nexus.
I hovered over the city, eyes glowing white-hot. My skin cracked with raw energy, pieces of reality peeling off me like ash. With a wave of my hand, I collapsed a city block into nothingness.
"You see now," Chrono whispered. "The line between savior and destroyer isn't thin. It's gone."
"No," I said. "That's not who I am."
Chrono raised a hand.
The illusion shattered again—and I was back.
On the ground. In the alley. Jacob is gripping my shoulders.
"Kaleb!" he shouted. "You zoned out—again!"
I blinked hard. The others surrounded me, weapons drawn, eyes tense.
"I'm fine," I muttered.
Maddie knelt beside me. "No, you're not. Talk to us."
I looked at her. Then at all of them.
"Aaliah's alive," I said.
They froze.
"I saw her. She's… restrained. But alive."
"You're sure?" Rev asked.
I nodded. "I saw the machines. Her energy signature. Her voice."
Maddie clenched her fists. "Then what the hell are we waiting for?"
"Because Chrono showed it to me," I said. "It wasn't a vision. It was a warning."
"Of what?" Chase asked.
"That I'm not ready. That if I try to save her now… I lose myself."
Jacob looked at me, quiet for a beat. Then he nodded. "Then we get you ready."
No hesitation. No judgment.
Just resolve.
We pushed on. Every step heavier than the last. Every corner is filled with tension. But we didn't stop. Couldn't.
The shelter waited ahead.
And beyond that?
War.
Because now we had a name for our next move.
We were going to find the place holding Aaliah.
And burn it to the ground.