The cat blinked slowly.
"What's your plan?" it asked.
Talia didn't answer aloud.
Instead, she closed her eyes and summoned the system.
> [Command Request: Merge]
[Query: Can Haven Brew (Apocalypse Ruins) be fused with current Haven Brew Café?]
Aesthetic Target: Vintage Timelessness
Material Source: Debris-based Ingredient Memory Signatures
Preservation Request: Emotional Echoes, Structural Integrity, and Founding Aura
Submit Fusion Intent?
[Yes] [No]
She tapped Yes.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then her HUD flickered.
> [Fusion Protocol Detected – Prototype Mode Only]
Warning: Cross-Timeline Fusion is unstable without anchor.
Anchor Required: 1 Living Memory (Lev) + 1 Rooted Connection (Talia)
Source Café: Haven Brew – Timeline #47
Target Café: Haven Brew – Current Thread
Processing…
Establishing tether between Memory Residue and Present-Day Core Café...
The wind picked up outside.
Dust lifted. The debris hummed. The old sign creaked once then snapped off and vanished into golden motes.
Ash spiraled up from the hearth and twisted through the rafters like smoke being rewound.
Talia stood slowly. "Lev."
He was already beside her.
The cat sat between them, watching silently.
And then
The system pulsed.
> [Anchor Confirmed: Emotional Link Active]
[Fusion In Progress – Estimated Sync: 84%]
Resulting Café Type: Timeless Hybrid
Essence: Shelter / Memory / Threshold
Bonus Gained: Ingredient Memory Vault – Debris-Echoed Stockpile Unlocked
Syncing structural imprint…
Syncing emotion signature…
Syncing scent profile… (Cinnamon, smoke, toasted honey…)
Outside, the sky changed.
Far away, in the present café's dimension, bookshelves shifted. The counter creaked. A single velvet chair appeared by the fireplace where there had been none.
And back here, in the ruins...
A low hum resonated through the floorboards.
One last message blinked.
> [Fusion Complete]
Haven Brew Café (Legacy-Hybrid)
Now accessible from current café core.
The place you built is no longer lost.
The wind settled.
Kai blinked up from where he'd crouched, watching everything with wide, violet eyes.
"So… that's it?" he asked. "It's alive again?"
Talia stepped back. "No."
Lev tilted his head. "Not alive."
The cat purred. "But remembered. And in this world, that's more powerful."
Jasper cleared his throat. "I'm just gonna say it. That was terrifying. But also kind of beautiful? Do we clap now?"
"No," Rain said. "We go home."
Talia turned, one last time, toward the remnants of the café.
There was nothing but ruin, but now it glowed faintly, gold at the edges. Like the bones of something waiting to bloom again.
She didn't smile.
But she stood straighter.
And as she turned to walk away, she whispered under her breath...
"Let's brew something worth remembering."
The golden glow of the fused café hadn't even settled when the air split open.
A sound like stone screaming tore across the horizon.
The ground shook.
Then the world cracked.
Chunks of earth tore free, rising into the air like shattered islands. The sky bled into violet fractures, lightning threading through jagged seams.
DING!
> \[System Warning: Dimensional Instability Detected]
> \[Entity Approaching: ??? – Classification: Apocalypse-Class Beast]
Talia's heart clenched. "No. Not now—"
The ruins convulsed. From the broken bell tower emerged a shape—vast, twisted, its form shifting between smoke, bone, and molten shadow. It let out a roar that bent the air itself, and entire slabs of land ripped skyward like paper.
Jasper screamed. "Nope. Absolutely not. Somebody tell me that's a hallucination!"
"Move!" Rain barked, already grabbing his arm and hauling him toward the glowing tether that pulsed where the café's essence anchored. "We need to reach the café...NOW!"
Lev's cloak snapped in the storm as he pulled Talia close. "Stay with me. We're not losing anyone this time."
"No!" she snapped, eyes darting to Kai, who clung to G2 with wide, panicked eyes. "Kai goes first. Get him inside!"
The earth beneath them lurched, splitting into fragments. A chasm opened, swallowing the crooked sunflowers whole.
Xander cursed, knives flashing as he cut through falling debris. "Move, damn it! MOVE!"
The monster loomed closer, each step breaking the land apart.
Then the cat leapt forward.
Not small. Not soft.
Its body stretched, bones cracking, fur shredding into light. In its place rose a tall figure cloaked in shadow-silver, mismatched eyes glowing like twin lanterns. Its voice—no longer in Talia's mind but aloud, echoing across the ruin—cut sharp and steady.
"Get to the café. I'll buy you time."
Rain froze mid-stride, staring. "What the—?"
"Don't ask!" Talia shouted. "Just run!"
The cat—no, the man—raised a hand. Portals of raw gold light split open around him, swirling like torn pages of reality. The beast slammed a claw down, and he caught it with both arms, bracing as the land beneath him buckled.
"Go!" he snarled, voice rough but resonant.
Lev didn't hesitate. He grabbed Kai, cradling him against his chest, and sprinted for the café's tether. Talia's heart pounded as she ran beside them, debris raining down.
The café door—golden, glowing, half-formed—hung in the air like salvation.
"Take him!" Talia shouted, shoving Kai forward.
Lev lifted him straight through the threshold.
The door flared open and Kai landed inside. Safe.
But the ground shattered again. The beast roared, breaking past the cat's defense.
Rain thrust her hands into the earth, casting layers of wards that cracked almost instantly. "I can't hold it...!"
"Go!" the cat yelled again. He slashed his hand through the air, and a portal yawned open beneath Rain. She dropped through with a gasp, vanishing in a shimmer of blue.
Another claw came down. The cat gritted his teeth, throwing Jasper next. "Try not to scream all the way down!"
"Too late!" Jasper wailed as he tumbled into a portal.
Xander cursed. "You better not dump me somewhere stupid." Then the ground under him dissolved, and he fell backward into another rift.
Only Talia and Lev remained.
The cat staggered, blood running from the corner of his mouth. "I can't hold it… go!"
He slashed one final portal, its edges unstable, shaking.
Lev's hand tightened around Talia's wrist. "I'm not leaving you."
The beast roared, the force of it shattering the air. The ground split beneath them.
The pull of the rift caught Talia first. She stumbled, dragged backward toward its golden whirl.
"Talia!" Kai's voice rang from beyond the café door. His small hands slammed against the invisible barrier. "Mom!!!"
Her eyes met his. Her lips formed the words 'I'll come back.'
Then the portal swallowed her.
"Mom!!!" Kai's scream cracked against the café walls, shaking the air.
Lev froze where he stood. For a moment, just one heartbeat, he fought against the pull, his gaze locked on Kai's desperate face through the glowing threshold.
"I'll find her," he promised. His voice was steady, like steel. "Kai, I swear it. I'll bring her back."
The cat, still bracing against the beast, snarled. "No time, Wanderer!" He tore another rift open at Lev's feet.
The ground gave way.
Lev met Kai's eyes one last time. "Stay alive and wait for us, my son."
And then he was gone...sucked into the rift like a shadow torn from the world.
"Dad!!!!" His scream split the air, raw and breaking.
The cat's arms trembled, muscles straining against the beast's crushing weight. Cracks of light spread across his humanoid frame, each one sparking with unstable magic.
He glanced once at the café's doorway, then at Kai.
"Not yet your fight," he muttered. His mismatched eyes flared gold and blue. With a final shove, he tore a jagged circle of light in the air ... a portal just wide enough for himself.
The beast lunged, claws raking down... but the cat-man slipped backward into the rift. His voice echoed as he vanished:
"Keep the hearth burning, boy."
The portal snapped shut.
And just like that...
The battlefield emptied. The beast's roar cut off mid-note. The shattered land froze, suspended in violet cracks, before dissolving into nothingness.
Silence.
Only the café remained, glowing faintly against the void.
Inside, Kai fell to his knees.
The glow of the café walls pressed close around him, warm but hollow. G2 fluttered down onto his shoulder, chirping in soft, broken notes, but it wasn't enough to dam the flood.
Kai's fists slammed against the polished wooden floor. His voice cracked, sharp and desperate:
"Bring them back! Bring them back!"
The café hummed low, as if answering. Not a promise. Not yet.
But a pulse of gold flickered through the walls, a heartbeat waiting for the right moment.
Kai bowed his head, tears dripping onto the floorboards, the words echoing through the hollow café like a vow:
"Bring them back."