[COLD OPEN – GLOBAL BROADCAST INTERCEPT]
Static. Then a cracked feed. A general's face, hardened and scarred, appears on screen.
General Raas: This is Commander Raas of the Unified Earth Sky Force. To all remaining Vanguard and SkyVault citizens: Reinforcements are inbound. Crystal spread will be neutralized by dawn.
Camera glitches — revealing flashes of Gemspire's glow reflected in his visor.
General Raas: If you're still breathing… hold on.
[INT. VAN HQ – STRATEGY ROOM]
Kael, Yuna, Tari, Jax, and Echo-7 sit around Mira's crystallized form. The air is thick with grief.
Tari: Military backup. Took them long enough.
Kael: They won't last ten minutes.
Yuna: Shard doesn't just fight. He converts.
Kael stares at Mira's face, lit by candlelight.
Kael: Then we give the military what we never had— intel and time.
[SCENE – ROOFTOP / NIKO'S CHOICE]
Niko stands atop a crumbling tower. A crystalized civilian watches him from below with glowing eyes. He stares at the sky, silent.
Echo-7 (O.S.): You're not coming, are you?
Niko: I can't keep phasing between guilt and vengeance. I need to know why Shard chose this path. Before we end him.
Echo-7: And if there's nothing left to understand?
Niko: Then I'll still be here. When it all ends.
He walks into the shadows.
[TITLE CARD: EULOGY PROTOCOL]
[SCENE — MILITARY STRIKE: OPERATION FLAREWALL]
Massive ships enter SkyVault's upper stratosphere. Drones, mechanized troops, artillery platforms.
General Raas (via comm): All units — purge pattern. No hesitation.
The attack begins. Explosions rock the crystalline terrain. For a moment… it seems to work.
BUT THEN —
Gemspire pulses. Crystal vines shoot skyward. Whole units are grabbed, their suits turned to stone. Soldiers scream. Their helmets glow… then go silent.
Prismmaw dives from the spire, eating through ships like light-candy.
Dreiva opens timelines, folding bullets into loops.
Shard walks into the chaos — untouched.
Shard: Machines. Flesh. Flame. You all forget... eternity cannot bleed.
He touches a mech pilot — and it turns, firing on its own squad.
[SCENE – VAN HQ / LIVE FEED]
Yuna: (horrified) They're losing. Fast.
Kael: Pull back. Before they're all proxies.
Aurix: Too late.
He watches as the feed cuts to black.
[INT. GEMSPIRE INNER RING — NIKO'S SOLO PATH]
Niko sneaks through forgotten tunnels. He sees memory walls — frozen moments of civilians, Vanguard, old friends — all trapped in crystals. His reflection stares back.
Echo Niko: You think one life matters against a god?
Niko: Mira thought it did.
He presses his hand against a glowing shard. Mira's voice whispers faintly: "Find me."
[SCENE – VANGUARD PREPARATION WITHOUT NIKO]
The HQ is arming up. Aurix loads new tech. Jax rewires his gauntlets. Tari sharpens her Nova Lance. Yuna weaves thorns into armor.
Kael: We go in, disable the growth source, and give the civilians a chance to run. No matter the cost.
Yuna: We'll bring Mira home. Even if it's just her memory.
Aurix: Don't wait for a miracle this time. Just make one.
[EPILOGUE – SHARD'S THRONE ROOM]
Shard sits on his amethyst throne. Prismmaw feeds on the last drones. Dreiva hums a lullaby backwards. Crystalized soldiers kneel before him.
Shard: They still resist. Still cling to rot.
Dreiva: And yet… one has entered the hall of memory.
Shard: Niko.
He rises. The Gemspire sings.
Shard: Let the final requiem begin.