INT. STOLEN TRANSPORT VEHICLE - NIGHT
The team is in transit, moving through the darkness. The mood is heavy, broken. The psychological torture they endured at the hands of The Curator has left deep wounds. They have Malakor's location, but the victory feels hollow. This is an episode about the scars.
•ARIS is silent, clutching a datapad. He lost his grandfather's journal, his tangible link to his legacy. He feels adrift, his purpose stripped away, replaced only by the cold mechanics of the mission.
•JULIAN sharpens a combat knife with methodical, almost robotic precision. He is haunted by the choice he was offered—the power to protect everyone, a power he refused. He questions his own limits, his own code.
•KAELEN is a different person. The compassionate scientist is gone, replaced by a cold, pragmatic commander. She stares at a map, her Temporal Sight causing faint, violet after-images to flicker in her eyes. She is focused only on the objective, her emotional walls built so high they are unbreachable.
KAELEN:We're approaching the location. A decommissioned numbers station in the Ural Mountains. Cold War relic. Isolated. Perfect for him.
ARIS:without looking up) > What's the plan?
KAELEN:We go in. We get Inez. We destroy his machine. No mistakes. No hesitation.
Her tone is so cold it makes Aris flinch. The emotional core of their team is broken, and this is the state in which they are walking into the lion's den.
EXT. URAL MOUNTAINS, RUSSIA - NIGHT
A dense, snow-covered forest surrounds a cluster of decaying concrete buildings and massive radio antennas. It's a ghost station. As the team approaches, they find the perimeter guards—Malakor's futuristic soldiers—are already dead. They haven't been shot; they've been neutralized with brutal, silent efficiency.
JULIAN:This wasn't a firefight. This was an execution.
They enter the main building. The scene is one of carnage, but it's clean, professional. A lone figure stands in the control room, waiting for them: ANJA VOGEL
ANJA:Malakor is not here. He took the data he needed from Inez and left hours ago, on his way to retrieve his "Prometheus Engine." He left his guard dog behind to clean up the mess. And I am here for it.
THE DARK FIGHT: The "guard dog" is ELIAS, the psychic hunter. He emerges from the shadows, but he is changed. He is hooked into the station's massive power grid, wires and cables snaking into his body. Malakor has turned him into a living psychic weapon, an engine of pain.
Elias doesn't throw objects. He throws memories. The fight is a brutal, psychological assault.
•He projects an image of Julian's own Echo directly into his mind, forcing him to relive the horror of that fight, whispering his deepest insecurities.
•He makes Aris see his grandfather's ghost, burning the lost journal, condemning him as a failure.
•He attacks Kaelen with visions of the Chronovore, the hungry void in the sky, making her relive her moment of ultimate terror.
The team is paralyzed, each trapped in a personal hell. Elias walks calmly towards Kaelen, his hand outstretched to crush her.
Julian, seeing his friends writhing in agony, breaks. The soldier, the guardian, the man who has held the line, finally snaps. A primal scream of pure rage erupts from him. He is no longer fighting to contain or survive. He is fighting to kill.
He charges Elias, ignoring the psychic pain. The fight becomes a dark, visceral, hand-to-hand struggle. It is not heroic. It is ugly, brutal, and desperate. Julian uses every dirty trick, every ounce of his strength, breaking bones, gouging, fighting with a ferocity that shocks even Anja.
THE EMOTIONAL CLIMAX: Julian gets Elias in a chokehold. The boy's psychic projections falter. For a moment, he is just a scared, weeping teenager again.
ELIAS:(crying) > Please... make it stop...
Julian hesitates. He sees the child, the victim. But then he sees the faces of his friends, and he knows this monster will never stop. He makes a choice. With a final, terrible cry, he ends it.
Silence.
Julian stumbles back, his hands covered in blood, his face a mask of utter self-loathing. He has won. He has saved his team. But he has destroyed a part of his own soul to do it.
Anja Vogel looks at him, not with judgment, but with a flicker of grim understanding. She walks over to a console.
ANJA:Malakor's parting gift. A data log. It has the location of the Prometheus Project. He wanted one of us to follow him. He's arrogant. He's inviting a final confrontation.
The episode ends with the team standing in the silent, cold control room. They have the location for the final battle. But they are more broken than ever. Julian is a shell, and Kaelen looks at him, the cold commander, realizing the terrible price of the choices she is now forced to make.
FADE TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 21