Chronos Imperium: Season 3, Episode 27
The Stillness
FADE IN:
EXT. HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS, NEPAL - DAY
The team makes a grueling trek high into the snow-capped peaks. The air is thin, the landscape vast and desolate. They follow the signal from their device to a sheer cliff face. There is nothing there.
> It has to be here. The frequency is off the charts.
Kaelen closes her eyes, focusing her Temporal Sight. She sees not with her eyes, but with her mind. She sees a shimmering, invisible "seam" in the rock, a place where reality is thin. She reaches out and touches it.
Her hand passes through the solid rock as if it were water. A shimmering, circular gateway of light appears. This is the entrance to the Wardens' dimension.
INT. THE WARDENS' MONASTERY, "THE STILLNESS" - DAY
They step through the gateway into a world outside of time. The "Stillness" is a place of profound, unnerving calm. They are in the courtyard of a beautiful, ancient monastery, but there is no wind, no sound, no sun in the sky—only a soft, ambient, silver light that comes from everywhere and nowhere at once.
They are met by a group of robed figures. These are the Wardens. They move with a serene grace. Their leader, a timeless woman with ancient eyes, steps forward. This is LYRA.
> You are the first to find this place in a thousand years. You should not have come.
The confrontation is not a fight. The team draws their weapons, but the Wardens do not react with violence.
* Lyra raises a hand. Julian's "magic gun" disassembles in mid-air, its components floating harmlessly before they fall to the ground.
* Another Warden looks at Kenji's laptop. The screen fills with an image of a beautiful, peaceful forest, the code beneath it completely pacified.
* Lyra looks at Kaelen, her expression one of deep sorrow. "Your mind is so loud, child," she says. Kaelen's Temporal Sight dissolves into a pleasant, calming silver fog.
> We are not your enemies. We are the guardians of a balance you cannot comprehend. Your search for the Nexus threatens that balance. You will stay here, in peace, until you no longer remember why you came.
The world around the team begins to subtly change. The monastery becomes warmer, more comfortable. The air fills with the scent of calming incense. They feel their urgency, their fear, their very memories of the war beginning to fade, replaced by a feeling of profound peace.
The episode ends with the team sitting calmly in a beautiful garden within the monastery. They look content, peaceful. Aris is reading a book of poetry. Julian is meditating. Kaelen is tending to a plant. They are prisoners in a perfect, gilded cage, their minds being gently and systematically erased. The last shot is of Kaelen looking up with a placid smile, a single, forgotten tear rolling down her cheek.
FADE TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 27