[ Warning, warning ]
The sky above Vandock cracked like glass.A pulse of violet light rippled across the clouds, and every screen in the city flickered. Then came the voice deep, cold, and familiar.
VEXAR (broadcast):
"You woke too late, Morgan. The future is mine. And soon… the past will be too."
Morgan stood on the balcony of the Archive Tower, fists clenched. Kara and Juno joined him, eyes wide.
KARA:
"He's not bluffing. That's a Rift Surge. He's opening a gate."
JUNO:
"We have hours. Maybe less."
Morgan turned to the Echoborn gathered below. Then he said "Then we fight. Not for the past. Not for me. For every soul this city still remembers.
The city mobilized.
Juno distributed memory-forged weapons—blades, shields, and drones powered by emotional resonance. Kara led scout teams to the outer walls. Morgan stood in the center of the Spire, syncing with the Orb.
SYSTEM:
["Orb Sync: 78%. Speed Threshold: unlocked. Memory Echoes: unstable."]
He saw flashes—Elara's face, his father's voice, the moment the Orb was activated. His past was bleeding into the present.
MORGAN (to himself):
"I built this.
The Rift opened.
Creatures poured out twisted beasts fused with tech, eyes glowing, limbs jagged. The Echoborn fought fiercely. Kara phased through walls, striking from shadows. Riven used sonic waves to shatter enemy armor.
Morgan moved like lightning—dodging, striking, slowing time in bursts. But the Riftborn kept coming.
JUNO (over comms):
"They're targeting the Core Spire. If they breach it, the Echo Protocol is gone."
Morgan sprinted toward the Spire, heart pounding.
Buildings fell. Drones crashed. The sky turned red. Morgan reached the Spire just as a Riftborn elite breached the chamber. He fought savagely, but the Orb flickered—unstable.
FLASHBACK:
Elara standing beside him.
ELARA:
"If the Orb fails, everything we preserved dies with it."
BACK TO PRESENT
Morgan roared, unleashing a burst of energy that vaporized the elite. But the damage was done. The Orb was cracked.
Morgan collapsed. Kara dragged him to safety. Juno arrived with a prototype—The Echo Amplifier, a device that could stabilize the Orb using Morgan's memories.
JUNO:
"You have to relive it. Every moment. Every loss."
Morgan connected. His mind flooded with memories—his childhood, Elara's laughter, the betrayal, the coma. He screamed then clarity.
The Orb stabilized. His suit evolved. A new ability unlocked: Chrono Surge—the power to bend time around him.He stood tears coming out from his eyes then he by said "Let's end this."
As the battle raged, a Glassborn commander turned on them Commander Vey, secretly aligned with the Riftborn. He sabotaged the defense grid.
Morgan confronted him.
VEY:
"You preserved your mind. I won't die am a surviva."
They fought. Morgan won. But the damage was done. Vandock's outer defenses collapsed.
Vexar arrived.
He stepped through the Rift tall, armored, eyes burning with stolen memories. Morgan faced him in the ruins of the Vexar's position himself in prideful manner then said "You might the one who built the built the Orb. I perfected it."
They fought blades clashing, time bending, memories colliding. Morgan used Chrono Surge to trap Vexar in a memory loop. Morgan voice rangout
"You live in the past. I fight for the future."
With a final strike, Vexar was defeated. The Rift closed.
Vandock was in ruins. Survivors mourned. The Orb pulsed quietly.
Morgan stood among the ashes.
KARA:
"You saved us. But what now?"
MORGAN:
"Now… I find Elara. And I finish what we started."
Morgan Knoway had been unconscious for 212 days.
Doctors called it a neuro collapse. Suzn called it a miracle. But deep within Morgan's mind, something was stirring. The Orb—still embedded in his chest—was active. Not visibly. Not physically. But in memory.
Inside the coma, Morgan wasn't asleep. He was somewhere else.
He wandered through a shifting landscape of fractured memories—his childhood, the lab, Elara's laughter, the moment the Rift opened. Time didn't flow here. It folded. Every step forward was a step deeper into the Echo Protocol.
He saw Elara standing in a corridor of light.
ELARA (echoing):
"You're not lost, Morgan. am here with you. Find the seed. Wake the world."
Morgan reached out—but the memory shattered.
Back in the hospital, Suzn noticed something strange. Morgan's vitals spiked. His brain activity surged past normal thresholds. The Orb pulsed beneath his skin.
SUZN (to the doctor):
"He's dying. please help him."
Inside the coma, Morgan reached a chamber of light. At its center: a glowing shard pulsing with Elara's voice.
Inside the coma, Elara's voice resounded (recorded) "This is the Coma Code. The first vault. If you unlock it, you wake. If you fail… you forget."
Morgan touched the shard the world turned white.
No