I woke up to the sound of alarms at 4:47 AM.
Not my alarm. The facility's emergency alert system. Red lights flashing through the crack under my door. The sound that meant somewhere in the world, reality was tearing open and something was trying to come through.
I was dressed and armed in under ninety seconds.
Three weeks had passed since Seattle. Three weeks since Diana died. Three weeks since we'd seen the army waiting on the other side of that massive rift.
Three weeks since I'd slept more than four hours a night.
The briefing room was already crowded when I arrived. Elena stood at the holographic display, dark circles under her eyes that matched everyone else's. Marcus was there despite his ribs still being wrapped. Jin favored her healing arm. Finn looked half-dead. We all looked half-dead.
Thirty-eight heroes. That's all we had left. And the rifts were opening faster every day.
"Detroit," Elena said without preamble. "Industrial district. Rift opened six minutes ago. Two Rifters detected so far. Standard containment team needed immediately."
"I'll go," I said. My voice was rough from lack of sleep.
"You ran three missions yesterday," Elena said. She wasn't looking at me. Hadn't really looked at me since Seattle. Since I'd almost died saving her from that massive Rifter. "You need rest."
"We all need rest. Detroit's two hours by helicopter. I can sleep on the way."
"Kane—"
"I'm going." I grabbed a rifle from the weapons rack. "Who's with me?"
Marcus raised his hand. "I'll ride along. Ribs are better."
"They're not better," Elena said sharply. "Medical cleared you for light duty only—"
"Light duty. Containment op. Two Rifters." Marcus shrugged. "Sounds light to me."
Elena's jaw tightened. For a moment I thought she'd refuse. Then she sighed. "Fine. Take Yuki with you. She's Level 9, just finished training last week. Needs field experience."
A young woman stepped forward. Japanese, early twenties, nervous energy radiating off her. "I won't let you down," she said.
"Just don't die," I told her. "That's the only requirement."
Ten minutes later we were in a helicopter racing toward Detroit.
I tried to sleep but couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Diana getting crushed. Saw the army through the Seattle rift. Saw that massive shape moving toward our world before the rift collapsed.
My phone buzzed. Mom:
Mom: Honey are you okay? You haven't called in two weeks. I'm worried about you.
Guilt twisted in my stomach. Two weeks. Had it really been that long?
Me: Sorry Mom. Finals are brutal. I'm okay, just busy. Love you.
Mom: You work too hard. Remember to eat real food, not just ramen! When is your next break?
I looked out the helicopter window at the sunrise. When was my next break? When was anyone's next break?
Me: Not sure yet. School is crazy right now. I'll call soon, promise.
I put the phone away before she could respond. Before I had to tell more lies.
"You should tell her," Marcus said. He'd been watching me. "Your mom. She deserves to know."
"Know what? That her son fights monsters? That he might die any day? That everything she thinks about his life is a lie?" I shook my head. "She's happier not knowing."
"Maybe. Or maybe she'd be proud." Marcus checked his shotgun. "My mom knows. Found out after I came home covered in gray blood one too many times. You know what she said? 'About damn time someone did something about those things.'"
"Your mom knows about Rifters?"
"Saw one tear through her neighborhood in 2019. Before we had good containment protocols. Killed three people before a hero took it down." He smiled sadly. "She didn't know we were called heroes back then. Just thought we were 'those brave people who fight the monsters.' When I told her I'd joined up, she cried. Then she made me promise to come home alive."
"And if you can't keep that promise?"
"Then at least she'll know I died doing something that mattered." Marcus looked at Yuki, who was staring out the window with wide eyes. "Kid, you ready for this?"
"I think so," Yuki said. "I mean, I trained for six months. Did all the simulations. Killed holo-Rifters. I'm Level 9. I should be ready."
"Training and reality are different," I said. "When you see a real Rifter, when it screams, when it comes at you—your body will want to freeze. Your brain will want to run. You have to push through that."
"How do you push through it?"
"You remember why you're fighting." I checked my rifle. "People are depending on us. If we don't stop the Rifters, they reach civilians. They kill. Simple as that."
Yuki nodded, but I could see her hands shaking.
"First mission?" Marcus asked gently.
"First real one. I did a containment drill last week but the rift closed before anything came through." She forced a smile. "Guess I was lucky."
"Luck runs out," I said. Then, seeing her face go pale, I added: "But skill lasts. Trust your training. Stay behind us. Watch and learn. You'll be fine."
The pilot's voice crackled through our headsets: "Two minutes to LZ. Be advised, rift is still active. Three Rifters now confirmed. Repeat, three Rifters."
Three. Not two.
Marcus and I exchanged a look. The rifts were getting worse. Staying open longer. Letting more through.
"Change of plans," Marcus said. "Yuki, you're on rift duty. Kane and I handle the Rifters. You close the tear the second we give you an opening."
"But I can fight—"
"I know you can. But closing the rift is more important." He handed her three rift charges. "You remember the training?"
"Plant at the structural weak points, link for remote detonation, get clear, trigger collapse." She recited it like a mantra.
"Good. You do that, you save more lives than killing ten Rifters. Understand?"
She nodded.
The helicopter touched down on an empty factory roof. We fast-roped down, weapons ready.
The rift was visible two blocks away—a tear in reality hovering above an abandoned warehouse. Through it, I could see that horrible wrong-colored darkness. That space between dimensions.
And between us and the rift: three Rifters.
They were the standard size—seven to eight feet tall, gray armor-skin, too many fingers. But they weren't acting like the ones from my first missions.
They were waiting. Standing in formation. Watching us.
"They know we're here," Marcus breathed. "They're not hunting. They're defending the rift."
"They're learning," I said. "The Architect was right. They learn from every encounter."
One of the Rifters tilted its head. Its eyeless face seemed to focus on me specifically. Then it opened its mouth and made a sound I'd never heard before.
Not a scream. Not a roar.
Words.
Broken, wrong, barely recognizable. But words.
"Hu...man... come."
Yuki made a small sound of terror.
The Rifter gestured toward the rift. "Come. See. Understand."
"It's talking," Marcus whispered. "Jesus Christ, it's talking."
"Come," the Rifter repeated. "No fight. Come. See."
My Combat Awareness skill was screaming warnings. This was wrong. Rifters didn't talk. Didn't negotiate. They killed. That's what they did.
Unless they were evolving faster than we thought.
Unless the things on the other side were learning to communicate.
Unless this was a trap.
My phone buzzed:
DECISION POINT DETECTED
OPTION A: ENGAGE RIFTERS (STANDARD PROTOCOL)
SUCCESS RATE: 73%
OPTION B: APPROACH RIFT (INVESTIGATION)
SUCCESS RATE: UNKNOWN
WARNING: HIGH RISK / HIGH REWARD
OPTION C: RETREAT AND REQUEST BACKUP
SUCCESS RATE: 98% (SURVIVAL) / 0% (CONTAINMENT)
I looked at Marcus. At Yuki. At the three Rifters standing between us and the rift.
At the rift itself, pulsing with dark energy.
"Come," the Rifter said again. "You. Strong one." It pointed directly at me. "They wait. They want. Come."
They want. They want what?
They want me?
"Kane," Marcus said slowly. "Whatever you're thinking, don't."
But I was already thinking it. The Rifters had never tried to communicate before. Never offered anything except violence. If they were talking now, it meant something had changed.
And I needed to know what.
"Cover me," I said.
"Kane, no—"
I started walking toward the Rifters. Rifle raised but not firing. Every instinct screaming at me to run. Every lesson from training telling me this was suicide.
But something else. Some new instinct I didn't understand. A pull toward the rift. Like it was calling me.
Like I belonged there.
The Rifters didn't attack. They watched me approach. When I was ten feet away, they stepped aside.
Opening a path to the rift.
"Come," the lead Rifter said. "See. Choose."
I looked back at Marcus. He had his shotgun trained on the Rifters but hadn't fired. Yuki looked terrified but held her position.
I looked at the rift. At the darkness beyond. At the space between dimensions where Diana had died. Where I'd almost died.
Where something was waiting.
My phone buzzed one last time:
WARNING: APPROACHING RIFT THRESHOLD
UNKNOWN CONSEQUENCES
PROCEED?
I took another step forward.
The rift pulsed. Reached for me. Like a living thing.
I was three feet from the tear in reality when Marcus shouted: "KANE, LOOK OUT!"
I spun.
The fourth Rifter—the one we hadn't detected—dropped from the roof above. Twice the size of the others. Arms that ended in blades instead of claws.
It landed between me and my team.
And it wasn't there to talk.
It was there to kill.
COMBAT INITIATED
ENEMY: RIFTER VARIANT (BLADEMORPH)
LEVEL: 15
YOUR LEVEL: 8
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 31%
The Blademorph's arm-blades came down like guillotines.
I dove left. The blades carved through concrete where I'd been standing.
Marcus fired. The shotgun blast took the Blademorph in the chest. It stumbled but didn't fall.
Yuki screamed.
The three Rifters that had been waiting peacefully suddenly moved. Not toward us.
Toward the Blademorph.
They attacked their own kind.
The lead Rifter tackled the Blademorph, claws tearing at armor. The other two joined in. Gray blood sprayed. The Blademorph's scream shook windows three blocks away.
"What the hell?" Marcus shouted.
The lead Rifter looked at me while fighting. Its eyeless face somehow conveyed urgency.
"Go," it said. "Now. See. Choose. Before others come."
Then it plunged its claws into the Blademorph's throat.
The rift pulsed again. Stronger. More insistent.
My phone: TIME REMAINING: 30 SECONDS BEFORE RIFT BECOMES UNSTABLE
This was it. This was the choice.
Walk into the rift and see what they wanted to show me. Maybe die. Maybe learn something crucial.
Or retreat. Play it safe. Keep following protocol.
Keep losing.
I looked at Elena's last message from this morning: "Be careful. Please."
I looked at my team. At Marcus ready to die to protect me. At Yuki barely holding it together.
At the rift calling me home to a place I'd never been.
I made my choice.
I ran toward the rift.
"KANE!" Marcus's voice, desperate.
The three friendly Rifters formed a wall, blocking my team from following. Protecting me. Or trapping me.
I reached the rift's edge. The tear in reality. The space between worlds.
I jumped through.
And everything went wrong.