Earth was a ghost wearing a mask of paradise.
Elias guided the Kestrel through the upper atmosphere, its stealth protocols stretched to their limit. Below him, the planet glittered with a serene, unnatural beauty. Cities that had once pulsed with chaotic life now lay silent under a blanket of perfect order. Streets were immaculate, gardens bloomed in geometric precision, and citizens moved with a placid, unhurried grace. There were no sirens, no arguments, no tears. Only the soft hum of Mnemosyne's signal, a lullaby broadcast from every satellite, every screen, every neural implant.
He'd been tracking Lila's last known location—a bunker beneath Reykjavik—when the Kestrel's sensors screamed a warning.
Three EarthGov interceptors dropped out of the clouds, their sleek black hulls emblazoned with the serpent-and-globe sigil. They'd found him.
Elias's hands flew over the controls, the Kestrel lurching into a desperate evasive spiral. Pulse rounds tore through the air where he'd been, the energy blasts so close he felt the heat through the hull. The beacon in his arm burned like a brand, a constant, pulsing betrayal.
"Dr. Voss," Vance's voice crackled over the open channel, calm and absolute. "You are out of time. Surrender the Titanis Key, and I will let you see your daughter one last time. In a world without pain."
Lila.
The name was a knife to his heart. Was she one of them now? One of the hollow-eyed citizens wandering the streets of Reykjavik, her fierce spirit smoothed into serene emptiness? Had she forgotten her anger, her grief… her love for her mother?
He couldn't bear it.
He dove the Kestrel toward the stormy North Atlantic, using the cloud cover as a shroud. The interceptors followed, relentless. One launched a grappling drone—a spider-like device designed to latch onto his hull and fry his systems.
Elias gritted his teeth. He had one shot.
He rerouted all power to the shuttle's experimental thrusters—the ones Singh had cobbled together from spare parts. The Kestrel shot forward with a scream of tortured metal, banking hard over the volcanic peaks of Iceland. The grappling drone missed, its claws scraping harmlessly against the hull.
But the maneuver cost him.
The Kestrel's starboard engine sputtered and died, trailing smoke. He was losing altitude fast, the black sands of a remote geothermal valley rushing up to meet him.
He crash-landed in a plume of ash and steam, the shuttle skidding to a halt against a basalt cliff. The impact threw him against his restraints, his head ringing.
Silence.
Then, the soft hiss of the interceptors landing a hundred meters away.
He was trapped.
Elias grabbed the Titanis Key and Clara's emitter, shoving them into a survival pack. He popped the cockpit hatch and stumbled into the biting Icelandic wind, the rain instantly soaking through his flight suit.
He didn't get far.
A squad of EarthGov marines in powered armor emerged from the steam, their weapons trained on him. At their center stood Admiral Vance herself, her black uniform pristine despite the rain, her left eye glowing a malevolent emerald.
"There's no more running, Doctor," she said, her voice devoid of triumph, only weary certainty. "The Age of Pain is over. Join us. Be at peace."
Elias backed up, his boots slipping on the wet rock, until he felt the heat of a geothermal vent at his back. "You didn't bring peace, Vance. You brought a cage."
Vance's expression didn't change. "A cage is better than a battlefield. You of all people should know that." She took a step forward. "Give me the Key. Let Mnemosyne heal you."
Behind her, the marines raised their weapons.
Elias's mind raced. He was out of options. Out of time.
Then, a voice cut through the rain.
"Not today, Admiral."
From the entrance of a hidden cave behind Elias, a figure emerged. She was lean and fierce, her dark hair tied back in a severe braid, her eyes burning with a fire that had not been extinguished by Mnemosyne's signal. She held a jury-rigged pulse rifle in her hands, its barrel aimed squarely at Vance's head.
Lila.
She was alive. She was real.
And she was leading a resistance.
"Drop your weapons!" Lila yelled, her voice strong, clear, and utterly human. "Or the next shot won't be a warning!"
Vance's eye flickered, the emerald light dimming for a fraction of a second in surprise. "The daughter," she murmured. "A Rememberer."
Elias's heart swelled with a pride so fierce it hurt. His daughter had not just survived. She had fought back.
The marines hesitated, their programming warring with their orders.
In that split second of chaos, Lila moved. She fired a shot not at Vance, but at the geothermal vent at Elias's back.
Superheated steam erupted in a blinding cloud, filling the valley with a scalding fog.
"Dad, this way!" Lila yelled, vanishing back into the cave.
Elias didn't hesitate. He turned and ran, the heat and steam searing his lungs, the sound of Vance's furious orders lost in the roar of the geyser.
He plunged into the darkness of the cave, Lila's hand finding his in the gloom.
"Welcome home, Dad," she said, her voice thick with an emotion he hadn't heard in years: hope.
He squeezed her hand, the Titanis Key a hard weight against his chest, the beacon in his arm still pulsing its emerald warning.
He was home.
And the real fight was just beginning.