They leave Terminal Zero at dawn.
Twenty-six fighters. Walking out the exit. Into Boston. Into reality. Into morning light that feels wrong after so long in Gothic darkness.
Arden breathes real air. Tastes it. Smells car exhaust and coffee and rain coming. Real smells. Not Entity smells. Not Station smells.
Real.
She doesn't remember the last time she was in reality. Doesn't remember much of anything. But this. This feels different. Important.
Kael walks beside her. The man whose name she keeps forgetting. Keeps having to check her phone for. Notes app. Reminders.
KAEL DRAVEN. Dark hair. Sad eyes. He loves you. You forgot him. He stayed anyway.
She reads it. Closes the phone. Looks at him.
"Kael," she says. Testing the name. "That's you."
"That's me."
"I'm sorry I keep forgetting."
"Don't be." He touches her arm. Brief. Gentle. "You're still here. Still fighting. That's what matters."
Riley leads them. Seventeen. Blonde. Determined. General of an army too young to drink.
