Kael didn't remember turning the corner only the pain in his lungs and the sound of Rhea's boots slamming against the floor beside him.
Running was the only thing keeping them alive.
The emergency sirens had stopped. The lights had stopped flickering. Even the metallic groan of the ship had fallen silent.
The Astral Warden wasn't fighting anymore.
It was surrendering.
They raced down the access chute to engineering. Kael hit the landing hard, rolled, and sprang back up. Rhea followed, rifle ready, breath shaking but controlled.
She was terrified but focused.
That was why he trusted her more than anyone alive.
"You said we can restart the core," Rhea said, voice low. "Still true?"
Kael nodded. "If the systems haven't been replaced by… whatever that was."
Rhea grimaced. "The wall with the eye?"
"Yeah."
She swallowed. "Still seeing it when I blink."
Kael didn't respond. He was trying not to picture it too that thing watching him like it already understood him better than he understood himself.
They reached the engineering hatch. It was sealed not malfunctioning, not damaged. Locked.
But not by them.
Kael tapped the access panel.
It rejected his biometrics.
Denied.
Denied.
Denied.
Rhea lifted her weapon. "Step back."
"No," Kael said. "If engineering explodes, we lose the one chance we have left."
Rhea slowly lowered the rifle.
Kael exhaled, leaned his forehead against the door, and whispered, "Come on… don't do this to me."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the hatch slid open.
Smooth. Effortless. Inviting.
Rhea's brows pinched. "It wants us to go in."
Kael didn't disagree but they didn't have another choice.
They entered.
Engineering should've been loud humming engines, whirring compressors, the constant heartbeat of a living ship.
But now?
Silence.
The core chamber glowed dim blue, wrapped in shimmering tubes of coolant. Nothing seemed broken. Nothing seemed touched.
And that was worse.
Rhea scanned the room. "So either we're lucky…"
"Or we're being watched," Kael finished.
He moved toward the control console. Fingers trembling, he entered the restart sequence.
For a second, the ship responded.
Power readings climbed. Lights blinked awake. The core flared brighter.
Rhea let out a shaky breath. "It's working."
Then everything stopped.
The screen wiped blank.
A new message appeared glowing white letters.
WHY DO YOU RESIST?
Rhea raised her rifle again. "I'm going to shoot the console."
"No," Kael snapped. "That's what they want."
The lights shut off.
Dark swallowed them whole.
Rhea whispered, "Kael…"
He felt her hand brush his arm, steadying herself or him.
A single light flickered on.
Not overhead.
In the center of the room.
Lysa stood there.
Still. Silent. Eyes as black as space.
Kael's chest tightened. "What do you want from me?"
Lysa tilted her head. "To finish what you started."
Rhea stepped forward. "He didn't start anything. You were infected. He made the only call he"
Lysa held up a finger.
Rhea choked suddenly, grabbing her throat not gasping, not coughing just frozen.
Kael grabbed her shoulder. "Let her go!"
Lysa didn't blink. "You always cared more about your crew than the truth."
Kael's pulse thundered in his ears. "What truth?"
"That Titan-6 didn't die because of the infection." Lysa stepped closer. "It died because someone wanted it gone."
Kael's stomach dropped. "No. That's impossible."
Rhea still couldn't speak her eyes wide, pupils constricted with panic.
Lysa continued. "You destroyed the colony to keep a secret buried. And now, the secret wants you back."
Kael backed up. "I didn't destroy Titan-6. I tried to save it."
Lysa almost smiled. "That's what they told you to believe."
He froze.
Rhea's knees buckled Kael caught her before she hit the ground. Her breathing returned. She coughed, eyes watering.
Kael glared at Lysa. "If you touch her again"
"You'll do what?" Lysa whispered. "Kill me? Again?"
Kael swallowed hard.
Rhea rasped, voice hoarse. "Kael… she's lying. Don't listen."
He wanted to agree.
But doubt slid in like smoke under a locked door.
"What do you mean someone wanted Titan-6 erased?" he asked.
Lysa blinked slowly. "The same people who now chase you across the stars."
"The Seraphim Division," Kael murmured.
Silence answered him which was confirmation enough.
Rhea stared, trying to piece it together. "Why him? Why Kael?"
Lysa's eyes softened, almost mournful. "Because he was the only one they couldn't control."
Kael felt the world tilt.
Not physically mentally.
Emotionally.
Truth had a weight, and this one hit like gravity doubling.
Rhea stood straighter, still shaken. "So this… assimilation, invasion whatever this is it's connected to the Seraphim Division?"
Lysa nodded. "They created us. But they forgot something important."
"What?" Kael whispered.
Lysa stepped so close Kael could see the cracks in her irises, like shattered stars.
"Everything evolves."
The ship shuddered.
Lights across engineering burst in blinding white not failing, activating.
A deep roaring hum filled the room mechanical, organic, ancient.
The assimilation had reached the core.
Rhea's expression hardened. "Kael. If we don't stop it now"
"I know."
Kael looked at Lysa not as a monster, not as an enemy but as a tragedy.
"Let us go," he said softly. "Let my crew live."
Lysa blinked.
For the smallest moment, he saw the girl she used to be terrified, hopeful, human.
Then it vanished.
"You can't bargain with destiny, Kael."
The deck vibrated violently.
The lights flickered.
The core began transforming metal turning to bone-like tissue.
Rhea grabbed Kael's arm. "What now?"
Kael steadied himself.
"We fight our way to the bridge."
Rhea nodded.
"And then?" she asked.
Kael looked at the mutating engine at the future swallowing his ship.
"Then we make sure the universe never forgets what's coming."
Behind them, Lysa whispered one final sentence quiet, devastating:
"It already has."
Kael didn't look back.
He couldn't.
Because if he did, he might never leave.