There was no light.
There was only impact.
Seren hit something that wasn't a surface so much as a concept—a boundary made of stars and heartbeat and the shockwave of a story being rewritten mid-sentence.
And someone slammed into it with her.
Lotor.
Their collision wasn't physical. Not really.
It was more like two frequencies crashing together at incompatible volumes.
White flooded her vision.
Static screamed in her ears.
Her soulbond flared—
—and then suddenly everything snapped into focus.
She was standing in space.
Or something like space. A luminous void where nebulae curled like watercolor smoke. Rivers of quintessence arced and flowed, forming impossible structures, fractal spirals, constellations that breathed.
Seren staggered. "What—where—"
A hand closed around her wrist.
Her breath caught.
Lotor stood inches away.
He was… wrong. Or right. Or raw.
His form flickered between:
* armored prince,
* glowing silhouette,
* and outline made of pale cosmic fire.
His golden eyes burned brighter than any star in the void.
And still, even half-unraveled, he looked at her like she was the only stable thing in existence.
"Do not move," he hissed.
Seren froze. Mostly because he was gripping her wrist with a possessive intensity that would have been alarming if she could feel anything besides the overwhelming pressure of everything.
"What is this place?" she whispered.
Lotor's gaze dragged across the void. "A fold. A crack between realities. The lions do not create such places lightly."
He looked back at her.
"And they certainly do not pull strangers here."
Seren swallowed. "I didn't ask to be pulled here."
"No," he murmured, voice colder. "But the bond did."
Her heart tripped.
Lotor stepped closer. The void pulsed with him, like it recognized his quintessence.
"You feel it too," he said, voice low. "A tether. A call. A violation of natural law."
Seren tried to pull her wrist free—bad idea. His grip tightened like iron.
"Let go of me now or I'll make you regret it."
His golden gaze flashed. "I cannot," Lotor bit out. "Something has tied us. Something ancient. Something stronger than will."
His gaze sharpened, intense enough to cut.
"You know what it is."
Seren's mind floundered. She made a strangled noise that might have been a laugh. "If I tell you the truth, you're going to think I'm insane."
Lotor leaned in, eyes bright with fury and something else—something she did not want to name.
"I already think you are impossible. Insane is a mild escalation."
The void rippled.
A pulse radiated outward from him—no, from them—like two frequencies struggling to synchronize.
Seren's knees buckled.
Lotor's hand shot to her shoulder to keep her upright. His voice dropped, a whisper edged in strain.
"The bond is trying to complete itself."
"i hardly know you..."
"It is trying to merge our quintessence fields. That is not a natural process. That is something you do to… to…"
He trailed off.
Seren's throat dried. "A mate?"
Both staggered as a wave of quintessence crashed through their bodies, shaking the void.
Seren gasped.
"I didn't want this..."
Lotor swore viciously.
Seren let out a cold laugh, "And you think I did. The whole reason I retired back in my world early was so I could settle down...I wanted someone to cherish me not hate me or wish to use me as a weapon."
The soulbond snapped taut—hard enough to yank both of them forward, collision-bringing them chest-to-chest.
Seren's breath hitched.
Lotor froze.
The void stilled.
For one long, suspended moment, they were locked together by a force older than galaxies.
His voice, when he finally spoke, was a whisper scraped raw:
"…what are you?"
Seren stared up at him, feeling the bond hum like a live wire beneath her ribs.
She should lie.
She should deflect.
She should do anything but tell him the truth.
Instead, she whispered:
"Someone who was never meant to exist in your story."
Lotor's expression shattered—rage, shock, realization—and then something spiraled through the bond with terrifying intensity.
Recognition.
Not memory.
Recognition.
"You," he breathed. "You are the reason everything is… shifting."
Seren took a shaky breath. "Not by choice, I assure you—"
"You arrived and the universe changed. Every thread leads to you."
He raised his free hand, fingers trembling, and touched her cheek.
The moment he did—
The void detonated.
Quintessence surged through them like a star being born.
A echoing chime rang out:
[SOULBOND STABILIZING]
[QUINTESSENCE LINK ESTABLISHED]
[MATE PRIORITY: LOTOR (1/3)]
[WARNING: FULL MERGE DELAYED — ANCHOR FRACTURED]
Seren and Lotor screamed as it felt they were being merged together and ripped apart at the same time.
Their voices overlapped as the void collapsed inward, dragging them out through a hole in reality—and back toward the physical world.
Toward the Paladins.
Toward the Blue Lion.
Toward the consequences.
Light swallowed them both whole.