“A thousand years, and you're still oversleeping... Master.”
The third dimensional yer was a strange pce—A liminal realm where time slowed to a near halt.Here, even thoughts took their time to echo, and the stars outside felt more like memories than light.
Nova Linker floated in stillness, her great wings folded, her crystal hull breathing faint pulses of Manatech energy.Moments ago, she had escaped annihition, diving between worlds and phasing just beyond the grasp of the Divine Order’s wrath.
Inside the ship, silence lingered.But not for long.
“Master,” AIRA-09 said, her voice low but ced with dry amusement,“Steam levels in the central lounge are slightly above threshold. Atmospheric regutors are struggling to maintain equilibrium.”
Master raised an eyebrow.“…Fire?”
AIRA nodded gently.“Confirmed.”
He said nothing more, but began walking.
They made their way through the quiet corridors of Nova Linker, where light danced like breath across the walls. Each step echoed with memory. The ship had been dormant for centuries, but every hallway still remembered the ones who had walked it.
The doors to the central lounge slid open with a heavy hiss.A wave of crimson mist rolled outward—warm, thick, and alive.
Inside, heat shimmered from the floor like desert mirages.And in the center of it—
She waited.
Seated cross-legged atop a glowing mana pad, her body wreathed in fme, was the woman once known as FIRE.
Her armor still bore the scorch marks of battle. Her gauntlets cracked with residual charge. Her long red hair swirled faintly in the heat, embers drifting like lost stars around her.
When she looked up, the room responded.The temperature spiked.Not from power—From emotion.
“Well, well…” she said, raising one eyebrow and fshing a sharp grin.“Sleeping Beauty awakens.”
Master exhaled, a breath heavy with everything unsaid.“You haven’t changed.”
“Oh, I have,” she replied softly.
She stood.One slow step after another—until the space between them closed.Until the weight of what wasn’t said felt louder than any arm.
“I changed into someone who fought alone…for a thousand years.”
AIRA stood silently beside the panel, unmoving.She could sense the csh of emotions—the resonance of two souls too long apart.She didn’t interfere.
“I never meant to abandon you,” Master said.“When the systems colpsed… when the crew scattered… I—”
She raised a hand.He stopped.
“I know,” she said.Then, quieter—“But knowing doesn’t mean I’m not angry.”
A beat passed.Then another.
Finally, she let out a sharp exhale and waved her hand.The fmes softened, losing their edge.“Okay. Some of that heat’s melted now,” she said with a half-smile.“But tell me—why now? Who re-linked the core?”
AIRA stepped forward.“I did.Even in neural stasis, I maintained a link to the Core Chamber. I believed his signal would return.”
Fire studied her—calcuting, curious.
“…Not bad. You’ve grown sharper, AIRA.”
“Thank you,” the AI replied, bowing slightly.“But how did you know we woke?”
Fire tapped her armored fingers to her chest—right over her heart.“Because I never truly disconnected.The core of my fme held the link.I buried it deep… but it never left me.”
Her voice grew soft.“And the moment he—” she gnced toward Master—“lit that wave again… I felt it in my bones.”
Master gave a faint smile—fleeting, but real.“…Still in time?”
Fire crossed her arms, letting out a quiet ugh.“Depends…on whether you can wake the others.”
AIRA turned toward the main dispy console.“Sensors just registered a faint pulse from Shadow Core Channel 03.”
She looked back at them.“Another Shadow Linker is stirring.”
The air shifted.The moment hung still between the three of them.
Master.AIRA.Fire.
Each of them had walked a thousand-year silence alone.Each had waited for something no god ever gave them:A reason to come back.
Now, standing together in the dark,they had that reason again.
Not from faith.Not from fate.
But from each other.
Within the stillness of dimensional space,the first fme had returned.
And soon—it would guide them to the next shadow.
