The ship drifted through the black ocean of space, engines humming like a wounded animal, hull still glowing from the warship battle. Inside, the crew moved with silent panic, whispering, arguing, pacing. No one dared approach the med chamber except one person.

  AUREN.

  He sat beside the metal slab where Lassie lay—motionless, pale, wrapped in soft blue light. He hadn’t moved for hours. His fingers rested near hers, but never touching, as if he feared she might shatter.

  Tina stood at the doorway, wringing her hands. “She should’ve woken by now…”

  Rix paced behind her. “No normal human survives channeling power like that. Lassie wasn’t just unconscious—she was possessed by something.”

  “And that something spoke runes,” Mira muttered, tapping at her tablet. “Auren’s runes.”

  Auren finally lifted his head.

  His voice was low, dull.

  “What did she say?”

  Mira swallowed. “Auren… the runes she used weren’t human. They weren’t digital. They match the seals—those cosmic locks the beings mentioned.”

  Auren’s eyes flickered, glowing faintly.

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning…” Mira took a breath, “Lassie is tied to whatever imprisons you.”

  Silence.

  The ship vibrated—once.

  Twice.

  A deep rumble like something outside was circling.

  Tina glanced at the ceiling. “What was that…?”

  Then—

  Lassie gasped.

  Lights exploded across her skin like constellations forming under her flesh. Her eyes snapped open—brilliant white, no pupils, no color. She sat upright with inhuman speed, ribs cracking into place, breathing like someone who had been drowning for centuries.

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  Everyone froze.

  Auren stood abruptly. “Lassie…?”

  She didn’t look at him. Instead, she tilted her head as if listening to someone beside her—someone no one else could see.

  Then she spoke—not in English, not in any known language—but in the rune-tongue.

  The air itself trembled as she uttered it:

  “????… ?????? ??????.”

  Auren felt the words hit him like a physical force.

  Everything went still.

  “Lassie…” he whispered. “Who are you talking to?”

  Her eyes focused slowly on him—as if returning from a long, deep place.

  Then she answered in a voice that wasn’t fully her own:

  “He says… he’s been waiting for you.”

  The crew exchanged terrified glances.

  “Who?” Mira whispered.

  Lassie’s gaze drifted to the ceiling, as if staring through the ship’s metal skin into the infinite void.

  Her voice went cold.

  Almost ancient.

  “??????.”

  Auren’s breath caught.

  The name burned in his chest like a brand.

  Before anyone could speak, the ship trembled violently—this time not from Lassie.

  A signature appeared on Mira’s scanner.

  Massive.

  Approaching fast.

  Rix read it aloud with shaking hands:

  “…that’s impossible… that’s— that’s Raelux’s energy.”

  Tina backed away from Lassie. “Then he’s here.”

  The lights in the med bay flickered.

  Lassie slowly turned her glowing eyes toward Auren, and for the first time since she woke, her true voice slipped through the possession:

  “Auren… I saw something. In the runes. In the void. I saw his memories.”

  Auren stepped closer.

  “What did you see?”

  Lassie’s lips trembled.

  She whispered:

  “He wasn’t made to kill you… He was made to replace you. They built him from your punishment. Your suffering. Your broken pieces.”

  Auren’s stomach twisted.

  Lassie continued—voice cracking:

  “And the worst part?

  The defective part you sensed in him?

  That’s not a flaw.”

  Her glowing eyes dimmed with sorrow as she finished:

  “It’s the part of him that still remembers loving you.”

  Auren staggered back.

  Then—

  BOOM.

  A colossal shadow swept over the ship, blocking starlight.

  Raelux had arrived.

  His voice echoed through the hull, vibrating metal, shaking bones:

  “AUREN!

  COME OUT AND FACE WHAT YOUR EXISTENCE BROKE!”

  The crew froze.

  Every hair on their bodies rose.

  Auren’s eyes began to glow violently.

  Lassie grabbed his wrist with superhuman force.

  “Auren—listen,” she whispered. “He’s stronger than last time. Something… someone… is feeding him.”

  Auren’s jaw tightened into steel.

  “Then I’ll tear out the source.”

  He moved toward the exit.

  The crew followed.

  Lassie watched him go, whispering the last thing only Auren could hear:

  “Don’t kill him in anger. He carries your pain too.”

  Auren paused.

  Then he stepped into the corridor—toward the monster made in his image, forged from his torture.

  And the universe trembled.