"Okay, so not to alarm anyone," Juno whispered, "but I think I just saw Liam on a security feed… and he's shirtless."
Nova nearly dropped the data core she was decrypting. "Where?"
"Sector 14. Old medical wing. Looks like he's using it as a hideout. And yeah, definitely shirtless. Like, distractingly shirtless."
"Juno," Rhea said flatly, "focus."
"I am focused. I'm focusing very hard on Liam's tactical pecs. For science."
Nova stood up, ignoring the rising heat in her face. "We need to go. Now."
Rhea didn't argue. Kairo simply stood, checked his pulse rifle, and said, "We shouldn't all go in. He may be unstable."
Nova shot him a glare sharp enough to slice tungsten. "We're all unstable. He's just the one bleeding style points."
The old med wing was dark and rotting, its white walls stained with Vector decay residual plasma scars from long-forgotten experiments. When Nova entered, she saw Liam instantly. Not just because he was, in fact, shirtless, but because he was standing in front of a flickering terminal with blood trailing down his back and hands clenched so tightly, his knuckles looked like they might split open.
"Liam," she said softly.
He didn't turn. "Did Zorren send you to bring me back?"
"No. I came because…" She hesitated. "Because I needed to see you."
He laughed, but it was hollow. "Great. Welcome to my mental breakdown. Population: one and a half braincells."
She stepped closer. "What happened to you?"
Liam finally turned, and for a moment, she saw it the cracks. Not physical ones. Deeper. In his eyes. His voice. The way he carried himself like something inside him was burning too bright to contain.
"They showed me," he said. "In the Spire. Not just who I am. What I am."
Nova's mouth was dry. "Tell me."
He looked at her for a long time, eyes searching, uncertain.
"I'm a failsafe. Vex built me to reset the world if everything else failed. A living Singularity. The moment my heart syncs with the anomaly threshold, I'll trigger a cascade. Reality will fold in on itself. Boom. Restart. New timeline. Clean slate."
Nova's breath hitched. "That's… insane."
"I know. So naturally, Zorren kept it quiet. I'm starting to think he's not great with transparency."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Liam's voice dropped. "Because the second I do, I stop being your teammate. I become the target."
Nova walked to him and touched his hand. "You'll never be a target to me."
He looked down at their hands, and for a moment, just a moment it felt normal. Like maybe he wasn't a walking doomsday device. Like maybe someone could still reach him.
And then the projector on the terminal clicked, and a recorded image filled the room.
It was Cyn Dravus.
He was younger in the video. Less dead-eyed. Speaking directly to the camera.
"If you're watching this," he said, "then the Haldran Prototype has breached containment. You are to engage Protocol Zero. Terminate the subject before Phase Two begins. No exceptions."
Nova's hand slipped away from Liam's.
Her eyes widened.
"Cyn…"
"I know," Liam said, voice tight. "He trained me. He taught me control. Discipline. Hell, he taught me how to break someone's spine using a spoon."
"Charming."
"But he also built the kill switch into my spinal cord."
Nova stepped back, breathing uneven.
"I'm not your enemy, Nova."
"I know."
"But you're wondering if I will be."
She didn't answer.
Didn't have to.
Because somewhere deep inside them both, they could feel it: the pulse.
The second heartbeat.
Louder now.
Calling.
"Come with me," Liam said. "Let's find the truth. Not the version they gave us. The real one."
"I can't," Nova whispered. "If I disappear now, Zorren will activate the Protocol."
Liam stepped forward. "Then we bring it down. Together."
She wanted to say yes.
God, she wanted to.
But fear wrapped around her words like barbed wire. "If I go with you… and you change…"
"Then shoot me."
She looked up sharply.
"I mean it," Liam said. "If I become him… stop me. I'd rather die as myself than live as Vex's echo."
Juno's voice suddenly crackled in both their comms. "Uh, not to interrupt your emotionally-loaded soap opera moment, but someone just triggered the Blackreach failsafe."
Nova paled. "What?"
"Translation," Juno said. "You've got about five minutes before Zorren locks down the entire base and sends Cyn to snap Liam like a glowstick."
Liam grabbed Nova's hand. "Decide now."
She didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Then quietly, firmly, she said, "Run."
And they did.
Together.
Through the old corridors, past dying lights, toward whatever future they were about to set on fire.
Because the Crown was awake.
And now?
So were they.