The gray, silent valley had become a battlefield of the mind. Lament, the Prophet of Nothingness, stood before the black wound of the Static Node, her aura of peaceful despair washing over Ryan's team.
They were losing. Not their lives, but something far more important: their will to fight, their reason to exist.
Scarlett's hand, which was usually glued to her dagger, had fallen limply to her side. The fire in her eyes, the fierce spirit of a warrior who had faced down death a thousand times, had been reduced to a dull, smoky ember.
She stared blankly at the ground, the weight of a lifetime of battle suddenly too heavy to bear.
Zara, the brilliant scientist whose mind was a supernova of ideas, had her datapad hanging uselessly from her wrist. Her sharp, analytical gaze was gone, replaced by a vacant stare.
The infinite, fascinating puzzles of the universe now seemed like a pointless, unsolvable chore.
