[OPENING SCENE – THE OTHER SIDE]
There is no time here. No sky. No sound. Just a gentle pulse — like breathing light. In this place, formed from memory and warmth, two figures sit across from each other. Mira and Niko. Dressed in their Vanguard uniforms, glowing faintly, like echoes softened by time.
Mira: (looking around) This doesn't feel like death.
Niko: It feels like… a dream someone keeps remembering.
Mira: (smiling softly) Or refusing to forget.
They sit by a soft, endless pool. Their reflections flicker — sometimes their old selves, sometimes kids laughing, sometimes strangers made of starlight.
Niko: Do you think they're okay?
Mira: Kael? Yuna? Tari? Yeah. Even Aurix — he's probably still yelling about protocol.
Niko: (grins) And Echo-7's probably calculating the probability of me still being clumsy.
Mira: Veya's sharp. I like her. There's a fire in her she hasn't named yet.
Niko: Just like you once had.
Mira: Just like we all did.
[FLASH OF MEMORY — MIRA'S LAUGH, TEAM DINNER]
They see the dinner from Episode 11. Mira's shard with the flower crown. Yuna's trembling hands. Kael's long silence. Echo-7's projection of Niko dancing terribly. The soundless memory glows like a firefly in the dark.
Mira: They carry us.
Niko: Like a song hummed in grief. Or joy.
Mira: That's what the Oath is, isn't it? Not the fight… the remembering.
[FLASH OF MEMORY — NIKO'S FINAL PHASE ATTACK]
Niko watches his final moment. Light bursting from his chest. The look in Shard's eyes. The cost. The silence afterward.
Niko: I thought it would feel… heavier.
Mira: It does. But only for those still holding on.
They sit again, side by side, a peace blanketing them like warm snow.
Niko: This is it then. No second act. Just us.
Mira: (nods) Not so bad. No war. No fear. No mission updates every 30 minutes.
Niko: No Kael dragging us into training at sunrise.
Mira: (laughs) I miss that.
[SCENE – THE POOL BEGINS TO GLOW]
They dangle their feet into the light-water. Above them, the sky shifts — not blue, but a canvas of drifting memory-stars. Each one whispers a name: Lukas. Bee. Enzo. Raver. All those who walked before.
Mira: I like it here.
Niko: Me too.
Mira: It's quiet. But it doesn't feel empty.
Niko: And there's still enough sound left to laugh.
He splashes her. She splashes back. They collapse onto the glowing grass, hair fanned out like halos, breathless with laughter.
Mira: Think they'll tell our story?
Niko: They already are. You're in murals. I'm in scrapbooks.
Mira: (mocking) And what about your dancing?
Niko: Tragically eternal.
[SCENE — MEMORY TREE BLOOMS BEHIND THEM]
A soft tree, made of crystal and stardust, grows behind them. On each branch, a tiny glowing sigil: a moment from the world they left. Yuna's new garden. Veya training. Kael lighting a lantern at night.
Mira: They're not letting go. Not yet.
Niko: We're part of them now. And they're part of us.
They sit quietly. No urgency. No fear. Only light moving softly around them.
[CLOSING SCENE – THE OTHER SIDE STRETCHES ENDLESSLY]
Mira and Niko lie back, hand in hand, side by side. No more battles. No more running. Just the eternal hush after the storm.
Mira: This is the part they never write about.
Niko: The part after the heroes fall… and still shine.
Mira: I think we finally earned this peace.
Above them, stars drift like petals. Somewhere, a faint laugh echoes — not from either of them, but from memory itself. A final warmth carries across eternity.
[END]