Location: The Dream-Grid / Ayla's subconscious link to Rin
The world was a sea of white and gold.
Light shimmered without a source, and shadows curled unnaturally along the edges like cracks in glass. Ayla walked barefoot, each step sending ripples across the endless floor. The silence here wasn't peaceful—it was the kind that listened back.
"Rin…?" she called out softly.
For a moment, there was no reply. Just the echo of her own voice, looping back at her.
Then—
A flicker.
A figure appeared several paces ahead. White armor fractured with black void-lines, helm tilted toward the ground. His visor pulsed faintly, as if struggling to stay lit.
"Ayla…"
His voice was faint, like a broadcast through static. "You… shouldn't be here."
She stepped forward without hesitation. "Too bad. You've been haunting my sleep for weeks, Silent Light. So you are alive."
His head lifted slightly. "Alive is… not the word. I am… bound. The Grid holds me. I cannot… leave."
"You're gonna have to try," she shot back, masking the hitch in her throat with her usual bravado. "The others are coming for you. We've got this relic thing—Keystone something—Mira says it'll work."
Rin went silent for a beat. Then:
"…You're not listening."
The light around them dimmed.
"They're coming. Not the ones you've fought before. Not Omega. Not echoes of the Grid.
Something older. Something hungrier.
If you bring the Keystone here… they will smell it. They will come."
Ayla's lips pressed tight. "Then we beat them too."
But Rin didn't answer. He just began to fade.
"Ayla—don't trust the—"
And then he was gone.
The silence swallowed her whole.
Chapter Two – Hunt for the Keystone
Location: Timeline Sigma-9 / The Dead Orchard
The fissure spat the four Rangers into a dead forest where trees had turned to petrified bone. Winds howled through hollow trunks like a chorus of ghosts.
Thorne tightened his grip on his axe. "Cheery place."
Mira adjusted her visor. "The Keystone is buried somewhere beneath this sector. My scans say—"
Her words cut off as a low, inhuman growl rolled through the fog.
From between the trees, shapes began to move—long, spindly silhouettes with too many joints, their faces hidden beneath bone masks carved into eternal screams.
Kael stepped forward, unsheathing his blade. "Locals?"
Mira's voice sharpened. "No. These aren't native to Sigma-9."
Ayla landed beside them, still shaken from her dream but masking it with a smirk. "Guess Rin forgot to send us a welcome banner."
One of the creatures lurched forward, moving in unnatural, jerking motions. Then another. And another. Soon dozens surrounded them, their eyes glowing amber, not red like Grid corruption.
Thorne muttered, "Amber Eyes. Haven't heard that name since—"
He didn't finish.
The creatures screeched and charged.
"RANGERS, MORPH!" Kael barked.
Energy flared in a cascade of colors—Red, Blue, Yellow, Black—illuminating the skeletal forest. Steel clashed with bone. Sparks exploded in arcs. Ayla weaved between two attackers, using her speed to vault over a branch and slam her weapon into a mask, shattering it to dust.
Kael fought like a storm, blade cutting precise arcs. Mira blasted from range, freezing and shattering multiple enemies. Thorne carved brutal sweeps through the horde, using sheer force to break their advance.
But for every one they cut down, more emerged.
Then—
A shadow fell across the battlefield.
A tall figure stepped through the fog, wrapped in black and amber robes, face hidden by a smooth mask marked with a single vertical slash. In one hand, he held a staff tipped with a pulsing amber crystal.
His voice was calm. Too calm.
"The Grid fractures further with every beat of your hearts. And you… bring me the Keystone."
Kael's grip tightened. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted his head. "Names are for those who wish to be remembered. You may call me… the Warden."
The Amber Eyes bowed low, as if to a king.
And Ayla—standing in the shadows behind her teammates—heard Rin's voice in her mind again.
"That's them."
_________