Location: Timeline Sigma-9 / The Dead Orchard
The wind cut like glass.
Kael's boots crunched over brittle bones as he took one slow step toward the masked figure. His visor reflected the amber glow pulsing from the Warden's staff.
Kael: "You've got about five seconds to tell us what you want before I stop asking nicely."
The Warden's head tilted slightly, as though studying him.
Warden: "I do not want. I collect. And the Keystone… will complete my set."
He tapped his staff to the ground, and the air rippled like disturbed water. The Amber Eyes froze mid-motion, their bodies shuddering.
Mira's gaze narrowed, scanning the energy signature.
Mira: "He's… tethering them. Direct Grid manipulation, but it's not corruption. It's older than the Grid itself."
Thorne swung his axe over his shoulder, eyeing the Amber Eyes.
Thorne: "Older than the Grid? I'm getting real tired of things that aren't supposed to exist showing up to kill us."
Ayla stepped forward, twirling her bladed staff, her voice light but her grip tight.
Ayla: "Yeah, well, he's not getting Rin. Or the Keystone. And definitely not my autograph."
The Warden's mask turned toward her. He didn't move closer, but the air around her seemed to constrict, as if invisible fingers curled around her throat.
Warden: "The White one. Still anchored within the Lattice of Light. If I pull the thread, he unravels. And you—"
He paused, almost amused.
"You're already unraveling, girl."
Ayla's smirk faltered just enough for Kael to notice. He stepped forward, placing himself between her and the Warden.
Kael: "Back off."
The Warden ignored him, lifting his staff slightly. The Amber crystal at its tip flared—and in that instant, dozens of Amber Eyes shrieked and charged.
The Fight
Kael roared, driving forward to meet the charge, blade cutting clean through the first wave. Thorne followed in a brutal arc, his axe sending three masks shattering. Mira fired precise energy bursts, her shots ricocheting off petrified branches to strike the creatures from angles they didn't expect.
Ayla was everywhere at once—spinning, vaulting, slashing—but her mind kept flashing back to Rin's voice in the Dream-Grid.
That's them…
The Warden didn't fight directly. He simply watched, staff humming softly, as if this battle was nothing more than a test.
The Shift
Halfway through the fight, Kael noticed it—the Amber Eyes weren't dying. Every time one fell, its bones reformed in the fog, snapping back together like a nightmare rewinding.
Kael: "They're looping! We're not clearing them fast enough!"
Mira: "No, it's worse—they're drawing energy from us. Every strike we make fuels them."
Thorne's jaw clenched. "Then how do we win?"
Before anyone could answer, the Warden raised his staff again—and the Amber Eyes froze in place.
Warden: "Enough. I see your shapes, your flaws, your fractures. You are not worth destroying… yet."
The ground beneath the Warden fractured like glass, light spilling from the cracks. The Amber Eyes sank into it, vanishing into the glow.
The Warden stepped back into the light, pausing just long enough to leave a final warning.
Warden: "Find your relic. Free your White Ranger. But know this—the Keystone is not a key. It is a lock. And locks are meant to be broken."
And with that, he was gone.
Aftermath
The forest fell silent, save for the Rangers' ragged breathing.
Mira crouched, scanning the ground where the Warden vanished. "Energy residue matches nothing I've ever logged. He's not tied to any known timeline. Which means—"
Thorne: "Which means we just made another enemy. Great."
Ayla leaned against a petrified trunk, pretending to catch her breath, but her mind was still on Rin's faint voice. He'd warned her. She hadn't told the others yet—not the whole thing.
Kael sheathed his blade. "We still get the Keystone. We'll figure the rest out later."
Mira frowned. "Later might be too late."
No one argued.
They just kept walking—toward the buried relic, toward Rin's fading light, toward a storm they didn't yet understand.
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