Kaelen woke to silence.
Not the cold chamber silence of the sphere, but something worse—familiar. He blinked rapidly, his heart pounding as his surroundings sharpened into focus.
He was standing in the lecture hall of Helion Academy, Earth's most prestigious research institute. The same place he had once taught, before leaving it all behind. Students filled the seats, watching him expectantly.
On the podium before him lay the obsidian crystal.
A voice whispered from nowhere and everywhere:
"Stay, and all you seek is yours. Leave, and all you love is lost."
Kaelen froze. This wasn't real—it couldn't be. But the smell of chalk dust, the low hum of the lecture lights, the weight of his old coat on his shoulders… it was too perfect.
From the front row, a figure raised her head. His sister. Alive. Smiling. Exactly as she had looked the day he'd left Earth.
Kaelen's throat closed. "No… this isn't possible."
The students' faces blurred, melting into shadows. Only his sister remained, her eyes soft.
"Stay, Kaelen. You've chased enough. Be with me. Be happy."
His legs buckled. His obsession screamed to reject it, but his heart—his heart ached to believe.
---
Lyra's eyes snapped open to the sound of gunfire.
She was back on the battlefield of the Outer Belt. Smoke filled her lungs, her unit's insignia burning on the flags around her. Her blaster felt heavy in her hands, as if she'd never left this war.
And in front of her—her squad. The soldiers she'd abandoned to save herself.
They weren't dead here. They were alive, fighting, calling for her.
"Lieutenant Drax! Hold the line! We need you!"
Her chest tightened. She wanted to scream that this wasn't real, that she had tried—hadn't she? But when her eyes met theirs, they weren't filled with blame. They were filled with trust.
Trust she hadn't earned.
"Lyra," a familiar voice barked. Her old commander stepped through the smoke, battle-worn but unbroken. "You left us once. Don't do it again."
She raised her blaster, hands shaking. "You're not real. You're dead."
But her commander's eyes burned into hers. "Maybe. But the question is—what does that make you?"
---
Across two different realities, Kaelen and Lyra struggled. The sphere wasn't testing their trust in each other anymore—it was testing their truths, their deepest scars.
And as the illusions deepened, a faint, ghostly thread of connection tugged at both of them. A whisper, barely audible, weaving through the false worlds:
"Find each other. Or be lost."
---