Echoes of the Nexus

The station trembled, metal groaning under the strain of unseen forces. The alarms screamed, their shrill wails blending with the frantic shouts of officers across the comms.

Elias's breath hitched as he watched the anomaly ripple and expand, its distortions spreading like a virus through the docking bay. It wasn't just warping space—it was consuming it.

Roarke barked orders into his wrist communicator. "Lock down Docking Bay Four! Activate emergency bulkheads and divert power to containment fields!"

The officer's response was laced with static. "Sir, the fields are failing. It's—" The transmission cut off abruptly.

Sienna's hands clenched into fists. "Elias… it's growing."

He could see it. The ripple—no, the breach—had started as an invisible tear in space. Now, tendrils of darkness seeped outward, crackling with golden and violet energy, as though two forces were warring for control.

LUX's voice came through the station's speakers, its usual calm tone edged with something Elias had never heard before—uncertainty.

"Analyzing... Error. Entity does not conform to known universal constants. Predictive modeling impossible."

Roarke turned sharply toward Elias. "You said The Nexus was a seal. Tell me exactly what the hell we're dealing with."

Elias forced himself to focus. His mind flashed back to the visions—the war, the Forgotten, the collapsing barriers between realities. He exhaled sharply.

"It's not just an anomaly," he said. "It's a breach between dimensions. The Nexus kept something contained, and now part of it has latched onto our reality."

Sienna's voice was tight. "You mean we let it in."

A deep vibration pulsed through the station, rattling the walls. Below, in the docking bay, the breach lurched, its shape fluctuating. Then—

Something stepped through.

A figure.

At first, it was just a silhouette, blacker than the void of space, shifting and unstable. Then, in an impossible motion, it snapped into clarity.

It looked human.

Tall. Thin. Clad in something resembling a suit of obsidian armor, etched with pulsating veins of violet light. Its face was obscured by a smooth, featureless mask—except for two deep indentations where eyes should have been.

Elias felt an overwhelming pressure in his skull. The thing wasn't just standing there.

It was looking at him.

The station's lights flickered again. The hum of its systems faltered. For a brief moment, Elias could have sworn the entire space station stopped existing—as if reality itself had momentarily stuttered.

Then the entity moved.

Not by walking—by phasing. One moment it was in the docking bay. The next, it was inside the observation chamber.

Sienna gasped, stumbling backward. Roarke reached for his sidearm, but before he could raise it—

The entity spoke.

"You should not have returned."

Its voice was not a sound, but an intrusion—a presence inside Elias's mind, cold and absolute.

Roarke gritted his teeth, aiming his weapon. "You have five seconds to explain what the hell you are before I blow you out of that stolen body."

The entity did not react. Instead, it tilted its head slightly, as if studying them.

"You call us the Forgotten. But we are not forgotten. We are waiting."

Elias's heart pounded. "Waiting for what?"

The entity turned toward him.

"For the seal to break."

A pulse of violet energy erupted from its body, slamming into the walls of the chamber. The force sent Roarke crashing into the console, lights bursting in a shower of sparks.

Elias hit the floor, his vision spinning. He struggled to rise, his limbs feeling disconnected from reality itself. The entity loomed over him, those hollow indentations in its mask narrowing.

"You are the key. And now, the door has been unlocked."

Elias barely had time to register the words before his mind was pulled outward—into something vast.

Endless.

And waiting.