Time: 09 // 20 Fade Location: The Thunderwave / The Inbetween

"Together," Wren commanded.

They didn't form a circle; they formed a circuit. Saje held the pulsing Harmonic Stone in the center. Sarode placed his hand over Saje's. Then Talia, Emerjn, Gwen, Romar, Irame, Hanjhit, Ouhan, and finally Wren.

They didn't push. They resonated.

"Open," they chanted as one.

The air inside the vehicle didn't just tear; it dissolved. A massive, swirling vortex of white light expanded from the Stone, swallowing them whole.

Time: Unknown Location: The True Inbetween / The Construct

They didn't land in a memory of Rulljah or a beach in Rajas. They landed in a Construct. It was a boundless expanse of white, speckled with floating colors all about. Not empty, but full of potential.

In the center of the void stood a figure made of starlight and mist.

"Val!" Saje shouted.

He didn't wait. He didn't think. He sprinted across the white void, his arms open, desperate to hold the person he thought he had lost forever. He reached out to pull Val into a crushing embrace.

Whoosh.

Saje stumbled forward, nearly falling onto his face. His arms closed around empty air.

He spun around. Val was standing right where he had passed through them. Saje’s chest heaved. He reached out a trembling hand, trying to touch Val’s cheek. His fingers passed through the mist, meeting only a cold, tingling static.

"I... I can't touch you," Saje whispered, looking at his hand in horror.

"I'm not really here, Saje," Val said, their voice echoing like a chorus of chimes. They looked down at their own translucent hands. "I dissolved. I am just a frequency now. A consciousness holding itself together by... I don't know, the universe?"

"But they are solid," Sarode said, walking up and pointing behind Val.

The mist parted. Six Figures stepped forward.

The Ancient Elders stood in a semi-circle. They were imposing, radiating raw elemental power, but they looked... real. They looked like the Ide they were when they died—flesh, bone, and elegant robes.

"This is their realm," Val explained, their form flickering like a candle in the wind. "They forged it with their bodies and energy. Their sacrifice molded everything here, including themselves."

The Ancient Spirit Elder, a figure whose face was a shifting nebula, stepped forward.

"You have broken the laws of nature to be here," the Elder boomed. "The Harmonic One hangs by a thread. But you..." The Elder looked at the group. "...your Court is chaos. And chaos is where creation begins. If you wish to save them, you must first become strong enough to hold them."

"How?" Sarode asked.

"We do not have time for lectures," the Elder said, raising a hand that was oozing with spirit energy. "We teach through action, through the very thing that powers our divine gifts. Emotion and Will! You will pair off, and we shall begin."

The white void shattered into localized biomes of intense energy. The team didn't just practice; they survived.

The Storm & The Resonance Saje and Hanjhit stood on a floating platform surrounded by a hurricane. The Ancient Storm Elder didn't speak; he simply threw lightning.

"Do not hide from the noise of my storm!" the Elder roared. "Be the noise!"

Saje closed his eyes. He didn't hum a lullaby this time. He opened his mouth and sang. It was a note so low it vibrated the marrow in their bones. He rubbed the air molecules together with his will, creating friction, heat, and then, CRACK.

A bolt of blue lightning erupted from Saje’s hands, shattering the Elder’s attack. Atmospheric Storm.

"High!" Hanjhit shouted, sprinting toward the edge.

He leaped off the platform. Mid-air, his form blurred. He didn't turn into the heavy Rhainava; he shrank, feathers bursting from his skin. He became a Faivan—a massive, sleek bird of prey. He screeched, a sonic blast that sounded almost like the large beast, deflected a gust of wind, then dove, shifting back into Ide form just in time to land a kick on a training dummy formed from clouds of storm, then shifting instantly into the Rhainava to crush it with spectral paws. Fluid Shifting.

In a jungle of hard-light, Talia was running. The Life Elder chased her with vines of pure energy.

"Stop running!" the Elder commanded. "Plant your feet!"

Talia skidded to a stop. She didn't summon flowers. She slammed her hands down. "Hungry!"

The ground erupted. Three massive Venuses—sentient, snapping traps with serrated thorns—burst forth, catching the Elder’s vines and chewing through them.

"I need fuel!" Talia gasped, draining her energy.

Emerjn stepped in. He didn't attack. He exhaled a massive cloud of blue mist. Hydro-Regeneration. As the mist touched Talia, her fatigue vanished almost instantly. Her plants grew larger, darker, stronger.

"Move!" Irame shouted. He turned the humidity in the air into a solid ramp of ice. Flash-Freezing. He slid along it at breakneck speed, forming daggers of hail in his hands, flanking the target while Emerjn kept them shielded.

The Light Elder moved like a laser beam, firing volleys of energy at the trio.

"Too slow!" the Elder taunted.

Romar vanished. Perception Dilation. To him, the laser beams were crawling through the air. He casually walked between them, tapping the Elder’s shoulder before the first beam even hit the wall.

Gwen stood her ground. As a massive blast of plasma approached, she didn't dodge. She raised her hands, summoning a prism-shield. The plasma hit, fractured, and shot back out as a thousand tiny lasers. Behind her, she conjured a Hard-Light Mirage—an army of Romars that confused the Elder’s targeting.

Wren watched it all. "Inefficient," she stated.

She activated the Chronos-Sphere. A bubble of distorted space expanded around her. Inside, time crawled. She walked calmly through the chaos, shifting her armor density to 'Phantom'. The attacks passed harmlessly through her ghostly form. Then, she shifted to 'Tank', her fist becoming solid tungsten, and punched the air, sending a shockwave that knocked the targets flat. Wren looked at her hands, fear and curiosity plastered on her features.

Ouhan was nowhere to be seen. The Shadow Elder stood in a circle of darkness.

"You cannot hide from the dark," the Elder whispered.

"I am the dark," Ouhan’s voice came from the Elder’s own shadow.

Ouhan Shadow-Stepped, rising out of the floor behind the Elder. He grabbed a training dummy made of various elements and dragged it down into the ink, teleporting it across the void to drop it from the ceiling.

Sarode faced the Spirit Elder. The Elder threw a ball of white cosmic energy, speckled with prismatic colors.

Sarode didn't block. He caught it. But as it touched his hands, the white turned black. The Invert.

"Your strength is my ammo," Sarode snarled, spinning the energy back as a bolt of freezing void.

And Val?

Val floated in the center of the storm, watching their family. They saw Saje’s lightning, Talia’s vines, Wren’s time-bubble.

I am Water, Val thought. Water takes the shape of the container.

Val raised a hand. They mimicked Saje’s lightning using pressurized water. They mimicked Talia’s vines using tendrils of spirit. They mimicked Wren’s density using shadow.

Val was no longer just one element; they were the reflection of all of them.

The training stopped. The Elders gathered, looking at the panting, powerful team with approval.

"You are ready," the Spirit Elder announced. They turned to the team. "You have mastered your seats. You are now the Court of Twelve."

"But Val," Saje said, looking at the translucent spirit hovering nearby. "We still can't touch them. We can't take them back like this."

The Elder nodded solemnly. "The Harmonic One has no vessel. To leave this place without a body is to scatter into the wind."

"Wait," Val whispered. Their eyes, swirling like nebulas, widened. "The Harmonic Ritual... the one you showed me in the vision. It combines all elements to heal the planet, right?"

"Yes," the Elder confirmed. "It is a pouring of energy."

"What if we don't pour it into the planet?" Val asked, drifting closer to the team. "What if we poured enough of it into a single point? What if we pour it into me?"

The Elders looked at each other.

"To forge a body of pure will..." the Storm Elder mused. "It has never been done. If you fail, the feedback will destroy you all."

"We won't fail," Sarode said, stepping up to Val. "We are the Court. We are the balance."

"We build it together," Val said, smiling at them. "I pour myself into you, and you pour yourselves into me. Interflow."

The team formed a tight circle around Val’s spirit.

"Begin," Val whispered.

"Halt!" A voice called back.

Enjahn, the Resonance Elder, appeared at the front. Her robes vibrated with a constant hum. "Your theory is sound, but it requires balance. Your team is powerful, but unstable. You," the Elder pointed to Wren. "You are one of mine. Underneath that Fire, that pure plasma, lies a tune you've long forgotten... Why?"

Wren looked around, then back at their hands, remembering the echo that came from them. "Me? Resonance?" She turned to Val, then back to the Elder. "I don't know a time in my life I'd ever... Until a moment ago."

"I feel the heavy shadow the Fires cast upon you," The Elder began to describe, stepping closer to Wren. "But it's fighting back, growing." They snapped a finger, and a booming sound began to ring throughout the space.

As the waves washed over Wren, they began to panic, having flashes of their past. Flashes from their childhood. Flashes from the experiments. The waves didn't stop, and as Wren looked around in panic only Hanjhit seemed to be affected, hearing anything, yet it seemed to shriek within Wren's head.

"STOP IT!" Wren shouted through the ringing.

"Don't fight who you are," They snapped once more, even closer to Wren now.

Wren dropped to their knees, holding their hands over their ears, trying to muffle the ringing, yet it simply continued. Talia began to walk forward, worry now plastered on her face, yet no one dared utter a word.

"Hanjhit what's going on?" Talia asked, eyes fixed on Wren.

"I can't take anymore, please!" Wren begged. Their closed eyes watched each memory in horror. Each memory she suppressed, each one she purposefully forgot, came in waves.

"We are in control! You shatter because you believe it so! Who are you without all of it? Remember who you are!" In a single swift motion, the Elder towered over Wren, kneeling down beside her, and taking their middle finger and thumb, snapping one final time. A visible echo began to spread from their fingers. Hanjhit, who too had been covering their ears, looked curiously now, peaceful.

Wren chose to focus on the Elder's words. Forcing the memories past. Visions of the team supporting them even when they feared themselves. Memories of Talia, ever so caring, unafraid. And moments with Val, the one who saw them before anyone else did. "It wasn't just me, it was you!" She remembered. In an instant, she gasped, the ringing settling into a steady, silent hum.

The Elder embraced Wren, lifting them onto their feet and wiping away their tears. "Through everything the wave goes through, it never forgets who it is and where it came from. The Fire may now live within you, but you, my child, belong to the Echo."

Everyone quickly began to rush to Wren, Talia at the forefront to ensure they're okay. The pair’s hands found one another so naturally, not daring to let go.

"She is not the only one hiding her true nature," a voice whispered. It wasn't loud, but it crawled into their ears like a secret.

The Life Elder, a being draped in vines and moss, stepped forward. But she wasn't looking at Talia. She was looking at Ouhan.

"Your team is unbalanced," the Life Elder said. "Your court has shadows hiding Life!"

Ouhan stepped back, his shadow flickering. "I am Shadow. I was raised in Ousujan. I teleport through darkness."

"Do you?" the Life Elder asked. She walked closer. She didn't summon flowers; she summoned fungi. Roots that grew in the dark. "You step through blind spots. You connect to the living minds around you and slip through the cracks in their perception. You do not control the absence of light, Ouhan. You control the presence of Consciousness."

Ouhan looked at his hands. "That's impossible. My Setam (parents)..."

"Your Tama was from the Deep Jungle of Vañujal," Romar spoke up, stepping out from behind Gwen. His voice was quiet, guilty. "Selu told me when he first got really sick... When he thought he'd die. He said her bloodline wasn't Shadow. It was Parasitic Life. They were known for planting seeds within the mind. When the Council began their crusades, the Life Ide who were like her feared they'd too be subject to persecution. So she hid in Ousujan to hide you. She fell in love with Selu and that's when they had you. Not long after I followed behind. Because she was so close to the Ide of Ousujan they managed to assimilate. That's how we became the Kira and Wrenjei of Kjihan."

Ouhan stared at Romar. "You knew?"

"I suspected," Romar said softly. "You never felt cold like a Shadow Ide. You felt... alive. Heavy. Like a jungle canopy blocking the sun."

The Life Elder extended a hand. "Life is not just flowers and healing, my child. Life is the root that cracks the stone. Life is the fungus that controls the ant. Life is the Will. You are the Voice of the Garden."

Ouhan looked at Talia. Talia nodded, her vines retracting. "We are two sides of the same coin, Ouhan. Body and Mind. We are life."

"Now let's truly have a battle shall we?" The Elder of Spirit walked to the front of the group, the other elders getting behind them. "This time, no limits. We will give our all, so don't hold back."

"And I want you two," Enjahn, the Resonance Elder, pointed to Wren and Ouhan, "Specifically leaning on your partner to guide you. Don't forget your specialties you've mastered, learn their preferred tunes."

The void dissolved into chaos.

Ouhan didn't hide in the dark anymore. He stood with Talia.

The Life Elder charged them. Talia summoned a wall of thorns to block, but the Elder tore through it.

"Control me!" the Elder shouted at Ouhan. "Plant the seed!"

Ouhan focused. He didn't look at the shadows on the floor; he looked at the mind of the Elder. He saw the neural pathways, the biological spark. He reached out, finding that familiar shadow of Life.

"STOP."

Ouhan didn't scream it. He thought it. He planted the command like a virus in the Elder's mind.

The Elder froze mid-stride.

Ouhan gasped, clutching his head. The effort drained him instantly. "It's heavy," he panted. "His will is strong."

"Use the medium!" Talia shouted, touching Ouhan’s shoulder to feed him energy. "Don't fight his will directly. Use the Shadow!"

Ouhan understood. He sank into the not the shadow, but the ground which light didn't reach, into the Elder's mind—the subconscious. From the darkest places of the Elder's mind Ouhan could hear their thoughts very faintly. He followed the signal that the thoughts came from, appearing behind the Elder. Ouhan was seeing the others thoughts laid out like a map. "You're so tired? Sleep!" He commanded, sending strategic signals, planting them in those dark places. The Elder's will was undeniably strong, but Ouhan had just enough to slow them.

Wren didn't fight the vibration. She stood with Hanjhit. Hanjhit shifted into a Faivan, screeching a sonic blast. Wren matched his frequency. She phased out of reality, becoming intangible as the Resonance Elder’s wave passed through her, then solidified instantly to strike back with a plasma punch that vibrated through the Elder’s shield.

Romar and Gwen moved like a constellation. Romar dilated time, moving so fast he created a slipstream. Gwen fired lasers into the slipstream, accelerating them until they became a solid wall of light.

The battle raged until the Elders stopped, raising their hands in surrender and pride.

"Enough," the Spirit Elder laughed, breathless. "It's clear Harmonic balance has been achieved. You've still got to fill the Storm... Don't forget."

"We are ready," Wren announced, her armor glowing with a steady, calm hum.

"I am not," Val said, looking at their translucent hands. "I cannot cross the threshold."

"We build the vessel," Sarode said. "Like you said."

The team formed a tight circle around Val’s spirit.

"Begin," Sar whispered.

Saje stepped in first. He placed his hand on Val’s spectral chest. "I give you the Rhythm," Saje said. Interflow. He poured the song of the storm into Val. A golden heartbeat began to thump in the air.

Talia stepped in. "I give you the Body." Green life energy wrapped around the sound, creating a nervous system.

Ouhan stepped in. "I give you the Will." He poured the dark, heavy weight of consciousness into Val, binding the mind to the body.

Emerjn and Irame poured Water. "We give you the Blood, and shape the exterior." Blue fluid filled the veins.

Wren and Hanjhit poured Resonance. "We give you the Voice."

Gwen and Romar poured Light and Fire. "We give you the Spark." White fire ignited the eyes.

Sarode stepped in last. He looked at the glowing, faceless shape of his twin. "I give you the Definition," Sarode whispered. "The Shadow that proves the Light exists." He poured his essence into Val.

SNAP.

The Inbetween screamed. The white void fractured, splitting into six distinct sections—a jungle, a storm, a sea, a city of light, reflecting the Court.

The light around Val exploded outward.

When it cleared, Val was standing there. Solid.

But they weren't the Val who had died in the tank. They were the Harmonic.

Their skin now danced with shimmers of the stars. Their eyes were swirling nebulas containing all 6 colors of the Court.

Val took a breath. The sound was like a choir inhaling.

"I am here," Val spoke. Their voice rippled with power. "I am whole."

Val looked at the team. A golden thread now connected all of them to Val, and through Val, to the Ancient Elders who stood watching from their new elemental domains.

"We have a new structure," Val said, looking at Sarode. "You and I... we are the Keepers. We hold the gate. The rest of you... you are the Pillars. We don't need to open the door anymore. We carry the door with us."

Val raised a hand. They didn't need to weave. They simply willed it.

A tear opened in the void—not jagged, but a perfect, circular portal showing the interior of the Thunderwave.

"The Army is in Khijan," Val said, their eyes burning with starlight. "Let's go wake them up."

Time: 10 // 00 Fade Location: The Thunderwave / Mmirabe Ruins

The team stepped back into the vehicle. The air felt heavy compared to the pure energy of the Inbetween.

Val materialized last. Even in the dim light of the sub, they glowed.

"Kjihan," Gwen asked, engaging the engines. "Why there?"

"Because that's the last place history still stands," Val said, staring at the map. "They think I'm dead so their first mission will be to tie up loose ends."

"Then we have truth to free," Sarode said.

"Course set," Hanjhit announced, firing the hydro-jets. "Next stop: The Glass Kingdom."