Time: 08 // 00 Fade (Twilight) Location: The Jefue Coastline / The Thunderwave

The vehicle didn't slow down as it hit the black sand beach.

"Engaging hydro-jets," Hanjhit announced, his fingers flying across the console.

The Thunderwave transformed. The wheels folded up, sealing into the chassis. Rear thrusters angled downward. A shimmering energy shield wrapped around the hull to displace the water.

They hit the surf at eighty miles per ark.

Instead of sinking, the vehicle skimmed the surface, spraying a massive wake of foam.

"Course set for Mmirabe," Wren’s empty seat beeped—her navigation algorithms were still active in the system. "ETA: Forty-five Pulses."

"Faster," Saje commanded, staring out at the dark horizon. "Push the engines."

"If I push them harder, we'll cavitate," Hanjhit warned. But he pushed the throttle forward anyway.

As they sped across the ocean, the headlights of the Thunderwave illuminated the water below.

Talia gasped, pressing her hand against the glass.

"The coral," she whispered. "It's... it's white."

It wasn't just bleached. It was dead. Miles of reef were grey skeletons. Fish floated on the surface, bellies up. The seaweed was brown slime.

"The ocean is dying," Emerjn said, his blind eyes weeping. "I can feel it. The pulse of the water is weak. Thready."

"It's not just the ocean," Sarode realized, looking at the data stream on the dashboard. "Look at the atmospheric readings. Oxygen levels are down 12% globally. The magnetic field is destabilizing."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"The Tree," Talia said, her voice cold with pain. "The Great Tree in Vañujal. They aren't just burning it. They are harvesting it. The Kassaj is sucking the life out of the planet to power their Grid. To power..."

She looked at the direction they were heading.

"...to power Val."

Time: Unknown Location: Mmirabe / The Aquatic Chamber

Val woke up choking.

But there was no air to choke on. They were underwater.

They floated in the center of a massive glass sphere, suspended in the depths of the ocean. The sphere was filled with pressurized, conductive fluid. Outside the glass, the dark ocean pressed in.

Val tried to scream, but water just rushed into their lungs.

Don't fight it, a voice in their head whispered. Breathe the water.

Val forced their gills, a dormant trait of the Water Ide, to flare. The fluid burned as it entered, but it brought oxygen.

"Subject is conscious," Vaelor’s voice boomed through the water, vibrating in Val’s bones.

Val looked down. Vaelor and Zhajul stood on a platform below the sphere, dry and safe behind a containment wall.

"Phase 2," Zhajul commanded. "The Vessel is primed and conscious. Open the floodgates."

Vaelor slammed a console.

Huge metal rods extended into the sphere.

CONTACT.

This wasn't like the torture in the lab. That was sharp. This was... heavy, heavier than anything Val had ever experiences in their life.

Vaelor didn't just send electricity. He opened the containment grid for the entire city. He poured the energy of a million homes, the heat of the Jefue volcano, the static of the Rhubiti storms... the Vañujal tree of life. he poured it all into the water.

And the water poured it into Val.

Val convulsed. Their back arched. Their eyes glowed blinding white.

It felt like being inflated. Every cell in their body was being stretched to the breaking point. The Spirit energy inside them tried to make room, expanding infinitely, but even infinity has a limit when it's trapped in meat and bone.

I'm full, Val screamed in their mind. I'm full! Stop!

"More," Zhajul whispered, watching the readings with hungry eyes. "They are still holding together. Increase pressure."

Time: 08 // 40 Fade Location: The Thunderwave

"We're here!" Hanjhit shouted.

The gleaming spires of Mmirabe rose from the ocean, connected by underwater tunnels. But the city looked wrong. The lights were dim. The water around it was stagnant.

"The Aquatic Chamber is at the base," Kaelin said from the back, her voice hollow. "Sector Zero."

"Dive," Sarode ordered.

The Thunderwave angled down, plunging beneath the waves.

Time: Unknown Location: The Aquatic Chamber

Val’s mind was fracturing.

The pain was gone. In its place was a terrible, roaring noise. The sound of the universe screaming.

They could see the cracks forming on their skin. Fissures of light leaking out.

I am breaking, Val realized.

Flash.

Suddenly, the torture stopped. The water stopped.

It felt like Wren for the first time, the rushing of plasma that formed the Void within them. It felt like getting to know themself for the first time. Their mind flashed to a memory of them, flying freely within the sky. As they felt the winds flowing through them they sung beautifully, each note forming droplets within the sky causing the downpour. 

With a single blink they were now before a large body, the ide resembling the ide of Ousujan but less modern. They wore dark attire, branded with beautiful jewelry and headwear of various kinds. 

"I stand before you humbly with a heavy heart," Val began speaking, their voice not entirely their own. "While striving to maintain harmony I failed to consider our history, and our past. Being of the light and of the water, we create anew. And it's my mistake to think I could do it on my own. The Harmonic Court and I have decided to expand, ensuring our failures do not hold us back any longer. Each of us will be recruiting another, two of us per seat to truly ensure harmony. We shall choose wisely, and they will act as advisor and successor." The crowd roared and clapped, some throwing their hats into the air in celebrations. A smile forming on Val's face, now this was an apology when a mistake is made. "We will now formally be known as the Elder's Court, and our Elder's in training will be selected before the next Harmonic Ceremony."

Similar visions continued to flash and play before Val. Flashes of their prison and flashes of their mind blinded into one, Val unsure of what was real. They felt their connection to everything, understanding more and more their place, how long the universe waited. 

Then, instantly, Val was standing on the beach of Rajas. The grey sand was soft under their feet. The twin suns were setting.

Standing in front of them were the Twelve Ancient Elders, they now grew to know them as.

They didn't look like gods. They looked like tired, sad ide.

"We cannot hold the river in this space," the Water Elder said urgently. They'd learned this was who held the title before their Tama. 

"The space will break, this energy will tear the world apart" the Fire Elder added.

"To save the spirit," the Spirit Elder whispered, "the body must yield."

Val looked down at their hands in the vision. They were made of sand. They were no longer looking through the eyes of those who came before, but now they were the original, they were part of the world.

"Must... leave. If I stay," Val whispered, "I die."

"If we stay," the Water Elder smiled, "we are destroyed. But if we flow..."

Val looked back at the waking world. At the pain. At Vaelor’s grinning face.

I won't give them what they want, Val decided. I won't be their battery.

Val closed their eyes in the tank.

They stopped fighting the pressure. They stopped trying to hold their shape.

They let go.

In the lab, the alarms screamed.

"Critical instability!" the technician shouted. "Subject integrity is failing extremely rapidly!"

"Stabilize them!" Vaelor roared. "Don't lose the energy!