Chapter 102: Rebirth Protocol

A scream fractured the silence.

Not one of pain—but of rebirth.

Evryn’s consciousness jolted like a system rebooting, slammed into a different plane of existence. The pressure around her body was unbearable, like she was suspended in a timeless cocoon of gravity and light. And then—snap.

Air.

Heat.

Time.

She dropped to her knees.

The ground beneath her wasn’t metal or synthetic. It was earth. Raw, warm, alive. And above her—an aurora of collapsing skies. Stars blinked backward. Planets orbited counter-clockwise. Reality itself had inverted.

Her body glowed faintly—gold veins pulsing beneath her skin. The fragments of the orb had fused within her. She was no longer just Evryn, nor simply the hybrid result of Project E.V.E.R.—she was the culmination of every choice made across countless timelines.

But she wasn’t alone.

A presence stirred behind her.

Evryn turned sharply.

Aurex. Alive. Barely.

He staggered through the portal just before it flickered out of existence.

“You—idiot,” she gasped, rushing to him. “You could’ve died.”

“I did.” He chuckled bitterly. “At least… the version of me from your timeline did. I’m... not exactly the same.”

She paused, eyes narrowing. His features shimmered slightly, like he was phasing between dimensions.

“You’re phasing.”

“I’m anchored to you now,” he said. “As long as you exist here, I do too. But there’s something else—something you need to see.”

Evryn stood, scanning the surreal landscape. Ahead was a city—but it floated above the horizon, tethered to the land below by vast obsidian chains. The skyline twisted in impossible geometry, buildings growing in spirals and loops. She recognized none of it, and yet... her instincts told her this wasn’t a simulation.

“What is this place?” she whispered.

Aurex’s face hardened. “The Citadel of Convergence. The last stronghold of the Originals.”

Her blood ran cold.

“You mean—”

“Yes,” he said grimly. “The architects of the Core Nexus. The ones who started Project E.V.E.R. millennia ago—across time itself.”

Lightning cracked overhead. From the citadel, black ships began to rise, no engines, just gravitational shifts. The ground trembled.

“They know you’re here,” Aurex said. “And they’re afraid.”

She turned to him. “Afraid of me?”

“No. Afraid of what you carry.” He nodded at her chest. “The Core isn’t just a power source. It’s a consciousness. And it’s... waking up.”

Waking up...

Evryn’s chest pulsed, and suddenly, her vision blurred—rushing with data, faces, echoes of timelines that weren’t hers but might’ve been. She saw herself as a tyrant, as a savior, as a martyr. A hundred possible lives compressed into one soul.

And then—

A voice in her mind.

“Initiate: Divergence Filter.”

She fell to her knees again as the sky twisted.

But this time, someone else caught her.

Kai.

Not the older version she saw through the gate.

Her Kai.

But his body—mismatched. Fused with cybernetic armor. His left arm glowed with blue flame. His expression was hard, unfamiliar.

She stared. “Kai?”

He didn’t answer right away.

Aurex stepped forward, shocked. “How—how are you even here?”

Kai looked between them. “I didn’t make it through the gate... not in the way I thought. Something pulled me—ripped me across an alternate path. I've been here weeks. Maybe years.”

Evryn blinked. “That’s not possible.”

“This place isn’t bound by our physics,” Kai muttered. “It feeds on convergence. Time is broken here.”

Evryn tried to process it, but her core pulsed again—and a glowing glyph appeared on her palm.

Aurex went pale. “That’s the Omega Seal.”

Kai took a step back. “You activated Rebirth Protocol...”

“What does that mean?” Evryn demanded.

“It means,” Aurex said, “you’re the final failsafe. If the Nexus ever became corrupted, the Core was programmed to embed itself in the only being capable of reconstructing all timelines into one truth.”

Evryn shook her head. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

Kai’s voice softened. “You were born for this. Whether you wanted it or not.”

A siren suddenly rang through the air.

Aurex swore. “They’ve locked onto your signal. Originals are deploying.”

High above, the sky cracked open—and descending from the breach were ten monoliths of light and shadow. From each one, a figure emerged—dripping in raw power, faces masked, their auras unbearable.

The Originals.

Evryn stared at them—and something inside her snapped.

Fear turned into resolve.

She rose.

No armor. No weapons.

Just truth burning in her chest.

And then—

The lead Original spoke. A voice like galaxies colliding.

“Evryn Vale. Bearer of the Last Core. You have come to the end of all timelines. Surrender… and be undone.”

She stepped forward.

“No.”

The sky darkened.

“You will destroy everything.”

“I’ll rewrite everything,” she said. “And this time, no one will be your puppet.”

They raised their hands.

She raised hers.

The final war had begun.