The Oracle's warning came like a storm cloud, their arrival… that was lightning.
We were still preparing our defenses, the walls still needed reinforcing, the watchtowers still incomplete. Children trained by morning and slept by night. Jinx listened to the roots. Elias strengthened defenses with devices made from scrap and genius. Mara meditated beneath the Spirit Grove, her eyes glowing softly. And I… I tried to breathe through the new weight inside me. This Echo, this awareness, this frightening, beautiful, expanding sense of existence. But the world didn't give me time to understand it.
HelixCorp struck at dawn.
It began with a humming I felt in my bones before I heard with my ears, a vibration in the air that rattled my teeth. Elias sat up in his hammock, eyes wide, "That's not natural," he whispered. "That's…"
A blinding white beam speared down from the clouds. An energy pulse slammed into the village gate. The shockwave threw me off my feet. Lyra screamed. Orion clutched his head. The spirits scattered like glowing birds in panic.
Alarms blared through Karura Haven shrill, improvised horns Elias had crafted from hollowed vine-metal pipes. Zara burst into our shelter, rifle in hand, eyes sharp. "They're here." Before we could react, Mara sprinted past us, shouting orders, "Rangers to the west wall! Shield line to the riverbank! Get the women and children to the mess hall"
The ground trembled again, a low, deep rumble. Not natural. HelixCorp machinery, the forest itself recoiled,b shadows fell over the village as aircrafts descended, silent and sleek, humming like angry wasps. Black-armored figures rappelled down. Collectors.
Jinx shifted instantly, his entire body dissolving into dark mist, reforming atop a roof. He hissed sharply, his shadow lagging half a heartbeat behind him. "They brought nullifiers!" he shouted. "Spirit-killers! Don't let them near the children!"
Zara fired first. A collector dropped from the sky like a cut string, crashing into the dirt. Another landed behind her. Mara intercepted, her staff glowing with golden energy. Lyra flung fire like a miniature sun, blasting drones out of the air in brilliant arcs. Orion clung to my arm, shaking violently, the psychic noise pummeling him from every direction.
"Dad—too many—too loud—I can't—"
"I've got you," I whispered, even though my own heart hammered like war drums.The drones swarmed overhead in spirals, scanning for energy signatures. A voice boomed from above, "Karura Haven, surrender your gifted. Nonviolently comply. You have ten seconds."
Jinx laughed — a sharp, angry sound. "Ten seconds? How generous!"
Zara spat in the dirt. "Come and take them." The countdown began.
"Ten… nine… eight…"
Children screamed as collectors closed in on the training shelters. Lyra unleashed a blast of flame that melted a drone midair, the metal dripping like molten wax. "Dad!" she yelled. "They're going for the small ones!"
I grabbed Orion's shoulder. "Stay behind me. Whatever happens." His eyes were watery, terrified… and glowing faintly.
"Seven… six… five…"
Mara's voice cut through the chaos, "protect the Healers!" Collectors landed near the northern huts, their gauntlets glowing blue. Nullifier tech — the kind designed to suppress abilities. Zara dashed forward, firing round after round, each shot precise and lethal.
"Four… three…"
A collector lunged toward a group of toddlers. Jinx appeared behind him, shifting mid-motion, claws morphing from his hands. He tore the man's visor clean off. "Not today," he snarled.
"Two…"
The sky pulsed. A larger aircraft descended. Bigger, heavier, stained with the insignia of HelixCorp's Special Retrieval Unit.
"One."
The air exploded with sound. It happened so fast I almost missed it. A slim silver drone no bigger than a hawk zipped low through the chaos, weaving through fire and gunfire with unnatural agility. It darted straight for the children's shelter, a little girl screamed. A boy stumbled out, clutching a wooden toy. Kalenji, the healer child, I lunged toward him, yelling his name… but the drone fired a net. Not rope, not metal, light.
Threads of shimmering blue energy wrapped around his small body before he could even cry out. He was lifted from the ground, levitating helplessly toward the extraction craft. "No!" Lyra screamed, flames erupting from her palms. Orion shrieked, collapsing under the weight of the psychic roar.
Zara ran toward the drone but another burst of pulse-fire slammed her back. Mara sprinted with unnatural speed but the aircraft rose. The net tightened. Kalenji sobbed, reaching toward us. I felt the world shatter inside me.
A sound tore from my throat something between a roar and a plea as the lines of light exploded into existence around me. Every fracture, every thread, every memory, every echo. All at once. Reality pulsed like a living thing.
I did not consciously choose to use it. I simply broke open.The air rippled around me, loud, silent, dense, infinite. I felt the earth's memory beneath my feet. The heat of Lyra's flame. The terror in Orion's heart. Zara's pain. The forest's rage. The drone's cold precision. Kalenji's fear sharp, pure, agonizing.
His Echo burned like a falling star bright, fragile, flickering. I reached toward it, the world shifted. Suddenly I wasn't in Karura Haven. I was… everywhere. The sky erupted around me in geometric patterns. Lines of light danced in spirals. Memory and reality wove together vines of time twisting into shapes I couldn't comprehend.
The forest rose beneath me in layers, it's roots glowing like rivers of gold. The village shimmered like a candle in a hurricane. People glowed like constellations each with their own pulse, and above ascending, struggling, crying, was Kalenji.
His Echo tugged at me, calling, begging: Help me. Help me. Help me.
I pushed my consciousness through the glowing threads following the path the drone carved through the air. Every moment left a trace, a spark, a memory of motion. I followed it like a hunter follows footprints.
I saw, the drone piercing the canopy, crossing the river, rising toward the waiting craft, entering its cold metallic belly, and beyond that, a faint flicker of a face watching him. Smooth, cold, eyes like polished steel. Dr. Vestra Halix. Her Echo radiated hunger.
A violent tear snapped through existence. The vision shattered. I was thrown back into my body with bone-cracking force. The aircraft vanished into the morning sky. The collectors withdrew. The drones ascended. And silence fell over Karura Haven. A broken, hollow, blood-tinged silence.
Elias knelt beside a fallen ranger, trembling. Lyra sobbed into Zara's arms. Orion sat rocking, whispering, "I heard him… I heard him…"
Mara placed a hand on my shoulder. "What did you see?"
I swallowed hard, tasting ash and blood. "Everything," I whispered.
"And?"
I looked up at the horizon, where the aircraft had escaped into the clouds. "I know where they're taking him."
Mara's eyes widened. "You can find him?
"I have to," I said. "I felt his Echo. I followed his path." I clenched my fists, trembling with fear, rage, and something new. Resolve. "But I saw more than that," I said quietly.
"What?" Zara asked, stepping closer.
I looked at the sky, at the clouds still trembling from the aircraft's engines. "They're not done," I said. My voice felt heavier than my body. My soul felt older than my skin. "HelixCorp is coming back."