The red light on the Omnitrix didn't just blink; it screamed. It was a rhythmic, angry pulse that felt like a migraine hammered into the bone of Leo's wrist.
[SYNC TIMEOUT. EMERGENCY REVERSION INITIATED.]
Leo felt a sickening wrench at the base of his spine, as if a cable were being ripped out of his spinal cord. The obsidian armor of Cinder didn't just fall off; it dissolved into his pores, pulling the stolen thermal energy back into his body with a violent suction. The sudden drop in temperature felt like being plunged into a frozen lake after standing in a furnace.
He collapsed into the shadows of the canyon floor, his human skin pale, translucent, and steaming in the cool shade. His muscles felt like they had been put through a industrial meat grinder. Every fiber of his being was twitching, a biological "lag" as his human DNA tried to reassert control over a frame that had just been a titan of volcanic rock.
"Stay... down..." Leo wheezed. His lungs felt like they were filled with crushed glass. Every breath was a battle.
"Not an option, Vance. Unless you want to spend the rest of your very short life in a glass jar."
A hand grabbed the collar of his grease-stained work shirt and hauled him upward. It was the girl—Sarah. Close up, she looked barely older than him, maybe twenty at most, but there was a weight in her iridescent blue eyes that felt centuries old. She didn't look like a desert dweller; she looked like someone who had seen the stars from the other side.
"The Vanguard doesn't do 'retreats,'" she snapped, her voice low and sharp. She pointed a finger toward the canyon mouth. "They do 'reloads.' Look."
Through the haze of settling dust and the shimmering heat of the desert, Leo saw them. A second wave of black Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) was roaring across the flats, their tires kicking up plumes of white salt like the wakes of predatory sharks. This time, they weren't carrying standard-issue rifles. Mounted on the roofs were massive, turreted cannons that hummed with a low-frequency blue light.
"Ion Containment Nets," Sarah whispered, her grip tightening on his arm. "They realized bullets don't work. Now they're going to try and short-circuit your nervous system."
"They want to put me in a cage," Leo realized. He looked down at his left wrist. The heavy, charcoal-colored cuff was silent now. The green dial had retracted, replaced by a flat, dark surface that showed a slow-filling red bar.
[RECHARGING: 4.2%]
"They want the Archive," Sarah corrected, hauling him deeper into the labyrinth of red rock. "To them, you're just the biological hard drive. They don't care if the drive gets dented, as long as the data survives."
"Data? I'm a person, not a thumb drive!" Leo stumbled, his knees buckling. The exhaustion was a physical wall. "And what the hell is the 'Archive'? This thing called Earth a 'Dead Zone.' What does that even mean?"
Sarah stopped suddenly, pulling him into a narrow crevice between two towering sandstone walls. She pressed a small, metallic disc into the rock face. A shimmering veil of refracted light erupted around them, bending the air like a cloaking device. Outside the veil, the desert blurred and vanished.
"It means," Sarah said, turning to face him, "that your planet is a biological anomaly. Earth's magnetic field and atmospheric composition act like a slow-acting poison to almost every sentient species in the galaxy. Alien DNA doesn't just 'die' here; it unravels. It's why you've never seen a 'little green man' walking down the street. They turn to organic slush in minutes."
Leo stared at her, his mind racing. "Then how did... how did I just become a fire giant for ten minutes?"
"The Aegis," she said, nodding toward the Omnitrix. "The device creates a localized stabilization field. It's a life-support suit, Leo. It's the only reason the DNA of Species 017 could exist on this dirt without exploding. It was sent here because Earth is the best hiding place in the universe. No one comes to the Dead Zone. It's the perfect vault."
"A vault for what?"
"For everything we lost," Sarah's voice softened, a flicker of grief crossing her face. "The Hollow is erasing the galaxy, Leo. Planet by planet, species by species. It doesn't just kill; it deletes. It removes the memory of the civilization from the fabric of space. The Aegis is the last copy of their genetic code. It's the universe's backup plan."
Leo looked at the watch. The red bar was at 8%. It felt heavier now. It wasn't just a gadget. He was carrying the ghosts of billions. Every time he turned into Cinder, he wasn't just using a power; he was resurrecting a dead world.
"And the Vanguard?" Leo asked. "How do they know about this?"
"Arthur Sterling," Sarah spat the name. "He's been scavenging crashed 'Dead Zone' probes for twenty years. He wants the Aegis so he can 'upgrade' humanity. He thinks he can use that DNA to make soldiers who can survive anywhere. He doesn't realize he's playing with a detonator."
A massive THUMP vibrated through the canyon walls. The ground groaned.
One of the Vanguard's Ion Cannons had fired. The blue bolt splashed against the outside of Sarah's cloaking veil, sending ripples of static through the air. The veil flickered, the red rocks outside momentarily appearing through the glitches.
"They're using thermal scanners," Sarah hissed. "The veil won't hold if they get a direct lock. We have to move. My extraction ship is a mile North, hidden in the Shadow Basin."
"I can't run a mile," Leo said, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "I can barely stand."
"Then find a way to sync," Sarah urged, grabbing his shoulders. "The Aegis isn't just a watch, Leo. It's part of you now. It's connected to your adrenaline, your intent. If you want to live, you have to force it to recharge. Talk to it!"
Leo looked at the dull metal. He thought about the Vanguard soldiers, the cold eyes of the recovery teams, and the way his life had been ripped away in a single flash of violet light. He thought about the "Hollow"—the void that was coming to finish the job.
"I am not... a hard drive," Leo whispered.
He closed his eyes and focused on the base of his spine, where the filaments were buried deep. He felt the cold hum of the machine. He didn't ask it for power; he demanded it. He pushed his remaining will into the cuff, visualizing the red bar turning green.
The Omnitrix hummed. A low, harmonic vibration that shook his arm.
[HOST INTENT DETECTED: ADRENALINE SPIKE.]
[EMERGENCY BYPASS: MANUAL RECHARGE INITIATED.]
[SYNC RATE: 1.5%]
The dial popped up. But it wasn't the flaming silhouette of Cinder. This one was sleek, thin, with jagged lightning-bolt lines.
"Species 008," Sarah whispered, her eyes wide. "The Kineceleran-Variant. You're going to need to move, Leo. Fast."
The sound of boots hit the gravel just outside the veil. A Vanguard scout rounded the corner, his rifle raised.
"Target sighted! Crevice at ten o'clock!"
Leo didn't think. He didn't have time to be afraid. He slammed his palm down on the dial.
"I've got a deadline to catch," Leo roared.
The white light returned, but this time, it didn't feel like fire. It felt like a heartbeat sped up to a thousand miles per hour.