The Vanguard's "Containment Array" was supposed to be the ultimate answer to an alien threat. It was a massive, tripod-mounted pulse cannon designed to paralyze nervous systems and shatter biological bonds.
Against Goliath, it was a pecking bird.
The Segmented Titan didn't just stand there; he absorbed the impact. Every time a blue ion bolt struck his metallic hide, the energy didn't harm him—it flowed through the segmented plates of his chest, feeding the green core of the Omnitrix.
"My turn," Goliath rumbled. The voice was a deep, mechanical grinding of tectonic plates.
He took a step forward, and the earth beneath his three-toed metal feet buckled. With one of his four primary arms, he reached out and gripped the barrel of the Vanguard's cannon. The reinforced steel groaned and then crumpled like a tin can. With a casual flick of his wrist, Goliath tossed the multi-ton weapon into the canyon wall, where it exploded in a shower of sparks and useless circuitry.
"Fall back! Fall back!" Commander Sterling's voice was no longer calm. It was a panicked shriek over the loudspeaker. "All units, tactical retreat! We cannot contain a Class-5 Segmented Titan without heavy artillery!"
The soldiers didn't need to be told twice. They scrambled for the ropes of the hovering VTOLs, their faces pale behind their tactical visors. They had come to hunt a scavenger; they had found a god of metal.
Goliath raised his secondary arms, ready to swat the dropships out of the sky, but a sharp, burning pain flared at the base of his skull.
[WARNING: SYNC RATE AT 2.1%]
[NEURAL OVERWRITE IMMINENT. HOST INDIVIDUALITY DEGRADING.]
The green light in his eyes flickered. Suddenly, Leo wasn't just using Goliath; he was becoming Goliath. He felt a sudden, cold indifference to the humans. He didn't want to save Sarah anymore; he wanted to expand, to consume the surrounding rock, to turn the entire basin into an extension of his metallic form.
"Leo! Stop!"
Sarah was at his feet, looking like a tiny doll against his massive frame. She wasn't holding her pistol anymore. She was holding her hands out, her blue eyes pleading.
"You've won! If you stay like this any longer, the Ghost of the Titan will lock the door. You won't be able to come back!"
Goliath looked down at her. To his alien mind, she looked like a fragile, insignificant biological parasite. His massive metal hand began to close into a fist.
No, Leo's mind screamed from deep within the metallic cage. She's a friend. She's the only one who knows what's happening!
He fought the instinct. He forced his metal fingers to stay open. With a roar that shook the very air, he slammed his fist into the ground—not to kill, but to vent the mounting pressure in his mind.
The shockwave sent a cloud of dust five stories high.
[EMERGENCY EJECT INITIATED.]
The green light turned red, then white, then vanished.
The massive form of Goliath didn't just shrink; it collapsed in on itself. The organic metal plates turned into liquid and were sucked back into the Omnitrix with a sound like a vacuum. Leo Vance tumbled out of the empty air, hitting the sand with a heavy thud.
He was naked, his skin covered in a strange, silvery sheen that smelled like copper. His hair was standing on end, and he was shaking so hard his teeth were clattering a frantic rhythm.
"Leo!" Sarah was over him in a second, wrapping the thermal blanket around him. "Can you hear me? Look at me!"
Leo's eyes were unfocused. "I... I could feel his hunger, Sarah. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay."
"I know," she whispered, helping him sit up. "The Titan is a survivor. He's been dead for a thousand years, and being back in the physical world is an addiction for him. You have to be stronger than the Ghost, Leo. Always."
Leo looked at the Omnitrix. It was silent now, the metal cooling against his skin. He felt hollow. The power of the Titan had been intoxicating, but the aftermath felt like a hangover from hell.
"Where is... where is the ship?" Leo asked, his voice a mere rasp.
"Through here," Sarah said, pointing to a shimmering distortion in the air behind a cluster of red boulders.
As they stepped through the distortion, the world changed. The dry desert air was replaced by the hum of high-end air filtration and the smell of jasmine. A sleek, silver shuttle sat nestled in the rocks, its hull reflecting the starlight. It looked like a teardrop made of liquid chrome.
The door slid open with a musical chime.
"Welcome to the Aegis-1," Sarah said, pulling him inside. "It's not much, but it's the only place on Earth where the Vanguard can't find us. And it's the only place where I can show you the truth about what's coming."
Leo collapsed into a padded chair that molded itself to his body. As the ship's engines hummed to life, lifting them silently into the night sky, he looked out the viewport at the desert below.
The Vanguard's searchlights were still scouring the basin, looking for a ghost.
"Sarah," Leo said, his eyes closing as exhaustion finally claimed him. "You said the Hollow is erasing history. Is it already here?"
Sarah didn't answer immediately. She tapped a command into the ship's console, and a long-range scanner appeared on the screen. It showed the edge of the solar system—near Pluto.
There was a hole in the stars. A patch of absolute, terrifying nothingness that was growing larger by the second.
"It's not just here, Leo," Sarah said, her voice trembling. "It's hungry. And now that you've used the Aegis... it knows exactly where the feast is."