Nate sat quietly in front of the helt, the one he'd spent five exhausting days building with relentless focus and barely a blink of rest. His fingers brushed along the sleek tal surface, its dark reflective shell holding the weight of too many hopes. A storm of uncertainty brewed in his chest as he stared at it, the room silent except for the faint humming of nearby equipnt.
Sera was seated across from him, elbows on the table, chin in her hand as her eyes flicked between Nate and the device. She watched him carefully, concern etched in her features, though she said nothing yet. Behind them, Alice leaned against the wall with arms crossed, clearly not impressed with what she saw.
"When was the last ti you slept?" Alice asked, her tone sharp but laced with worry.
Nate didn't even turn to look at her. He kept his eyes on the helt, almost like he was afraid it would disappear if he blinked. "Five days ago," he replied casually.
Alice's brows furrowed. "You're joking."
Before she could launch into whatever lecture she was building up to, Sera broke the silence.
"What's the worst that could happen if this doesn't work?"
That made Nate glance up, his expression unreadable. He scratched the back of his head and muttered, "If it works, we might be able to locate Bella and Madison. If it doesn't… it might fry my brain."
Alice imdiately pushed off the wall and walked closer. "What?!"
Even Sera sat up straighter, alarm flashing in her eyes. "Frying your brain ans you die, right?"
"Sothing like that, yeah," Nate said with a nervous chuckle.
The two girls exchanged a long, unspoken look, their concern instantly synchronized. Then, in perfect harmony, they turned to him and said, "You're joking, right?"
Nate raised both hands like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Relax, I'm just kidding. The worst it can do is not work. No side effects. I swear."
Neither Alice nor Sera looked convinced.
But Nate was already picking up the helt, its underside a complex web of glowing wires and micro-circuits. He adjusted the straps while Alice moved closer, her fingers twitching as if ready to snatch it off his head at the first sign of danger. Sera remained still, but her eyes never left Nate's face.
"Alright, hit the switch," Nate said, exhaling deeply.
Alice hesitated for a second, her finger hovering above the activation button. When she finally pressed it, the helt whirred to life. Thin cables along the sides lit up with a faint blue glow, and Nate's eyes instantly went blank.
In a flash, he was no longer in the lab.
What he saw was a military facility—but it was nothing like what he expected. It was in ruins. The entire base looked like it had been torn apart recently. Smoke curled from shattered rooftops. Craters had opened in the ground, chunks of walls and vehicles scattered everywhere. Fences had been blasted open and scorch marks painted the concrete like a war zone.
It was eerily silent.
No gunfire. No sirens. No people. No bodies, either, which was odd considering the level of destruction. But Nate knew this wasn't the real world—he was seeing only fragnts of reality, filtered through whatever ntal connection the helt had achieved.
He walked through the wreckage, heart thudding. His eyes scanned every corner, every collapsed corridor, every ruined hallway. He called out, "Bella! Madison!" but there was no response. His voice echoed and bounced off the ruined walls.
Sothing wasn't right. They were supposed to be here…
He pushed deeper into the vision, but before he could make any progress, the entire scene started to shake. His vision blurred, lights flickered, and everything around him warped and collapsed like a broken program glitching out of control.
Then, darkness.
Nate gasped and shot upright.
The helt was gone. Blood trickled from his nose and down to his lips. His skin was cold with sweat. He blinked several tis to clear his spinning vision.
Alice stood beside him, the helt already removed and placed on the table. She held a cloth in one hand and a terrified expression in the other.
Sera was right next to her, eyes wide, and for once, totally silent.
"You were bleeding," Alice said tightly. "The helt overloaded. We had to pull you out."
Nate wiped his nose with the back of his hand and took a shaky breath. He could still feel the echo of that ruined place in his mind.
Then he looked up at them, determination in his voice as he said, "I know where they are."
The two girls exchanged a glance, their concern only deepening.
But in that mont, none of it mattered to Nate. The helt had worked. Not perfectly, not safely—but it had shown him sothing. A lead. A starting point. And if there was even a chance Bella and Madison were there, he was going to take it.
---
Lightning crackled through the dense forest, scattering birds from the treetops as Nate ca to a halt. Sparks fizzled and danced along his body, then swirled in a gentle cyclone beside him. From the current, Alice and Sera materialized, the energy dispersing in shimring streaks.
"That... was super cool," Alice said, blinking as she steadied herself.
Sera just nodded, brushing strands of hair from her face. Her eyes were already locked ahead.
Before them stood what remained of the military facility Nate had seen in his vision. It wasn't just abandoned—it was obliterated. Twisted beams jutted from fractured walls, flas flickered low near cracked cent, and electrical sparks danced along broken tal. The sky above was grey, heavy with the scent of ash and smoke.
"This is recent," Sera said, scanning the horizon.
"No bodies..." Alice added, kneeling near so shattered equipnt. "No signs of gunfire, no signs of defense. Whatever happened, it was fast."
They moved quietly through the ruins, stepping over broken glass and lted wires. A barbed wire fence, crushed under a fallen watchtower, lay in a heap. They leapt over it effortlessly. The deeper they went, the worse the damage seed. Walls lted, stone shattered from within, tal twisted like paper.
And still—no sign of Bella, Madison, or Jack.
---
24 Hours Earlier
Jack moved quickly in the lab, tossing tools and notes into a compact case. His fingers moved fast, but his thoughts were elsewhere. The stone behind him pulsed gently, like it was breathing. His skin prickled every ti he turned his back to it.
He zipped up the case and turned to take one final reading, but then—
Co~
The voice was faint, like it was being whispered across ti.
Jack blinked, turning his head. "What the hell..."
Co~
Stronger this ti. Clearer. Closer. Jack's hands slackened, and the tool he held dropped with a clatter to the ground.
He moved toward the stone slowly, eyes wide, mind foggy. The glass casing shimred with faint blue light. The voice echoed in his thoughts, soft but irresistible. His fingers reached for the latch.
The door slamd open.
"Stop! Step away from it!"
Three soldiers stord in, their weapons half-raised. One of them lunged forward, eyes filled with panic.
"You touch it, you die!"
But Jack didn't hear them.
He unlatched the glass do and raised it. The stone pulsed once, bright and powerful.
His fingertips touched the surface—
And the world fell away.
---
He was nowhere. And everywhere.
Jack opened his eyes, but there was no body to open them with. No arms, no legs, no breath. He was a thought, drifting in a void. An ocean of darkness surrounded him, yet there was light too. A light that shifted and writhed like liquid shadow.
Before him hovered a black orb, glowing with an eerie, warping light that blinked in and out of existence. It twisted space around it like gravity, like it didn't belong here.
Co~
This ti, it wasn't a whisper. It was a pull. A command. A certainty.
Jack frowned. Sohow, his thoughts beca voice. "What are you?"
"Your creator"
Jack would've laughed if he had lungs. "Yeah right. I wasn't born from a rock."
Not a rock, it answered. The light surged forward, enveloping him.
Images burst into his mind. Not mories. Visions. Revelations.
He saw planets being born and torn apart. Stars collapsing. He saw ancient civilizations rise and fall in the blink of a cosmic eye. And then he saw Earth. Primitive. Young.
The stone had co here millennia ago. It had waited. Searching. Testing.
He saw people. Subjects. Generals. Scientists. Soldiers. All of them had failed. Their minds collapsed under the pressure of the stone's will. Their bodies rejected its frequency.
And then he saw Nate. A brilliant fla, powerful and full of potential.
But even Nate cracked.
None were worthy.
Jack saw a child, born in a hospital with flickering lights. The day the stone pulsed for the first ti in centuries. He saw his mother scream. Doctors panic. Machines break.
And then he saw... himself.
I made you. I shaped you. You are the vessel I built. The mind strong enough to wield .
Jack's thoughts were quiet now. The stone hadn't just found him.
It had made him.
The vision began to fade, and Jack's form returned, his awareness anchoring again.
He stood at the edge of understanding, and all he could whisper was:
"Oh... shit."
---
Back in the lab, the soldiers had fallen back, watching Jack with horror. He was floating. Just inches off the ground, his eyes pitch black, glowing with the sa eerie light as the stone.
"Get the commander!" one of the soldiers shouted. "Now!"
But they were too late. Jack wasn't the sa anymore.
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