In the hidden sanctum beneath the Forgotten Flame Tower, Jian and Jackson stood shoulder to shoulder before the relic's core—its pulsating shadow clashing with the warm light of Jian's staff and the dragon scales embedded in Jackson's chest.
Above them, the tower groaned, as if the structure itself were resisting what was about to come.
Then… a crack.
Not in the stone.
In the air.
[Elsewhere – The Temporal Rift]
Alicia stood alone on the brink of time's unraveling. The golden horizon around her shimmered like molten glass, tearing at the seams. Threads of memory—hers, Jackson's, Jian's—coiled and stretched, each tethered to a moment she had once tried to protect.
Her form flickered. Parts of her existed across timelines: her body here, her memories splintered through moments she no longer remembered choosing.
"This is what it costs," she whispered. "To rewrite fate."
The voices of the past rushed in like wind: "Don't use the staff again." "Alicia, we can find another way." "If you go through with this, you might not come back."
But it had always been her choice.
She reached out, and through the swirl of timelines, she saw something—someone—rising from the relic's chamber.
Jian.
Eyes full of fury and grief.
Jackson.
Heart lit with fire.
The light coming from them wasn't just magic—it was memory. Her memory. Her choices had shaped these two. Her light had become theirs.
A crack ran across her arm—light pouring from her skin like glass shattering.
"No," Alicia said, gritting her teeth. "Not yet."
She pressed both palms to the storm of timelines tearing apart around her—and pushed.
[Back at the Tower – The Collapse Begins]
The relic screamed, its shadow tendrils lashing outward. The chamber trembled. One of the walls split, and flame erupted—but it wasn't destructive.
It was golden.
Jian raised her staff and stepped forward, light pouring from it in waves.
"She's fighting from the other side!" Jian shouted. "She's holding it back!"
Jackson grimaced as the relic writhed. "Then we give her everything we've got."
He summoned the dragon scales' power, his chest glowing brighter than ever before. The light surged into the chamber, latching onto the relic's core. It burned, not with heat, but with truth—with memory, with sacrifice, with love.
The darkness screeched—and began to crack.
And in that moment, for the first time in what felt like eternity, Alicia stepped through.
Not fully.
Not physically.
But her image—a vision of her, radiant and fierce—appeared between them, her hands raised as if holding the timeline together by force.
"Alicia!" Jian cried.
Alicia's eyes met hers, filled with pain and pride. "You found me."
Jian stepped forward, tears forming. "We're bringing you back. No more running. No more losing time."
Alicia shook her head. "Not yet. The relic's still rooted in me. If you pull me out now… everything collapses."
Jackson growled, fists clenched. "There's always a way."
"There is," Alicia said slowly, her voice like wind through flame. "But you'll have to go where I went. Into the threads of time itself. Find the third scale. It was lost… not in space, but in a forgotten future. And bring it here. Bring it home."
The vision flickered—she was fading.
"Alicia!" Jian shouted again.
Alicia's eyes glowed, not with fear, but with certainty. "I'll hold the embers. You find the flame."
Then—she was gone.
The relic exploded into fractured light, and the room fell silent… except for one sound.
A heartbeat.
Slow.
Alive.
Jackson looked down. A third resonance was pulsing faintly in Jian's staff now. The spark of a new path.
"We're going into time," he said.
Jian nodded, fire in her blood. "And we're bringing her back."