The ruins of New Alesis didn't creak or moan like most abandoned places.
They breathed—a low, pulsing hum buried beneath silence, like the heart of something ancient still ticking beneath stone.
Juno stepped over the shattered welcome sign. It still read:
"New Alesis – A City for Tomorrow."
The "Tomorrow" part had rusted off.
Milo adjusted his scanner as they entered the town limits. "Signal's still jammed, but something's… leaking. The whole place is layered with time distortion. Like it's been paused, rewound, and played again too many times."
"Can you pinpoint Vault Ten?" Idris asked.
"Sort of. There's a spot in the center where the magnetic noise clears. Like a calm eye in a storm."
Juno's compass pulsed again. Stronger this time. Both needles now pointed in the same direction—for the first time.
She turned sharply.
A shadow darted behind a building.
Milo saw it too. "Please tell me that was just a deer."
"No deer stands that tall," Idris muttered, drawing his blade with his good arm.
They moved in formation—Juno at the front, compass held tight. As they passed empty storefronts and parked cars with moss-covered windshields, everything felt watched. A town built on echoes, now filled with watchers hiding in the cracks of reality.
They reached the town square.
At its center stood a massive, timeworn statue: a man reaching toward the sky with both hands, palms open—like offering something invisible to the heavens.
Below it was a sealed hatch with an embedded dial. Twelve symbols surrounded it. None of them were in any human language.
Juno crouched beside it. The journal's pages flipped on their own—windless—and stopped at a diagram she didn't remember drawing.
"Vault Ten: The Offering Gate.
Only the remembered can enter.
Only the forgotten can leave."
Before she could speak, Idris stiffened. "Someone's here."
A presence. Cold and measured.
Juno turned.
Standing at the far end of the square, beneath the shadows of an old clock tower, was a man.
Sleeveless black jacket. Artificial right hand. And eyes that caught her breath in her throat.
Seth.
No one said a word.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
Then—he stepped forward.
Juno's fingers twitched toward her weapon, heart racing. She didn't remember him fully… but her soul did. A part of her screamed to run. Another wanted to walk toward him.
Seth said nothing.
Until—
"Juno," he said, voice quiet and sharp.
"You're not supposed to be here."