The Vault was quiet.
Too quiet.
Aarav stood at the edge of the platform, looking into the swirling Loop above. Endless rings of light passed through each other like fluid geometry, the multiverse shimmering with chaotic rhythm. After everything they had seen—the fall of Axis 12, the corruption of Axis 17, the restoration of the Anchor Core—he thought the silence might bring peace.
It didn't.
Behind him, Rishi paced, his electric energy flickering in his fingers.
Elios was at the center console, channeling strands of golden data from the Vault's memory sphere. His expression had barely changed since he first mentioned Axis Prime.
"I still don't get it," Rishi muttered. "Why haven't we heard of Axis Prime before? If it's the source of the multiverse, shouldn't it be the first place we protected?"
"Because Axis Prime," Elios said, turning, "isn't just a place."
Aarav looked back. "Then what is it?"
"It's a lock. A gate. A buried origin. When the multiverse fractured into infinite possibilities, Axis Prime was sealed away—so no single being could access the core of all creation. But now, something is trying to reopen it."
"Axis 17," Aarav said.
Elios nodded. "They're not just infecting realities. They're hunting for the coordinates to Axis Prime. If they find it first, they won't just rewrite one universe. They'll overwrite all of them."
The room fell silent again.
Rishi broke it with a sigh. "So let's go first."
Aarav stepped forward. "How do we find it?"
Elios pulled up the Vault's deepest memory file—a glowing map unlike anything they'd seen. It didn't show Axes like worlds or branches. It showed frequencies—vibrations in the fabric of space-time.
"Every Guardian leaves a trace in the Loop," Elios explained. "You've both connected to multiple Axes. Your frequency, your presence—it's unlocking the path to Axis Prime naturally. You are the key."
The map pulsed with a deep, low hum. Then, a shape formed in the center: a spiral, like a galaxy twisting inward.
Aarav felt a strange pull in his chest.
"That's it," he whispered. "That's where we're going."
---
The Passage
Elios led them to a sealed chamber hidden beneath the Vault's core—a massive, circular room lined with ancient sigils. In the center stood a platform made of silver stone, etched with the infinity symbol.
"The Gate to Axis Prime only opens to those who've touched more than one timeline," Elios said. "You've both passed through dreams, ages, powers… Aarav, you've lived a lifetime at 17, then returned to your 8-year-old self. That loop is your key."
Aarav and Rishi stepped onto the platform. The moment their feet touched it, the floor came alive. Light burst from the runes, rising into spirals of energy.
The room began to shift.
Walls dissolved into stars.
The floor faded into light.
Time stopped.
And then—
They were standing at the edge of something massive.
---
The Threshold of Axis Prime
Before them stretched a realm unlike anything they had seen. It was not a universe. It was not even a world.
It was a concept.
Endless lines of energy coiled around an infinite sphere—like a living core of thought and possibility. Stars moved backward. Galaxies breathed in silence. Laws of physics bent, bowed, and disappeared.
In the center hovered a platform of translucent crystal.
Aarav stepped forward, drawn by something deep inside.
He felt his memories ripple—his childhood dreams, the lightning that struck him, the moment he first saw the stars bend. And deeper still, he felt another presence… watching.
"I feel it too," Rishi said quietly. "Something is… alive here."
Elios's voice echoed, though he was not with them.
"Axis Prime is sentient. It remembers its creators. It remembers the first Guardian."
Aarav reached the center of the platform. Symbols began to float in front of him—memories of thousands of Axes, histories from worlds he'd never visited.
A voice spoke—not out loud, but in his soul.
"Why do you seek me?"
He answered without hesitation.
"To stop Axis 17. To protect every life tied to the Loop."
"You are the bridge. The loopwalker. The one who sees past time."
A vision struck him like lightning:
A multiverse collapsing.
Axis 17 spreading like infection.
And at its heart… a shadow with no face.
And then—a burst of light.
A version of himself, older, with wings of gravitational energy and the infinity symbol burning across his chest.
He gasped and fell to his knees.
Rishi caught him.
"You okay?"
Aarav nodded slowly. "It showed me… what I can become."
The core platform began to crack—glowing symbols floating away.
A door formed in the void.
The true Gate.
And behind it… the final secret of the Loop.
---
Back to the Vault
The two Guardians returned through the axis bridge, shaken but changed. Elios was waiting, his eyes wide.
"You saw it?"
Aarav nodded. "We didn't just see it. We touched it. And it saw us too."
Rishi added, "Whatever happens next, the war has moved to a higher level."
Aarav looked toward the stars beyond the Vault.
"Axis 17 is coming for Axis Prime. But we'll be ready."