Location: Valley Remnant – One Week After Central Knot Voidout
The BTs didn't stop him.
Kael stepped into the chiral storm zone with Mire at his side, the pod pulsing slow and steady. The air was thick with resonance, the sky gray-blue and brittle like cracked porcelain.
They should've been everywhere.
He should've heard the screams. Felt the weight of the dead tugging at his skin.
But instead—
They stepped aside.
Kael slowed, eyes scanning the mist-soaked ruins of the valley. BTs hovered in silence around him, black silhouettes dancing above the tar. But none attacked. None drifted close.
They simply watched.
As if waiting.
The pod's sensor beeped once.
Then a second pulse, not from his gear, but from a beacon.
SAMANTHA_BRIDGES — ID CONFIRMED — RANGE: 62 METERS
Kael's breath caught.
He looked to Mire. Her glow had dimmed—not in fear, but reverence.
He adjusted the pod and stepped forward.
Each footfall felt like walking through memory. Through grief. Through all the silence he'd carried since the Collapse.
And then—
She stepped from the mist.
---
Samantha stood on a low ridge above the monolith, wrapped in her dark coat, rifle slung across her back. Her braid hung loose over one shoulder, and her eyes—gray-blue, cold as the sky—locked onto his.
Kael stopped.
So did she.
The world quieted.
Even the wind held its breath.
He wanted to speak. To ask how she'd survived. Where she'd been. Why she hadn't come to him sooner.
But nothing came out.
Not yet.
So he raised a hand.
A simple gesture.
Samantha studied him for a heartbeat longer, then descended the ridge slowly. Her steps were deliberate. She walked like someone who had crossed a hundred mountains just to decide if she wanted to be here.
And then she stood before him.
Close enough to see the chiral dust on his collar.
Close enough to hear Mire's breath catch.
Kael broke the silence first.
"…You left a signal."
Samantha didn't blink. "You followed it."
"I had to."
"I know."
Another silence stretched between them—charged, not awkward. Both of them knew this moment meant something neither could name yet.
Kael's gaze shifted to Mire, who hovered near Samantha like she recognized her too deeply for it to be coincidence.
"She remembers you," he said.
Samantha didn't flinch. "I remember her."
"You saw her?"
"I felt her. Years ago."
Kael swallowed. "You're the reason she woke up."
"No," Samantha said quietly. "You are. I just… reminded her that someone still cared."
That hit harder than it should have.
Kael looked away, back toward the monolith behind them. BTs still floated overhead—watching, but no longer hostile.
"You calmed them," he said.
"I didn't calm them," Samantha replied. "I told them to wait."
He stared at her. "Why?"
"Because I didn't want you walking into a fight."
He frowned. "Why not?"
Finally, she gave the answer neither of them was brave enough to say until now.
"Because I've been walking alone for too long," Samantha whispered. "And I didn't want to anymore."
Kael looked at her again.
Truly looked.
And for the first time since the world broke apart, he saw someone who carried it like he did.
Someone who knew the cost.
Someone who hadn't broken under it.
He reached to the pod on his back and gently rotated it so the child inside faced forward.
The girl stirred, her hand pressing softly to the glass.
Samantha's breath hitched.
"She's like us," he said. "But… older than both of us combined."
Samantha stepped closer.
"She's remembering."
"Yeah," Kael whispered. "So am I."
They stood there in silence as the BTs faded into nothing, as the chiral storm passed, as the valley went still.
For once… not alone.
---
> Two ghosts walked the end of the world until they found each other.
Not to save it.
But to finally stop walking in silence.
---