Damien triggered a failsafe—Project Eden—a biomechanical sanctuary buried in the Mariana Trench. It was meant as a fallback, a pure seed to reboot civilization if his plans failed.
He fused with the ChronoCore, enhancing his physiology. No longer just a man, Damien became temporal-adjacent: able to pause, rewind, or fracture micro-events.
Lyra appeared again. This time, not to fight.
"You're not Damien anymore," she said. "You're the Echo."
And she was right.