"When gods went silent, we kept watch."
---
High above Earth, in the floating observatory-lab Zephyr One, Zayden stood motionless inside the command deck.
Screens pulsed with impossible data. The cube pulsed on a pedestal—alive.
And deep within the systems, OBLIVION worked—silent, calculating, inevitable.
Then it spoke.
OBLIVION: "A hidden station. Behind Earth's shadow. Built not by humans… but watchers."
A projection ignited, folding space into view.
A structure emerged—ancient and broken, yet impossibly cloaked.
Orbiting the Lagrange point, masked behind Earth's very mass, untouched for millennia.
Kael's eyes widened.
"If that's real… they've been watching Earth for thousands of years."
Zayden leaned forward, a grin tugging at his lips.
"They built a station and hid it like a kid hiding candy under the bed? Cute."
He turned.
"Good. Time to give them a damn show."
---
The dropship docked in silence. No alarms. No resistance. Just anticipation.
Zayden, Lyra, Kael, and two tactical androids stepped into corridors of living tech—walls laced with pulsing veins of violet light, inscribed in Draconian glyphs older than Earth's oceans.
Before they touched the entrance, the gates opened themselves.
Lyra whispered, "It's alive…"
Then came the voice—deep, metallic, reverberating through their bones.
Voice: "Who enters the tomb of watchers?"
Zayden stepped into the chamber without hesitation.
"A man with a plan."
From the ceiling, a titan descended—ten feet tall, reptilian armor glistening with particles of starlight, its eyes a brilliant, unblinking gold.
Draconian Sentinel: "Zayden Rael of Earth. Timebender. Catalyst of Collapse. We knew you'd come."
Lyra tensed beside him.
"How do you know his name?"
The Sentinel didn't move.
"Your gods feared you.
The Annunaki buried their knowledge.
We archived it."
---
Zayden approached the central altar. The Annunaki cube clicked into place.
Immediately, memory storms erupted.
Dozens of timelines, unraveling at once:
— One where Earth never discovered fire.
— One where Zayden died in infancy.
— One where he ruled Mars as a digital tyrant, feeding off the memories of his followers.
— A hundred paths. All ending in fire.
The Sentinel watched.
Draconian: "Every timeline where you rise… ends in fire."
Zayden's smirk faltered, only for a second.
"Then I'll write a new one."
The Draconian unsheathed a blade of threaded time, shimmering like torn seconds.
"Then pass the Trial of Memory. Show us your mind… and survive."
---
Zayden fell into darkness.
He opened his eyes inside a psychic crucible—built not of space, but memory.
He stood beside his mother, young and helpless, as she died in his arms.
He saw himself at seventeen, mocked for his inventions.
He watched his empire collapse… then rise from ashes.
He saw her—the Lady in Red—turning away from him in a burning city, her silhouette bathed in betrayal.
A voice surrounded him.
"You seek to shape destiny. Yet you run from your pain."
Zayden collapsed, bleeding, gasping—but he stood again, eyes blazing.
"No.
I forge it from my pain."
The trial cracked.
Light poured through.
---
Zayden awoke on the cold floor of the station.
His nose bled. His fingers trembled.
But he stood.
The Draconian knelt before him—an ancient gesture of respect from a species that bowed to no one.
Draconian: "You passed. But beware… power means nothing to time.
It will devour you all the same."
Zayden's voice was steady.
"Then I'll feed it answers."
The Draconian stepped aside.
Zayden walked forward—scarred, breathless, more determined than ever.
Lyra watched him, whispering low.
"He's not stopping. He's becoming something else…"
Kael nodded.
"Yeah. He's becoming what the universe fears."
---
In a city suspended between magic and machine, a tower pierced the sky.
On its balcony stood the Lady in Red, her eyes fixed on the stars.
Behind her, a hooded figure emerged from the shadows.
"He found the Draconian station."
She didn't turn.
"I know."
"He's getting closer. But to what?"
She smiled faintly—sadly.
"The end."
---
End of Chapter 19
---
Next Chapter: Chapter 20 – "The Lady in Red"