[OPENING SCENE — SKYVAULT CITY, DAYBREAK]
A somber breeze moves through the glistening streets of SkyVault. Repair drones hum overhead, repairing the damage from Nullborn's psychic interference. The city is still scarred. And now… quiet.
Inside VAN HQ, the team stares at the cracked digital projection of a countdown — 7:00. In red.
Echo-7:
"It wasn't there yesterday. Not in the core systems. Not in any systems."
Kael (arms folded):
"Then it's a message. Planted when we were inside Irion's mind?"
Yuna (checking her tablet):
"Or earlier. Something's primed. The code is recursive. The more we try to defuse it... the faster it loops."
Irion (serious):
"Nullborn's final contingency."
Jax:
"She couldn't beat us in a fight, so she left a ticking goodbye bomb? How charming."
Tari (coldly):
"No... this isn't a bomb."
Veya (loading her pistols):
"It's bait."
[TITLE CARD — "SEVEN MINUTES TO COLLAPSE"]
[SCENE – GENERAL VORTAN'S ARRIVAL]
A high-speed cruiser lands in front of VAN HQ. General Vortan, an elite tactician from the Skyvault Defense Core, emerges. His presence alone brings a tension the team doesn't expect. Scar across his eye, electromagnetic knuckles on his gloves.
General Vortan:
"Heard you picked a fight with a shadow god and won. Cute. But now my clock is ticking."
Kael (nonchalant):
"We don't answer to your clock."
General Vortan (gruff):
"No, but the city does. And that thing in your system? It's broadcasting."
He hands them a hologram — distorted feeds from other cities are shown glitching. Symbols similar to Nullborn's patterns are infecting global infrastructure.
Veya:
"She's trying to crack the world open through data."
Echo-7:
"She turned fear into code. And now the code is copying itself."
Vortan:
"You've got one shot. Shut down the core node. We traced the signal to the subterranean archive below the old Nexus spire."
Tari:
"That's under lockdown. Restricted since the Riftquake."
Kael:
"Looks like we're unlocking it."
[SCENE – BELOW SKYVAULT – NEXUS ARCHIVE TUNNELS]
Dark, damp corridors lined with failing lights. The team navigates broken magnetic lifts and tunnels stitched with old VR illusions flickering like ghosts.
Echo-7 (pinging signal):
"Signal intensifying. Nullborn residue — dense and sentient."
Suddenly, ghost-like enemies lurch out of the walls. Echo-shades — AI-driven puppets wearing the past faces of the Vanguards.
Jax:
"Oh you've got to be kidding me. I look like that?"
Tari (sniping a shade):
"Focus, clown."
A full-scale battle erupts in the tunnels. Irion and Veya move as a fluid team — blasting through specters with Riftfire and kinetic bullets.
Irion:
"They're feeding off who we were."
Veya:
"Good thing I've always been unpredictable."
[SCENE – NODE CHAMBER: THE CORE PULSE]
They enter a chamber of glass and memory — suspended over a pit of swirling code-light. At its center: a floating crystal heart, pulsating with Nullborn's echo signature.
Kael:
"That's the source."
Yuna:
"It's not just code. It's a personality splinter. She embedded herself here."
Echo-7:
"Deleting it could break the broadcast. Or trigger a cascade."
Kael:
"Then we don't delete it. We overwrite it."
He draws his sword, and Irion prepares a new seal of voidlight. Yuna connects to the memory net. Echo-7 begins injecting stabilizers. Tari and Jax stand guard. Veya watches the shadows.
[SCENE – TIMED DEFENSE]
As the overwriting begins, the countdown returns. 6:58... 6:57... Nullborn's fractured essence resists.
Reality glitches. The environment twists — and a colossal Null Echo Titan rises, forged from leftover fears. It speaks with all their voices.
Titan:
"You will forget yourselves."
Kael leads the charge. Jax amplifies every footstep with shockwaves. Tari fires streaks of astral light. Irion and Yuna weave code and memory into weapons. Veya backflips through falling debris, placing tactical shots into weak points.
Kael (shouting):
"Now! While it's unstable!"
Irion blasts the core with Riftfire. Echo-7 runs digital counter-loops. The crystal begins to implode.
Echo-7:
"Four nodes down. Two to go!"
Veya (reloading):
"Make it one. I'm going through!"
She sprints toward the last node, slides under collapsing debris, and fires point-blank. The crystal shatters.
[SCENE – COLLAPSE AVERTED]
The broadcast dies. The code disperses like smoke. The countdown halts at 00:03. SkyVault's systems begin resetting. Outside, a quiet begins to fall — the true quiet of peace.
Kael (breathing hard):
"We stopped it."
Yuna (weary):
"For now."
Irion:
"She's not truly gone. Just... dispersed. Fragmented across thought and fear."
Jax:
"Then let's make sure people aren't afraid anymore."
[SCENE – RETURN TO SKYVAULT, VAN HQ ROOFTOP]
The team watches as a hologram of the city projects over them. Repair drones continue their work. Civilians light candles in their homes. Peaceful, for once.
Veya (smirking):
"If any of you cry, I'm kicking you off the roof."
Tari:
"Wouldn't be the first time."
Kael:
"You all earned this. Go rest. But stay sharp. This city still needs us."
[ENDING SCENE – UNKNOWN LOCATION]
A dark, empty chamber. Lines of ancient circuitry carved into obsidian walls. A figure in shadow watches a spinning shard of glass. It whispers with Nullborn's tone.
Unknown Figure:
"She cracked the mind. But the soul... is next."