EXT. ALIEN DESERT - DAY
The team is stranded. They are in a place outside of normal reality, a desert of crimson sand under the heat of two suns. The sky is a bruised purple. This is where GLITCH brought them.
The environment is littered with impossible objects: a Roman chariot half-buried in the sand next to a futuristic datapad, a World War II fighter plane tangled in the branches of a bio-luminescent tree. This place is a graveyard of forgotten timelines.
The initial relief of escape quickly sours into despair. They are lost, their resources are gone, and their only guide is a madman. The true darkness of this episode is not physical, but psychological. The Wasteland is haunted. It preys on the minds of those who enter it, manifesting their deepest regrets as tangible, tormenting apparitions.
Aris's Torment: He is haunted by the ghost of his grandfather. This isn't a kind spirit; it's a cold, accusatory specter that whispers to him from the shimmering heat haze. "You lost my life's work, Aris. You had the key to everything, and you traded it for a magic trick. You failed me." Aris begins to withdraw, consumed by guilt and failure.
Julian's Torment: He is hunted by the Echo of himself he fought in Hong Kong. It doesn't attack him physically. It stalks him at the edge of his vision, its glitching form a constant reminder of his own mortality. It whispers his own insecurities back at him: "You couldn't save Inez. You couldn't even save yourself. What kind of guardian are you?" Julian becomes hyper-vigilant, paranoid, and his physical strength is useless against a ghost made of his own self-doubt.
Kaelen's Torment: Her ghost is the most painful of all. A quiet, sad-eyed man appears before her—the politician from the 1980s that the Oracle erased. He doesn't blame her. He just looks at her with infinite sorrow and asks a simple, devastating question: "I had a family. I had dreams. Was the peace you were born into worth the price of my entire world?"
The team begins to fracture under the weight of their personal demons. They argue. They isolate themselves. Hope dies.
KAELEN, pushed to the brink of despair, finally realizes what is happening. This place feeds on regret. She sees Glitch watching them with a strange, almost clinical pity.
This is Kaelen's dark turning point. She confronts her ghost. She looks the man in the eye, tears streaming down her face, and gives him the honest, brutal answer.
By accepting the ugly truth, by letting go of the past she was trying to save, she starves the apparition. It fades away. She then goes to her friends and pulls them back from the brink, not with logic, but with shared emotional truth. She helps Aris see that he is more than his grandfather's legacy, and helps Julian understand that his strength comes from his loyalty, not his inability to fail.
The episode ends as the team, emotionally shattered but finally united in their brokenness, stands together. Glitch, looking satisfied, snaps his fingers.
A shimmering doorway appears. They step through, leaving the Wasteland behind, not healed, but scarred and stronger for it.
FADE TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 19