Location: Timeline 077 – Ruined Dominion of Thorne-Rex
Mission Objective: Recover the Phantom Atlas (Time Anchor) | Danger Level: High-Critical
Time Remaining Before Grid Collapse: 03:12:54
The landscape bled shadow.
Ash clouds rolled across a broken world ruled by storm towers and titan statues—each one bearing the likeness of Thorne's face. Jagged, monstrous, twisted.
Skulls lined the city walls like flowers on display.
This wasn't just another timeline. It was a nightmare carved in stone.
"…What the hell is this?" Kael muttered as they emerged from the multiversal breach.
Thorne didn't answer.
Because he already knew.
They'd entered his world—or rather, the version of it where he'd never turned against the dark. A timeline where he had conquered everything.
A place where Thorne-Rex ruled the Ash Legion.
Scene 1: Reflections in Smoke
The team trekked through the ruined streets, passing propaganda posters of Thorne cloaked in obsidian armor, eyes glowing crimson, arms raised above kneeling armies.
Kael stared. "You were worshipped here."
Thorne said nothing.
Ayla gave a low whistle. "Kind of hot. In a terrifying, genocidal way."
Mira elbowed her.
"Not helping."
Thorne stopped at a cracked mirror leaning against a collapsed monolith.
His face stared back.
But behind the reflection… a ripple.
A figure stepped out.
Himself—taller, clad in twisted obsidian Ranger armor, with a jagged crown of circuitry and bone. The true overlord of this timeline.
"At last," Thorne-Rex said, voice like fire on iron. "The traitor returns."
Scene 2: The Warlord and the Turncoat
"Your reign ends today," Thorne said, drawing his weapon.
Thorne-Rex laughed. "You came to kill me? No. You came to see what you could've been. What you should've been."
"You enslaved billions."
"I freed them from indecision. From hope. Hope is a lie dressed in bright colors and choreographed battles."
Mira whispered to Kael, "We need that Time Anchor. It's buried beneath his Spire."
"Let Thorne distract him."
Thorne-Rex circled his counterpart.
"I remember the moment I split," he said. "When you turned to help the Resistance. You chose weakness."
"I chose guilt."
Thorne raised his blade.
"I chose change."
Scene 3: Civil War
Thorne-Rex unleashed a wave of corrupted Morph energy—black and red fire that tore the street apart. Thorne leapt through it, clashing steel to steel in the center of the crumbling city.
The team watched from a distance as the two Thornes fought like gods.
Each blow triggered memory-echoes around them—ghosts of battles, of conquests, of Thorne's rise and fall.
Kael turned to Rin. "He's not going to win alone."
Rin didn't blink. "He doesn't need to."
"What do you mean?"
"This isn't about strength," Rin murmured. "It's about choice."
Scene 4: The Fall of Thorne-Rex
The fight dragged into the Spire—glass and steel exploding in arcs of violet light.
Thorne collapsed to one knee.
Thorne-Rex raised his blade.
"You still feel, don't you? Regret. Guilt. Weakness."
But Thorne looked up.
And smiled.
"No. I feel anger. For what I let myself become. For the pain I caused."
He stabbed his blade into the ground—and unleashed a pulse.
Pure.
Uncorrupted.
His Morph Energy—clean.
The pulse rippled through the Spire, shattering every image of Thorne-Rex.
The dictator staggered back, armor cracking.
"You—traitor—!"
"No," Thorne said, rising. "Redeemed."
One final strike—
Thorne-Rex fell.
And with him, the Spire shattered.
Scene 5: The Atlas and the Warning
The Phantom Atlas revealed itself within the ruins—an hourglass-shaped artifact glowing with starlight and broken clock hands.
Mira approached it with awe.
"This… this can re-anchor realities."
"If Elios gets it," Rin warned, "he could rewrite entire timelines before we can react."
Kael looked to Thorne. "You alright?"
Thorne nodded once.
"…I buried this part of me. But it's still there. I have to carry it."
Ayla hugged his arm. "You carry it well, Dark-and-Broody."
But just as Mira lifted the Atlas—
The world trembled.
A tear opened in the sky.
And a voice hissed through it.
"You're gathering tools. But you forget… I've already rewritten fate once."
Elios.
And behind him—dozens of corrupted Rangers in black armor.
"Let's see how many second chances you can bleed."
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