Sector 9 – First Floor Vault Room
The flash drive sat there, cold and silent. No glow. No fanfare. Just a small piece of metal carrying what they need.
Leo, Jace, and Whiskers had bled and clawed their way through the labyrinth of dangers—lasers slicing the air, drones hunting like predators, shadows swallowing every desperate step. Now, silence pressed in on them. The calm before a storm they all feared.
Leo's hand trembled as he reached toward the pedestal, eyes wide and unblinking.
LEO (softly, voice cracking) "This is why they died."
Whiskers' whisper cut through the tension.
WHISKERS "Wait. We're not alone."
Footsteps—slow, deliberate—bounced off the cold walls.
Three Timekeepers stepped into the dim light, guns raised, eyes glowing like predators. Then—a fourth.
She paused, breath catching as she saw them: Jace, Leo. Mask on. Gun trembling.
Leo and Jace froze. The world seemed to hold its breath.
TIMEKEEPER 4 (voice breaking) "Leo… Jace…?"
The mask slipped from her face.
Beneath it—was the woman Jace called Mom, Zavri Rivers.
Her face was pale, full of fear. Eyes swollen red from too many sleepless nights, too many tears swallowed back. Hands shaking like she might fall apart at any moment.
JACE (barely a whisper, voice breaking) "…Mom?"
She nodded, eyes glistening, haunted.
ZAVRI "I never thought it would be you. I didn't know… I didn't know this day would come."
Leo stepped back, heart banging against his ribs like it might fall out.
LEO "You were one of them..?"
Her gaze shattered, and with it, something inside them all did too.
ZAVRI (voice barely above a whisper) "I wasn't when they died. I swear on everything. I begged them to stop… to let us be. They were my family. My best friends."
Jace's voice cracked, torn between betrayal, disbelief, and grief.
JACE "Then why? Why did you become this?"
She looked at Leo, then Jace, with a pain so deep it felt like a knife twisting in their hearts.
ZAVRI "A year after they died, they came for you. They said if I didn't join, you'd vanish. No trace. No name. I didn't know what else to do. I… I was terrified."
Jace's voice was small, haunted.
JACE "You were never here."
She reached a hand out, but her hands trembled, frozen by years of guilt.
ZAVRI "I watched every birthday from the rooftops, every school play from the shadows. I stayed silent, so you could breathe freely without fear. I thought silence was protection."
JACE (tears forming) "I didn't want silence. I wanted you!"
Her eyes filled with unbearable regret.
ZAVRI "I'm sorry. More than you can imagine."
Leo's voice was a broken whisper.
LEO "You let me believe my parents died alone."
LEO (barely audible, trembling) "…You were supposed to be here."
Leo fists clenched, eyes burning—not with rage, but with heartbreak and betrayal.
LEO (voice rising) "You were there. You were like an aunt to me. You knew my parents. You laughed with them. You held me when I cried. And then you—"
LEO (he chokes on the words) "—you became the thing that took them away."
Leo steps forward, devastated.
LEO (stepping forward, fists clenched, voice shaking) "You were there when I learned how to tie my shoes. You were there when I scraped my knee and thought the world was ending and you made it feel okay. You told me heroes always come back."
He looks at her, eyes glassy, voice cracking.
LEO (barely holding it together) "But you didn't. You watched me break and did nothing. You let us believe we were safe… while you wore the same mask that killed them."
Jace looks down, clutching his fists. His voice cracked, breaking like glass.
JACE (whispers) "I saved you a seat at every birthday, every school play… and every time you didn't come, I told myself you were fighting to get back. I made excuses for you—said maybe you were hurt, maybe you were lost, maybe you were trying… But you weren't. You were close enough to hear me cry and still chose silence. And I hated you for it. I hated you so much… but I never stopped saving that seat. Because I still loved you more than you ever could. Even when it broke me."
JACE (mumble) "I thought maybe you were busy somewhere. Maybe you were trying to make it to everything you missed. But you weren't. You were just… gone."
"You were my mom. You were my family. And you chose to leave me."
Zavri clutched the memories like they might slip away.
ZAVRI "They fought. They screamed for both of you. I held Nora's hand as she faded—promised her I'd keep you safe. I failed. Every day I wore this mask, I felt the weight of that failure."
JACE "You broke that promise."
She nodded, eyes filled with guilt.
Suddenly, the other Timekeepers stepped forward, weapons raised.
TIMEKEEPER 1 "Keeper 4. Stand down."
She didn't move.
She turned to Leo, voice steady despite the pain.
ZAVRI "Take the drive. Go back to the Hollow. Don't let them erase it."
LEO (hope flickering) "You're coming with us?"
She smiled—a fragile, broken smile, the kind that carries all the sorrow in the world.
ZAVRI "I can't. They'll hunt you. They'll never stop. Unless someone finally stands up to them."
She stepped forward.
JACE (shouting, eyes swelling up, voice torn and desperate) "No—don't do this! You're all I have left! PLEASE! If you go, there's nothing! Just the silence you left behind!"
ZAVRI (soft, voice trembling but steady) "I know. And I'm sorry—for every empty chair, every quiet rooftop, every time you needed me loud and I chose silence. I should've come back. I should've fought harder. But this… this is the only way I can still protect you, even when I couldn't before."
But then she turned her gun. Not at them. At herself, her eyes closed.
ZAVRI (thoughts) "Jace… Leo… I love you. I always have. But I was weak. I let fear speak louder than love. I missed your birthdays, your voices, your pain—and I told myself silence was safer. I thought if I stayed away, you'd be stronger. But all I did was teach you how to live without me. And now, I'm giving you one last thing—freedom. Even if it means you'll hate me. Even if it means you'll scream my name like it's a curse. I'm sorry I wasn't brave enough to stay. I'm sorry I made you think love leaves."
One shot.
The world shattered. Silence swallowed the room whole.
JACE "MOM!"
Jace screamed—a raw, primal sound ripping through the quiet, tears rolling down his cheek uncontrollably, burning hot.
Leo didn't speak. Tears slid down his face, slow and steady, like he'd stopped trying to hold anything in. His heart stripping into two.
Whiskers grabbed the flash drive as he pulled them toward the exit, a bullet narrowly missing Jace.
WHISKERS (thoughts) "She broke the silence. That's how you know she loved you."
Jace looked back—one last time.
And saw her—bleeding, surrounded, mask gone.
Not a villain.
Not a hero.
Just a woman who broke herself to keep two boys breathing.