Kael couldn't sleep.
Even after the containment field stabilized, his body hummed with a strange current—an energy that wasn't entirely his own. The room was dim, lit only by the faint glow of the ship's control panels. Elyra had insisted on monitoring the systems from the next chamber, leaving him to rest. But rest felt impossible.
He closed his eyes and immediately heard it.
A whisper.
Faint, almost tender—like a voice carried through static.
"You don't have to fear me."
Kael's eyes opened. The voice wasn't external; it resonated inside his thoughts, threading through his consciousness like smoke.
He sat up slowly. "You're the fragment."
A soft chuckle. "A piece, yes. But not your enemy. You and I… we share the same origin."
He frowned. "What does that mean?"
The whisper pulsed like a heartbeat, and images flooded his mind—fractured, incomplete. A massive crystalline structure floating in space, pulsing with energy. The Marauder kneeling before it, tendrils woven with light. And within the structure—a sphere of darkness, bound yet alive.
Kael gritted his teeth. "Show me more."
"I can't. Not yet. The truth sleeps in the core of your companion—the Marauder you trust so deeply."
Kael froze. "You're saying the Marauder is connected to the Void?"
The voice softened, almost pitying. "Created from it. A guardian born from the same source. One meant to contain what I became."
He felt his pulse quicken. The Marauder—their ally, their guide—had always spoken of the Void as an ancient enemy. But what if it wasn't? What if the Void and the Marauder were two halves of a single creation—light and shadow from the same birth?
Kael stood, steadying himself against the console. "You're lying."
"Am I? Look inside him. The truth hides in his core, beneath layers of denial. Ask him what he remembers of the First Mind."
The whisper faded, leaving only silence. But its presence lingered—warm, persistent, patient.
Moments later, Elyra entered. "You're awake," she said softly, relief in her tone. "Any pain?"
Kael hesitated. "No pain. Just… memories. Or something like them."
Elyra frowned. "The fragment?"
He nodded slowly. "It spoke to me. Said the Marauder was once part of the Void."
Her eyes widened. "That's impossible. The Marauder fights the Void—he's been fighting it for millennia."
"Maybe that's exactly why," Kael said quietly. "Maybe he's fighting what he used to be."
Before Elyra could respond, the chamber door slid open. The Marauder entered, its golden eyes dimming slightly as it regarded them both. "You've heard its voice."
Kael's hand instinctively drifted to his sidearm. "You knew."
"I feared this would happen," the Marauder admitted. "The fragment remembers things even I have forgotten."
Elyra stepped between them, tense. "Then tell us the truth."
The Marauder's form rippled, shadows and light weaving together in silent conflict.
"Very well," it said finally. "It's time you learned what the Void truly is— and what I once was."
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