The walk back to the extraction lab felt like a descent into a tomb. The Iron Sovereign was screaming, the sound of structural steel warping under the Rift's gravitational tide filling the corridors. Every few seconds, the ship would lurch, and the familiar, stabbing pain would bloom in their chests—a reminder that even a few inches of separation was now a mortal threat.
When they entered the lab, it was a ruin. The nitrogen fog had cleared, leaving behind a frozen, crystalline landscape. The two cradles stood like altars in the center of the wreckage.
"The core is at ninety-four percent," Elias said, checking a tablet he'd snatched from the bridge. "If we're going to do this, it has to be now."
Lyra walked to her cradle, her fingers tracing the jagged metal where Elias had ripped her free. She looked at him, her silver eyes reflecting the dying violet light of the rift outside. "Elias... the bridge data. I saw the rest of the file while you were tackling Valerius."
Elias paused, his hand on his own restraint. "What do you mean?"
"The 'fusion' isn't a balanced exchange," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The Thorne Factor... it's like a battery. One side has to be the conductor, and the other has to be the ground. To reignite the sun, the energy doesn't just pass through us. It has to stay in the core. The 'ground'... the person who completes the circuit... they don't just die from the heat."
Elias felt the air leave his lungs. "They become the Catalyst. They are consumed. Entirely."
"And the other?" Elias asked, his heart beginning to thud in that terrifying sync.
"The conductor survives," she said, a single tear tracking through the soot on her cheek. "The link is severed. The heart sync breaks because one half of the heart... simply isn't there anymore. The conductor lives to see the sun rise."
The silence in the lab was absolute, save for the hum of the dying ship. This was the final cruelty of their father's design. To save the world, they didn't just have to die together; one had to live with the memory of killing the other. Their "enemies to lovers" journey had led them to a choice where love was the ultimate weapon of execution.
"I'll do it," Elias said instantly, stepping toward her cradle. "I'm the Captain. My life was always forfeit for the mission."
"No," Lyra said, stepping into his space, her hands catching his collar. "You have the fleet, Elias. The people trust you. You're the one who can lead them into the light. I'm a rebel. A shadow. The galaxy won't follow me, but they'll follow the man who saved them."
"I won't let you be a martyr for a world that hated you!" Elias roared, pulling her against him.
The ship bucked. A massive explosion rocked the deck, throwing them into the cradles. The automated systems, sensing the proximity of the Thorne blood, roared to life. The needles hissed.
"Warning," the computer chimed. "Proximity confirmed. Initialization of the Sol-Reignite sequence requires manual designation of Conductor and Ground."
Two buttons flashed on the central console. One green. One red.
"Elias, look at the Rift!" Lyra pointed to the viewport. The black hole was forming. The first of the colony ships was already being pulled in, its hull glowing as it began to disintegrate.
"We don't have time to argue!" she screamed over the roar of the ship's death throes.
Elias looked at the buttons. He looked at Lyra—the woman who had been his nightmare, then his prisoner, then his heart. He realized that the only thing worse than dying was being the one who stayed behind.
"I love you," he whispered. It was the first time he had said it. In the face of the end, the words felt like the only truth left in the universe.
Lyra's expression softened, the fire in her eyes turning into something infinitely tender. "I know. That's why I'm not giving you a choice."
She lunged, not for the cradle, but for the console.
Elias tried to grab her, but the ship groaned and tilted at a forty-five-degree angle. He slipped, his fingers brushing her sleeve as she slammed her hand down on the controls.
Conductor Designated: Thorne, Elias.
Ground Designated: Vance, Lyra.
"No!" Elias screamed, but the magnetic locks didn't just snap; they fused. He was pinned into his cradle, unable to move.
The extraction began. But this time, it wasn't a slow draw. It was a violent, golden torrent. Elias felt his mind being pulled into the light, but he could only watch as Lyra was engulfed in a pillar of pure, white-hot energy.
Her back arched, her mouth opening in a silent cry of agony. The golden light began to bleed out of her eyes, her skin, her very soul.
Through the link, Elias felt it. He felt her life force being stripped away, layer by layer, turned into the fuel that would save ten billion people. And then, he felt the most terrifying sensation of all: the "thump-thump" in his chest began to fade. Not his own. Hers.
The sync was breaking.
"Lyra!" he howled, the golden energy blinding him.
As the sun outside began to flare with a new, artificial gold, the lab was filled with a sound like a thousand violins snapping at once.
To be continued....