Cassidy is barely standing.
That is not metaphor.
Her knees tremble under her weight. One boot drags slightly when she shifts her stance. Her breath comes shallow and uneven, catching on something broken inside her chest that refuses to heal fast enough.
Every instinct in her body is screaming do not move forward.
Ahead of her, Sunslope has become a killing field.
The Hand of Kyros thrashes against Allium's assault, flesh detonating and reforming in violent rhythm. Tendrils snap through the air with sonic cracks, carving trenches into sand and stone alike. Heat rolls outward in waves so dense the air itself feels thick, almost solid.
And at the center of it—
Allium.
White.
Too white.
His presence presses down on the world like gravity misbehaving. Sand fuses beneath his feet. Space seems to compress around him, every movement tearing at the laws holding the basin together.
This is not a battlefield.
This is a death zone.
Jax stands near Cassidy, Hawk and Nina just behind him. No one speaks. No one dares.
They are waiting for her.
Cassidy doesn't look at them.
She stares at the fight, at the impossible force colliding in front of her, at the way Allium moves without hesitation or awareness of anyone nearby.
She speaks softly.
"The only way… to get him back," she says, voice thin but steady, "is for someone to remind him who we are."
Jax turns sharply.
"…Okay," he says, forcing calm into his voice. "How?"
Cassidy dips her head.
She remembers the pact. The visions. The futures that ended the same way no matter what she changed.
"I saw this play in two ways," she says quietly. "I move in and die getting him to remember… or I get in there and I die not succeeding."
Jax's jaw drops.
"Cassidy—no," he says immediately. "You are not dying."
Cassidy lifts her head.
One eye meets his.
"I don't want to die, Jax," she says. "But I saw a version where you try to stop me, so…"
She moves.
Not walking.
Running.
Her body protests violently as she breaks into a sprint, fractures screaming, breath tearing through her chest. Every step closer increases the pressure, heat rolling across her skin like she's running into an open furnace.
"Cassidy!" Jax shouts, bolting after her. "There's got to be another way!"
She doesn't slow.
Jax knows he won't catch her.
"THANE!" he yells. "STOP CASSIDY!"
Thane turns, confused—
Then he sees her.
He moves.
Injury forgotten. Pain ignored. The Champion of Solara surges forward and grabs her wrist just as another shockwave ripples outward, throwing sand and debris into the air.
"Cass, stop," he says urgently. "What are you doing?"
Cassidy grips his arm.
Her hand shakes, but her voice doesn't.
"Get me close," she says. "I can end this. Close to Allium."
Jax is still yelling behind them.
"Stop her!"
Cassidy looks straight at Thane.
"I've already seen this," she says calmly. "Trust me with it."
She swallows, then adds the truth she knows will land.
"We have to get Allium back before this destroys HQ and kills countless lives," she says. "That's your job. Protect Solara."
Thane hesitates.
The world shakes again.
Another tendril slams into the basin and detonates against Allium's aura, spraying molten debris in every direction.
Thane nods.
He powers his shield to maximum output.
They move.
Every step forward is punishment.
The air grows hotter. Pressure slams into Thane's shield so hard his arm trembles. Cassidy's vision tunnels. Her ears ring. Her skin burns where the heat slips past the barrier.
This close, the Hand of Kyros feels alive in a way it didn't from a distance—dozens of heads shifting, mouths whispering in warped harmony, tendrils testing the air like fingers searching for something soft.
Then—
Allium is there.
He doesn't arrive.
He exists where they are.
Hair white. Veins white. Eyes drowned in radiant glow. His aura burns like white fire, flattening sand and bending light around him.
He stares at the abomination, calculating, relentless.
Cassidy and Thane freeze only a few meters away.
Rose sees them.
"What the fuck is she doing?" Rose shouts, frost exploding outward as she freezes advancing tendrils. They slow—but not like before.
Cassidy steps forward.
"Allium," she calls.
He doesn't look.
But inside his eyes, something screams.
He strikes again, smashing through the monster as it regenerates.
Heat scorches Cassidy's skin. Thane grits his teeth and raises his shield higher.
"LOOK AT ME!" Cassidy screams.
Nothing.
Allium moves like physics answers only to him.
Pressure builds.
Cassidy feels it crushing inward—bone compressing, lungs burning, heart hammering against her ribs like it's trying to escape.
Thane raises his shield over her head.
It cracks.
Spiderweb fractures race across its surface.
Cassidy screams again, voice tearing, blood spilling from her mouth.
"YOU DON'T GET TO LEAVE US! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
The white aura flickers.
Not much.
But enough.
Allium's head turns.
Fractional.
A sliver of attention.
In that moment, futures shatter.
Inside Allium, the intent shifts—not calm, not rage, but protection trying to reassert itself.
The Hand notices.
Every head turns toward Cassidy.
Killing intent floods the space.
Cassidy screams through blood and pain.
"FIGHT!" she shouts. "FIGHT! DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE!"
A tendril moves.
Too fast.
Thane sees it and slams his shield up—
The impact is catastrophic.
The shield shatters.
Thane's forearm buckles with a sickening crack, bone tearing through skin as they are both launched backward.
They ragdoll through the air.
Cassidy's body slams into fractured stone with a brutal, final sound.
The world goes silent.
Rose gasps.
Sable freezes.
Jax drops to his knees.
Hawk and Nina stare, terror vibrating through their bones.
Thane forces himself upright, pain ripping through his arm as he crawls to Cassidy.
He checks her pulse.
"…She's got one," he says shakily. "She's alive."
Barely.
Allium stops.
His aura pauses.
Eyes still white—but the predatory focus narrows.
He turns fully.
Looks at Thane's shattered arm.
Then at Cassidy's broken body on the ground.
And something inside him recognizes it.
"…pain…."