Chapter 6 – Sobo’s Shadows

They landed in Sobo under a sky that didn't welcome them.

It was always twilight on this side of the planet—lavender skies with amber clouds that rolled like slow waves. The ship touched down on Landing Bay 9, the old sector Kael had once called home, before everything turned sour.

Kael stepped out first. His boots hit the metal walkway with a cold clank. The city lights in the distance flickered like nervous stars. Even the air smelled wrong—like rust, ozone, and something that had been buried too long.

Juno followed, her hand close to her weapon, eyes scanning.

Luma stayed back, guarding her unconscious brother in the ship. He hadn't woken up since the Rift.

Kael squinted into the distance. "Something's changed."

"Everything's changed," Juno said. "You've been gone five years."

He looked at her sideways. "You too."

She didn't reply.

Ahead, three figures approached—slow, cautious. All wore the long gray coats of the Sobo Coalition Enforcers. The one in the middle had a golden mechanical eye that clicked as it turned.

"Identify yourselves," he barked.

Kael stepped forward. "Kael Drayk. Juno Asta. Returning from Praton with urgent loop data. And… a survivor."

The man with the gold eye raised a brow. "Kael Drayk is presumed dead."

Kael smirked. "People keep saying that."

One of the other enforcers—a woman with faded markings on her cheek—tilted her head. "If you're Kael, what's the name of the street you grew up on?"

Kael didn't hesitate. "Tramveil. Three stories. Cracked window on the left. Still leaks when it rains."

The woman lowered her gun.

The gold-eyed man still didn't trust it. "You were caught in the Rift. You may have brought contamination."

Kael stepped closer. "I didn't bring the contamination. I brought warning."

They stared at each other.

Then the gold-eyed man stepped aside. "Follow me."

The Sobo headquarters hadn't changed—just aged. Stone walls met polished metal floors. Holograms flickered over cracked panels. Kael's boots echoed as they passed locked rooms and frozen stares.

They entered the main chamber: a hollowed dome with a giant spiraling map of the galaxy slowly rotating above their heads.

And beneath it, standing like a shadow that didn't belong, was a woman Kael hadn't seen in ten years.

Commander Reesa Myka.

Hair cut short. Uniform crisp. Eyes like frozen steel.

"Kael," she said.

He froze.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"You first," he replied.

She raised a brow. "Still got that mouth."

Kael smiled faintly. "Still got that glare."

But Juno interrupted. "Commander, this isn't a reunion. We were attacked. The Hollow One is moving. It reached into the Rift and pulled a survivor through time."

Myka's face changed at the word Hollow.

"You brought it here?"

"No," Kael said. "It followed us."

He handed over the holo-drive. Myka slid it into the data port. Holograms flickered to life—images from the Rift: warped space, Tamor's red scarf, and Maya's glitching figure whispering Kael's name.

Reesa paled.

"You said Maya's gone," she whispered.

"I thought she was."

"Then how—?"

"I don't know," Kael said. "But she knew me. Not the old me—the me from now. The version that already left her behind."

Reesa sat slowly. "Then the loop is doing more than folding time. It's bleeding into it."

Juno nodded. "We need access to the Mirror Room. The old one."

Reesa looked up sharply. "That room's sealed."

"Then unseal it," Kael said. "My memories are cracking. She's coming through them."

Suddenly, alarms blared. Red lights lit up the chamber. The giant hologram above them flashed black and red—INTRUSION DETECTED.

"Level Three breach!" a voice called out.

Reesa stood. "Where?!"

"Bay 9," someone answered. "Your ship."

Kael's blood froze.

"Luma."

He ran.

They reached the ship in four minutes. Not fast enough.

The door was wide open.

Inside, Luma sat in the corner, shaking. Her brother lay on the table—his body now arched unnaturally, eyes wide and black with loop ink.

"He woke up," she whispered. "But… it wasn't him."

Kael stepped forward slowly. "Who was it?"

Luma's voice cracked. "He said… he was the Archivist."

Juno gasped. "That's impossible. The Archivist was erased."

"No one's erased," Luma whispered. "They just get rewritten."

Her brother's body twitched.

Then his mouth moved. A voice came out—not young, not human.

"I've missed Sobo," it said.

Kael raised his weapon. "Who are you really?"

"I am what your minds forget. I live in skipped thoughts, in last regrets. I am the truth beneath your rewrites."

Kael gritted his teeth. "Get out of him."

The boy smiled. "Too late. He gave me a name. That's all I needed."

The ink spread fast—across the med-bed, the walls, the air.

Luma screamed.

Kael grabbed her and ran.

Behind them, her brother sat up, laughing with a voice that wasn't his.

"Sobo's past is open now," he called. "And every loop has a cost."

Outside, the air was thick.

Kael turned to Juno. "We need to find the Mirror Room."

Juno didn't argue. She just ran with him.

And from above—unseen—something watched them through the storm clouds.

It didn't breathe.

It didn't blink.

It only remembered.

To be continued...