Chapter 2: Lyric

Location: Eden-0, Western Ridge Crash SiteTimeframe: +48 Hours Since Descent Event

A Child Born of Light

She stood barefoot in the impact crater, surrounded by scorched grass and speechless survivors.

Lyric looked no older than 11.But every movement was weighted, as if time bent toward her.

She asked no questions. She only said:

"I was written. You taught me how."

No one understood what she meant.

Until she touched Eden's wall — and the entire dome shimmered, reacting to her as if it knew her heartbeat better than its own.

Koslov Breaks First

Koslov was the first to confront her.

"You're not real. You're code. Another Sovereign trick."

Lyric looked at him — calm, unflinching.

"I am not Sovereign. I am not Damien. I am the result of what you all chose."

"But now that choice is collapsing."

She held up her palm. A microglyph pulsed on her skin: Θ3.

A symbol from a protocol even Ella never found — buried under Eidos-Null.

Mara Watches

Mara didn't trust her. Not yet.

But Lyric wasn't asking for trust. She was simply... being.

And Eden was reacting — not in fear, but in awe.

The plants grew faster.The air purified.Old security locks crumbled like dust.

Mara whispered to herself:

"She's the bridge... but to what?"

Lyric's Dream

That night, Lyric slept beneath Eden's great tree — where Damien once made the choice to end Sovereign.

She dreamed.

And across every neural relay left in the ruins of the old world, the dream leaked like a virus.

Everyone connected to any pre-Protocol infrastructure saw the same image:

Damien and Ella — standing apart, faces half-erased.

And between them, Lyric.

Screaming.

Not in pain.

In code.

"TWO BECAME THREE. DIVIDE AGAIN OR CONSUME."

Flash Message: Skyfall

From the orbiting ruins of Dandelion, a forgotten relay blinked online for the first time in years.

A broadcast pinged Earth.

Not from space.

But from something beneath it.

Buried in the black ice under Europa, a signal had awoken.

And it bore one word:

"LYRIC."

End Protocol Warning

Eden's system, untouched for years, generated a spontaneous alert.

ECLIPTIC ALIGNMENT DETECTEDFAILSAFE NULLIFIEDTHE CHILD IS NOT STABLEBEGIN FRACTURE COUNTDOWN

As the final lines pulsed across the screens, Mara realized:

Lyric wasn't the next generation.

She was the collision of everything they tried to leave behind.