CHAPTER 26: OMEGA DESCENT
The Beacon shard glowed red.
Not warning.
Not danger.
Finality.
Anthony sat cross-legged in the tunnel chamber, eyes closed, breathing in time with the pulses echoing through his spine. Emmy stood nearby, both palms hovering over the shard. Her golden irises burned brighter than ever before.
"It's waking up," she whispered. "The last Anchor."
Confidence watched the waveform display. "Location lock incoming… wait—no way."
She zoomed in.
Coordinates flashed across the screen.
> Latitude: 9.057° N
Longitude: 7.495° E
Chi-Chi stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
"That's... central Abuja."
Emmy looked at her.
"No," she said.
"It's beneath the Omega Tower."
---
A beat of silence hit the room like a fist.
Ken shook his head. "That's suicide. The Omega Tower is the most fortified structure on the continent. Ten layers of Beacon suppression tech. E.E.A. command elite. No-fly zones. Auto-targeting drones."
Chi-Chi's jaw clenched. "It's a death trap."
Anthony stood slowly. "It's also the final lock."
Confidence looked at him. "You really believe activating this last Anchor will give us control over the Beacon network?"
"I don't just believe it," Anthony said. "I can feel it. Each Anchor stabilizes not just the world… but me."
Emmy nodded. "The Beacons were never meant to be separated. They were fractured on purpose. Bringing them back together will repair more than just the Pulse."
Ken slammed a magazine into his rifle. "Then I hope you're ready to fight through hell."
---
The team prepped for infiltration.
Chi-Chi laid out the map. "There's a sewer line that cuts underneath the old metro line beneath Omega Tower. If we enter from the forest edge and move under Sector 4, we can reach the sub-basement in under 20 minutes."
Confidence tossed down signal-scramblers. "I'll jam their drones as long as I can. But once you reach Level Theta, you're alone."
Anthony nodded. "You sure you're not coming?"
She smiled. "If I step into Omega airspace, they'll rain nukes on you. I'm better as a ghost in their system."
Chi-Chi looked at her. "Don't get caught."
"Please. They can't catch a shadow."
---
Midnight.
A full moon.
The air electric with tension.
Anthony and Chi-Chi crouched outside the forest barrier near Omega's perimeter.
Through the trees, the tower stood like a dark crown, each ring pulsing with artificial Beacon energy. It wasn't just a building — it was designed to suppress Variants.
Anthony whispered, "I feel it already. Like gravity's wrong."
Chi-Chi nodded, tapping her gauntlets. "Stay sharp. We'll move when the patrols cycle north."
Then she hesitated.
Looked at him.
"You sure about this? You might not come back."
He stared at the tower.
Then turned to her.
"I don't care if I come back."
She raised an eyebrow. "That's not romantic. That's suicidal."
He smiled faintly. "I just meant… if I die making this world free, that's enough."
She frowned.
Then stepped closer.
"No."
He blinked. "What?"
"You don't get to die yet."
And before he could respond, she grabbed the front of his jacket and kissed him — fast, fierce, and real.
When she pulled back, her face was flushed.
"That's why you come back."
Then she turned and moved.
Anthony followed — pulse racing harder than it ever had during battle.
---
They dropped into the tunnels below Omega Tower.
Dark. Wet. Silent.
Each step took them deeper into dead zones — places no Pulse could be tracked.
Chi-Chi's voice whispered through the comm.
"We're at Theta level. Beacon suppression field is thick. Can you still feel the Node?"
Anthony paused.
Then placed his hand against the wall.
It responded.
A thrum of energy deeper than thought.
Ancient. Still asleep.
But waiting.
"Yes," he whispered. "It's close."
They moved fast, ducking beneath cameras, disabling scanners, looping sensor feeds.
But when they reached the last hallway before the chamber…
They weren't alone.
---
Standing at the threshold were two E.E.A. elites, clad in white-and-black armor with neural link visors and pulse rifles calibrated for Variant energy.
Chi-Chi ducked behind cover. "Those are Enforcers. They're trained to fight Tier 4s."
Anthony cracked his knuckles.
"Good thing I broke the Tier scale."
He stepped out into the open.
The Enforcers raised their weapons.
> "TARGET IDENTIFIED: ANTHONY RICHARD."
"ORDER: NEUTRALIZE. NO CAPTURE."
Chi-Chi dove from the side, flinging a kinetic pulse that slammed one Enforcer into the ceiling.
Anthony blinked behind the other and crushed his rifle mid-shot.
It took seconds.
Both were down.
---
Then the doors opened.
A circular chamber bathed in blue-white light.
At the center: the final Anchor Node.
It looked different.
Clean. Untouched. A core of silver crystal encased in a ring of floating metal shards, orbiting slowly like planets.
Chi-Chi exhaled. "That's the heart of the whole system."
Anthony stepped forward.
As he touched it—
His vision exploded.
---
He stood in a void of stars.
But this time, the Watcher was there.
The silver-framed entity. Shifting, speaking without sound.
> "You have found the third. The Trinity is complete."
"You are no longer Unmeasured. You are Defined by Defiance."
"Do you accept the final Anchor?"
Anthony looked down at his hands.
They weren't glowing.
They were reflecting.
Everything he had been.
Everything he had lost.
Everyone he had saved.
"I accept," he whispered.
---
In the real world, the Beacon flared once—then settled.
No explosion. No blast wave.
Just... peace.
Chi-Chi ran to his side as he dropped to his knees.
"You good?" she asked, eyes wide.
He looked up at her.
Then smiled.
"I'm finally whole."
---
Across the world, Beacons began syncing.
The sky shimmered as Pulse energy stabilized.
Every Variant felt it.
Every Watcher responded.
And Goliath Locke, standing on a mountain ridge far from the Omega Tower, paused for the first time.
Its mission log flickered.
> ERROR: TARGET SIGNATURE RESYNCHRONIZED
CLASS: UNKNOWN
DIRECTIVE: UNCLEAR
For the first time, even the weapon built to stop Anthony… hesitated.