Chapter 39: Pulsefracture
The moment Layla confessed, the circle fractured.
Not the Beacon itself — the trust inside it.
Zina was the first to pull away from her.
"You lied to all of us."
Layla didn't defend herself. She just kept her head bowed.
"I didn't come to spy," she said softly. "I came to compare."
Anthony stood between them. Calm. Controlled.
"She didn't attack anyone," he said. "She didn't sabotage anything."
Ken folded his arms. "Yet."
Confidence checked her tablet. "Her grid line is still faintly linked to Kairo's structure. She's disconnected now… but it's a backdoor."
Chi-Chi didn't say anything.
She just watched.
Waiting.
---
Later, in the main chamber, the students murmured quietly among themselves.
Anthony stood before them all.
"We are not a military unit," he began. "We're not a prison."
"But we are responsible for each other. If someone breaks that trust, it affects the entire structure."
The silent boy — the one whose shadow flickered oddly — raised his hand.
"Are we going to be targeted now because of her?"
Anthony didn't flinch.
"Yes."
"But we already were. From the day you awakened."
---
In her room, Layla stared at her hands.
The glow had gone.
But the memory hadn't.
Kairo's words still echoed in her skull:
> "If he can anchor the Pulse… then you can fracture it."
She'd never wanted to be a weapon.
She wanted to be seen.
Anthony had seen her.
But now she wasn't sure if he still did.
---
In the command room, Confidence displayed an energy scan on the table.
The hologram showed Beacon networks across Earth… and one foreign line moving underneath them like a vein of fire.
Chi-Chi traced it with her finger. "Kairo's grid isn't syncing with ours. It's rerouting."
Emmy added, "He's bypassing the Beacon Trinity completely. He's building his own signal web beneath our feet."
Ken muttered, "How's that even possible?"
Anthony stared at the map.
"It's not just a grid."
"It's a replacement."
---
Confidence pulled up a side file — decrypted from Layla's old comm logs.
A name blinked at the top:
> PROJECT: FISSURE.
Below it, one phrase repeated in red:
> "When the Anchor cracks… the Pulse breaks."
Anthony's breath caught.
"Kairo's not trying to destroy the Pulse."
Chi-Chi nodded grimly. "He's trying to flip it."
---
That night, Layla stood outside the compound.
Anthony joined her, silent.
She didn't look at him.
"You should have kicked me out," she said.
"I almost did."
Her throat tightened.
"But you stayed."
"Because I think," Anthony said slowly, "you're the key to stopping him."
She turned, confused. "I'm part of the problem."
"No. You understand him."
"And that makes me dangerous."
"No. That makes you important."
---
Meanwhile, in the Arctic Circle, Kairo stood in the ruins of an old Riftborn silo.
Below him: the fourth artificial Beacon core.
Fully active.
He placed his hand on it.
The ice cracked for miles.
And deep below the crust… something moved.
---
Back at the Anchor Circle, Emmy's shard began to pulse violently.
She collapsed to her knees, screaming.
Anthony and Chi-Chi rushed to her.
"What is it?" he asked.
Her voice trembled. "There's something under the earth. Deep. Buried. Connected to both grids."
Anthony frowned. "It's responding to Kairo's signal?"
She nodded. "But it feels older."
Confidence pulled up seismic scans.
"It's not just a Pulse spike…"
She zoomed out.
And everyone went still.
"It's a Pulse fracture."
---
Ken leaned forward. "Explain."
Emmy looked up, shaking.
"If our Beacons stabilize Variants… and Kairo's network mutates them… then this thing underneath…"
Chi-Chi finished it:
"It's where they meet. And fight."
---
Anthony stepped into the circle that night, alone.
He activated all three Anchors at once — Abuja. Nairobi. Omega.
The sky shimmered above him.
The grid buzzed.
And in the Pulse, he saw a vision:
Kairo, standing at the center of the fracture.
Variants bent in pain around him.
The sky torn open.
Beacons flickering between harmony and havoc.
And a figure made of light and void, watching from the shadows of the Pulse itself.
It wasn't Kairo.
It wasn't a Watcher.
It was… something worse.
---
The vision ended.
Anthony fell to one knee.
Chi-Chi caught him before he hit the ground.
"You saw something," she said.
He looked at her.
"I saw what happens if I don't stop him."
---
The next morning, Anthony addressed the students again.
"From this day on," he said, "the Anchor Program is no longer just training."
"It's a line."
"Between balance… and collapse."
Layla stood in the back of the crowd.
Listening.
Still unsure.
But closer.
---
That afternoon, Confidence traced Kairo's artificial signals again.
She marked six convergence points.
One of them… directly beneath Cairo, Egypt.
Ken loaded his rifle. "Urban grid?"
Chi-Chi muttered, "If he's planting Beacons under cities now…"
Anthony finished it.
"Then he's not hiding anymore."
---
Emmy approached, eyes wide.
"I decrypted more of the PROJECT: FISSURE files."
Anthony turned to her.
"What is it?"
She held up the tablet.
The screen read:
> "Pulsefracture Alpha: ACTIVATION DATE LOCKED"
"IN 6 DAYS."