Gaia Chronicles: The Integral Saga

Location: Gaia HQ – Command Center, Observation Bay

Holograms flickered rapidly, displaying incoming ether pulses—anomalous, scattered, and sharp. Sophia Synthesis 25 frowned from her station, her fingers flying across the console.

"Another surge just came in—Northern Sector. No Rift. No Abyss signature. Just… darkness."

Thea Synthesis 0, standing beside Irene and Lucas, narrowed her eyes.

"No Rift means no monster. This isn't the Abyss."

Irene's voice was grave.

"Then it's Orion."

Thea nodded.

"And it's a message."

Cyg entered the room just as another console pinged.

"It's Seluna Thanek," Sophia said, her voice hushed. "She just broke through one of our outpost encryption lines… and she left a voice recording."

Thea motioned.

"Play it."

From the speakers came a whisper—syrupy, venomous, intimate.

"Little Gale and Ember… when was the last time you really looked at one another? Not as friends. Not as sisters-in-arms. But as threats?"

Harriet and Elaine, listening from the hallway, froze.

"Tell me, how do two hearts coexist when one is destined to consume, and the other to drift?"

"I'm watching."

Then silence.

Elaine's hands trembled.

Harriet was already moving.

Location: Gaia HQ – Emotional Regulation Chamber (Private Space)

"You okay?" Sylvia asked softly, joining Elaine inside the lush chamber where artificial wind and sound therapy ran automatically. It was Elaine's private retreat when things grew too much.

Elaine looked away.

"She's trying to break us. But it worked, didn't it?"

Sylvia gently sat beside her.

"You and Harriet are stronger than words."

Elaine stared at the spinning fan overhead, blinking away the sting in her eyes.

"But sometimes… I wonder if she resents me."

Sylvia blinked.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't burn the way she does. I drift. I laugh. I run from things." Elaine's voice broke slightly. "She always runs into them."

Sylvia put an arm around her.

"Maybe that's why you two need each other."

Location: Eastern Training Yard – Nightfall

Harriet struck the air with all her fury, flames bursting around her like a living furnace. Targets evaporated. The stone cracked beneath her boots.

"You're slipping," Diane muttered, arms crossed, approaching from the shadows. "You're not channeling the flames. You're throwing tantrums."

Harriet spun, her fists trembling with heat.

"You think this is a joke?"

"I think you're letting Orion live in your head," Diane replied flatly. "Seluna got to you. So what? Get her out."

"You don't get it," Harriet growled. "She made me look at Elaine… and now I can't stop."

"Then ask yourself what you see. Jealousy? Love? Hate?" Diane stepped closer. "Figure it out before someone dies because of it."

Location: Skybridge Overhang – Later That Night

Elaine walked alone, moonlight catching in her silver-blonde hair. The wind played gently with her coat.

She heard the footsteps before she saw her.

Harriet stopped beside her. Her boots scraped the metal floor.

Neither spoke for a while.

Then:

"Do you resent me?" Elaine asked quietly.

Harriet's fists clenched.

"No."

"Do you envy me?"

Harriet's voice cracked.

"...Yes."

Elaine didn't move.

"Because you're always smiling," Harriet continued. "Because people love you, and they listen. Because you never lose control."

Elaine turned to face her.

"I envy you too."

Harriet blinked.

"You burn. You fight. You're not afraid to scream. Me? I can barely say how I feel without laughing it off."

Harriet's lip trembled.

"So what now?"

Elaine extended her hand.

"We remind Seluna who we are."

Harriet stared at it.

Then took it.

Elsewhere: Hidden Orion Compound – Abyssal War Room

Seluna Thanek smiled from her station, sipping dark wine as footage from Gaia's skybridge played on a blackened screen.

"So. They didn't break."

She turned to Erebus' spectral projection.

"Shall I press harder?"

Erebus' voice echoed like a fading scream.

"No. Pull back. Let bonds form deeper."

"And then?"

"Sever them all at once."