FRIEND x OR x FOE
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
DEPTH-17 — HELIONITE CHAMBER ENTRY
The tunnel opened without warning.
One last bend then the space widened into a massive dome carved by time, pressure, and whatever else lived down here. Emerald Helionite ores glowed across the walls with just enough light to see.
Colt’s group was already inside, pacing the perimeter, dropping Echo Beacons, checking stabilizers.
Kit and Kyro had arrived moments earlier. Kit was already helping Colt and the Guards place beacons.
Kyro stood point, silently waiting.
Buck’s squad entered from the left side moments later.
Kyro clocked it instantly.
Left tunnel entrance.
Not right.
Not the path Buck was assigned.
He didn’t say a word, didn’t turn his head, just watched the way Buck stepped into the chamber like he’d always been meant to.
Kit noticed the shift in Kyro’s shoulders. That was enough to tell him something was off.
The geo team didn’t feel the tension. They were already moving.
Mae dropped her pack and knelt at the nearest Helionite core, scanner out.
Lisa and Aria were sorting containment tools.
Colt limped slightly but didn’t complain—just positioned himself between them and the nearest unstable wall.
Royal Guards fanned out across the chamber, setting up the extraction lifts that would drag everyone out once the samples were secured. The metallic anchors hit the stone with sharp clangs that echoed too long in the cavern.
Buck moved over to Mae, slow steps, eyes not quite tracking right.
“Surface readings?” he asked.
It took him a second to say it.
A full second.
Mae didn’t notice, she was swimming in data.
“Stabilizers reading sixty-two… dropping to sixty over the next hour if these pulses are accurate,” she said quickly. “Collect and move. No hanging around.”
Buck nodded once, but the nod didn’t match the rhythm of her words. Like he was behind the beat.
Kyro watched all of it.
Kit glanced between Buck and Kyro and understood exactly where this was going.
Across the cavern, Lisa climbed to a mid-level platform with Colt spotting from below.
“Alright, we’re collecting this core. Aria, set the clamps—”
A sound cracked overhead.
A deep, splitting pop.
Stone breaking.
Metal strain but organic.
Everyone looked up.
A Helionite shard—massive, half the size of Colt—detached from the ceiling. Slow at first. Like it took a breath.
Then it dropped.
Straight toward Mae.
Lisa yelled first.
Aria moved second.
Buck—Just watched.
Didn’t shout.
Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t lift a hand.
Simply stared up like he was waiting to see if the stone landed or missed.
Colt blurred across the chamber, aether bursting off his feet in a panicked dash.
He grabbed Mae at the last possible second.
Shoved her clear.
The shard slammed into the ground with a violent CRACK, splintering the rock and pinning Colt’s ankle under the corner. He hissed through his teeth but didn’t scream.
Mae scrambled back to him, shaking.
Kyro was there in two steps. He lifted the shard just enough for two guards to drag Colt free. The kid’s ankle was crushed, swollen already, bone clearly broken.
But he was alive.
Kyro’s eyes went straight to Buck.
No words.
Observing the way Buck didn’t look shocked.
Didn’t look relieved.
Didn’t look anything.
Kit felt Kyro’s intent shift like heat in the air.
Someone was running out of time.
As the guards pulled Colt clear, Buck stepped back and leaned a hand against the cavern wall to steady himself.
Except it wasn’t just rock.
It was a full patch of that emerald sap—thick, moving, alive.
And it didn’t recoil.
Didn’t twitch.
Didn’t slide away like before.
It stayed right under his palm, glowing faint and steady.
Lisa noticed first.
Aria too.
Even a few guards glanced over, brows tight.
That same sap had dodged their tools like it had instincts earlier.
Now it just… stayed.
Resting where Buck touched it.
Kit saw Kyros breathing cycle steadying. Like calm before a storm.
Before anything could snap, Kit walked over with the most normal tone he could manage.
“Yo—Buck, you’re on that sticky stuff.”
Buck blinked, looked at his hand like he didn’t even feel it.
“Oh. My bad.”
Kit gave his shoulder a pat. “Don’t sweat it. Everyone’s beat.”
Buck blinked once.
Smiled.
But it wasn’t Buck’s smile.
Too slow.
Too shallow.
Like he saw the shape of the emotion and copied it.
“Yeah,” Buck said softly. “My fault. Just tired.”
Kit nodded back like he accepted it.
Kyro didn’t.
But for now… he held.
The chamber went back to work.
Extraction lifts clanged.
Geo team gathered samples.
Guards reset perimeter.
Buck stood still for a long moment.
Kyro just kept watching the wall…
and the sap that refused to move.
He couldn't wrap his mind around what he was witnessing.
Not yet.
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣