Kane's eyes snapped open in the High Sanctum.
The fragment of the Aeon-Staff turned to white ash in his lap. He stood up, and for the first time, his Void-Archon armor didn't look like armor at all. It looked like a second skin, a layer of absolute darkness that absorbed the very concept of light.
"Sarge! You've been out for four days!" Vance burst into the room, his iron-fists clenched. "Earth is going to hell! Mia and her 'Void-Guard' just declared war on the remaining Consortium cities. It's a bloodbath down there!"
Kane walked past him, his steps making no sound on the deck. He looked out the viewport at the Shattered Moon.
"Let them fight," Kane said, his voice calm and cold. "Vance, Doc, Sully—get the fleet ready. We aren't just defending the Sol System anymore."
"Then what are we doing?" Doc asked, stepping into the room, her emerald spores swirling nervously.
"We're going to the Nurseries," Kane said, his silver eyes locking onto the galactic map. "The other 'Harvest Lots.' We're going to wake up the other 'Glitches.' If the Hegemony wants to delete this timeline, they're gonna have to delete a galaxy full of monsters first."
Kane looked at his hand. A small, flickering "Echo" of his mother's kitchen appeared for a second, then vanished.
"They took everything from us," Kane whispered. "Now, we're gonna take their 'Garden.'"