The descent into Kenya's Great Rift Valley was anything but subtle. Anderson's team, aboard the modified SkyLure, passed over Lake Turkana in a rapid, low-altitude sweep. The clouds were thick, bruised with the threat of a storm, but beneath them, the land cracked open into deep valleys, scarred ridges, and volcanic remnants that felt almost primeval.
The SkyLure hovered briefly above a scorched plateau dotted with blackened acacia trees. Drones were deployed instantly—mapping, sampling, and sweeping for electromagnetic anomalies.
Ava stood at the forward console, eyes fixed on the steadily rising signal metrics.
"We're close," she muttered.
Elias nodded from the pilot's chair. "The vault has to be buried. Whatever Zorin hid, he wanted it sealed in the bones of Earth."
Anderson turned to William, who was scanning historical tectonic data. "Anything matching the Emissary's energy signature?"
William pointed to a ridgeline deep within the Suguta Valley. "Here. The volcanic basalt has a chamber-like cavity. It's too symmetrical to be natural."
David, silent until now, murmured, "He used Earth's wounds to conceal Earth's truth. Brilliant."
The team deployed in two off-road crawlers, bouncing violently over the dry terrain. Anderson remained at the front, scanning for visual cues. He felt it—like a hum in the marrow of his bones—the nearness of something vast.
At the base of the ridge, they found it: a series of megalithic stone slabs arranged like an obsidian keyhole. Ava approached, running her hand along the glyphs.
"These aren't just symbols. They're frequency markers. Each one represents a phase of the Sequence."
Anderson placed his palm against the center stone. A surge of heat passed through his body. The stone shifted, revealing an obsidian stairwell leading into darkness.
"He left this for us," Anderson said. "Zach Zorin wanted us to find it."
The air inside the vault was heavy, metallic. The stairs spiraled downward, descending past etched murals—humans evolving, not over millions of years, but in abrupt jumps, as though sparked by something...external.
They reached the chamber: a vast, domed room bathed in blue light from crystalline structures embedded into the walls. In the center sat a containment sphere—hovering, pulsing slowly.
William approached, scanning. "It's alive. Not biological, but it's storing something conscious. A neural lattice."
Ava stepped closer, her voice trembling. "It's not just the formula. It's the Seed. The genetic beginning of the Emissary race."
Anderson whispered, "Zorin brought it back to Earth... not to use it, but to protect it."
Before they could extract the Seed, the floor beneath them trembled. Alarms on Ava's wrist display blared.
"Something's trying to breach the vault!"
Outside, Echo One descended with military precision. Its alloyed limbs tore through rock and roots as it activated its override protocol. From its back, a pair of nano-fiber wings spread.
It roared into the vault's upper entrance, eyes glowing red.
"PRIORITY OVERRIDE: SEED RETRIEVAL. ELIMINATE HOSTILE VARIANTS."
The battle was instant. David unleashed a kinetic blast from his exo-gauntlets, knocking Echo One into the wall. William threw up a magnetic field, disrupting its targeting systems. But the synthetic was relentless, moving with terrifying efficiency.
Anderson ran for the Seed.
"Cover me!"
Ava fired a pulse rifle, temporarily stunning Echo One. Anderson reached the containment sphere and opened his mind, using the interface Zorin embedded in his genome.
The Seed recognized him.
It whispered.
"Child of the Continuum. Unity lies not in purity, but in divergence. Will you carry us?"
He said, "Yes."
The Seed collapsed into light and entered Anderson's chest. His body convulsed—but didn't break. Instead, it shimmered with radiant energy.
Echo One charged—but this time, Anderson raised his hand.
The force that erupted from him wasn't power.
It was evolution.
Echo One shattered into spiraling pieces.
Silence fell.
Ava, stunned, whispered, "You... you fused with it."
Anderson exhaled. His eyes glowed faintly. "It didn't want to be used. It wanted to become."
Outside, clouds swirled above the Rift.
The world had changed.