Vander Ocean had witnessed countless reunions across eons of existence, but something about this particular meeting left him uncharacteristically tense. Perhaps it was the raw vulnerability of a human soul at its breaking point, or the unpredictable nature of a newly evolved shadow guardian whose protective instincts bordered on possessive. Or maybe it was because all those millennia ago, he failed to protect someone that meant the world to him—that person being the one he was about to meet. He shoved those thoughts away for now.

  He took another drag from his cigarette, savoring the simple human pleasure while observing Alice from the corner of his eye. She moved with inhuman grace through the forest, the borrowed form of Eli's body somehow both perfect and uncanny in its execution. She navigated the uneven terrain without so much as disturbing fallen leaves, each footstep placed with calculated precision that no human muscle could achieve.

  Ahead, moonlight filtered through the dense canopy, illuminating their destination—a small clearing where Tris lay in induced sleep against a massive pine. Vander instinctively reached for the pack of cigarettes in his jacket, a habit born of anticipatory stress, before catching himself.

  Instead, Vander's hand found the hilt of his sword, withdrawing it smoothly from its dimensional sheath. The blade glowed a soft blue in the darkness, ethereal flames dancing within the translucent metal rather than along its edge. The weapon was both ancient and timeless, forged in frequencies that could only exist in the 13th dimension—a dimension of existence any being couldn't comprehend in the 3rd dimension, let alone access.

  Beside him, Alice stopped abruptly, her head tilting as she studied the sword. Her eyes—borrowed from Eli but holding none of her warmth—reflected the blue illumination with unnatural intensity.

  "Your energy is very interesting. The sword emanates a frequency that resonates with my core essence." She said flatly. “You’re like me.”

  Vander smiled, twirling the blade with practiced ease. "Perceptive. Most beings can't sense the resonance."

  "What are you exactly?" Alice pressed, her voice carrying that strange echo that seemed to originate from everywhere at once.

  "What do you think I am?" Vander countered, genuinely curious about her perception.

  Alice's expression remained neutral, but something shifted in her posture—a minute relaxation, an unconscious recognition. "You feel... like a protector. Like myself, but different. Older. More defined."

  A smile tugged at Vander's weathered face. "Close enough."

  "Are you a Guardian?" The question emerged with unexpected intensity, as if the answer held vital importance to her newly-formed identity.

  Vander's eyebrows shot up, an impressed flash of recognition crossing his features. With deliberate movements, he returned the sword to its sheath and extracted his cigarettes once more. The flame that sparked at his fingertip to light it burned the same ethereal blue as his sword.

  "Smart girl," he said after taking a long drag. "Now let's go meet your other half, shall we?"

  They approached the clearing where Tris remained unconscious, the peaceful rise and fall of his chest belying the turmoil that awaited his awakening. Alice knelt beside him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

  "Tris," she called softly. "Wake up."

  The effect was immediate. Tris's eyes flew open, disorientation quickly giving way to alert panic. He scrambled backward, his breathing ragged as consciousness returned along with memories of the ambush. His gaze darted frantically between Alice's familiar-yet-wrong face and Vander's imposing figure standing behind her.

  "No," Tris gasped, pressing his back against the tree trunk as if trying to pass through it. "No, no, no—"

  His eyes fixed on Vander, recognition and terror flooding his expression. "You! You're the one who—" His voice broke, raw with emotion. "Where's Eli? What did you do to her?"

  Tris looked wildly around the clearing. "Veldt! VELDT! Where are you?!"

  Alice and Vander exchanged a glance, a silent communication passing between them that spoke volumes about their respective understanding of the situation.

  "Remember, Tris," Alice said, her voice remarkably gentle despite its otherworldly resonance, "I am Veldt. I have... evolved."

  Tris stared at her in disbelief, his eyes tracking over her form—Eli's form—with mounting horror. "No. That's not... You can't be."

  "When Eli dissolved," Alice explained patiently, "when your Anchor was destroyed, I underwent a transformation. The trauma of her extraction catalyzed my evolution. I am still your shadow guardian, but I have assumed a physical form to better protect you."

  "Why her form?" Tris demanded, his voice cracking. "Why do you look like Eli?"

  Alice's head tilted slightly, considering the question with that birdlike movement so reminiscent of Veldt's habits. "I needed a template for manifestation. Your emotional connection to Eli provided the strongest pattern available."

  Tris's gaze hardened as he turned toward Vander, fingers digging into the dirt beside him as if searching for a weapon. "And him? Why is he here? He's the one who took Eli from me! Who tried to kill me!"

  Vander sighed, extinguishing his cigarette against the sole of his boot. "If I had wanted to kill you, boy, you'd be dead. What happened on that hillside wasn't an assassination attempt—it was an extraction."

  "Extraction?" Tris spat the word, anger temporarily overriding fear. "You ripped Eli apart into particles! You tore my Anchor from me!"

  "I severed the twin flame connection temporarily," Vander corrected calmly. "There's a difference. The neural inhibitor was disrupting your bond more than I expected, causing harm to both you and Eli. I removed her before permanent damage occurred. If anything, she did the best she could in the circumstances she was in."

  "Why should I believe anything you say?" Tris challenged, eyes darting between his supposed allies with naked suspicion.

  Vander considered this for a moment, then slowly drew his sword once more. The blue glow illuminated the clearing, casting their faces in ethereal light. He reversed his grip, offering the hilt toward Tris.

  "This is the Sword of the Blue Flame," he explained. "Forged with the energy of the thirteenth dimension, waaaaay beyond the reaches of Anunnaki manipulation. It cannot be wielded by anyone serving darkness or deception. Take it."

  Tris stared at the offered weapon, suspicion warring with curiosity. With hesitant movements, he reached for the hilt. As his fingers closed around it, the blue flames intensified, wrapping around his hand and arm without burning—a cool, gentle embrace that conveyed absolute truth.

  "I... I feel it," Tris whispered in wonder. "It's like... pure honesty given form."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "The Blue Flame cannot lie," Vander confirmed. "Nor can anyone channeling it. Now, do you believe I mean you no harm?"

  The sword pulsed once in Tris's grip, its energy resonating with something deep within him. Slowly, reluctantly, he nodded and returned the weapon. The Blue Flame tempered itself within Vander’s grip.

  "So who are you really?" Tris asked, his posture relaxing fractionally though wariness remained evident in his eyes. "What's a Blue Flame?"

  Vander resheathed his sword and settled onto a fallen log across from Tris. "I think it's time you learned about at least some of the bigger picture.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “The Law of One speaks of dimensions—density frequencies of existence. Most souls here operate in third dimensional consciousness. Their minds, I mean. The Anunnaki function primarily in the fourth dimension, the Astral realm, with near dominion over the third, the ‘Physical’ or 'Incarnate' realm. Your twin flame, Eli, comes from the fifth dimension, but your true essences emanate from the thirteenth, like me, where the Blue Flame originates.” Vander said simply. "We’re known as many things, but in the Emerald Order, we're known as Lyrans, the Ancient of All Ancients. We are Guardians of the original agreements between light and dark forces, and the original complete genome of the Earth—of all the twelve tribes."

  Alice, who had maintained silent vigilance, spoke up unexpectedly. "The Emerald Order. Blue Flame Melchizedeks. Anuhazi." Her voice carried a distant quality, as if accessing information beyond her immediate consciousness.

  Vander nodded approvingly. "The shadow remembers more than you do."

  Tris looked between them, struggling to process this new information. "So what does that mean? Why are you here now?"

  "The 777 Convergence has finally manifested," Vander explained, his casual demeanor giving way to gravity. "After twenty-two million years of waiting, the cosmic alignment that could potentially break the Anunnaki control system is happening. And they're terrified." He leaned forward, eyes intense in the moonlight. "The Guardian Council dispatched thirteen of us to Earth—twelve field agents and our captain, though each of us are as powerful as our captain. Each of us was assigned to infiltrate and dismantle one of the thirteen Luciferian bloodlines from within."

  "Kennedy," Tris realized aloud. "You were inside his organization."

  "Mhm," Vander confirmed. "I've spent decades establishing my cover, working my way into the Kennedy's inner circle. But when I intervened to save you and sever Eli's connection before permanent damage, I blew that cover. Now it's only a matter of time before the other Guardian operators are discovered."

  "Which means what, exactly?" Tris asked.

  "It means we're running on borrowed time," Vander said grimly. "The Luciferian families are scrambling, Ereshkigal is operating outside Council sanction, and the entire Anunnaki control system is destabilizing rapidly. Chaos is coming, but chaos creates opportunity."

  Tris absorbed this, his analytical mind piecing together fragments of information. "So you're saying that you..." he hesitated, choosing his words carefully, "extracted Eli to protect her? That she's not gone permanently?"

  "The twin flame bond cannot be permanently severed," Alice interjected with surprising gentleness. "It exists beyond time, beyond dimension. Eli will return when another Anchor is established."

  "When can I get a new Anchor?" Tris demanded, fresh hope mingling with desperation in his voice.

  "That depends partly on you," Vander replied. "Your Oversoul Resonance needs to stabilize after the trauma of separation. And the new Anchor should be one they can't destroy so easily next time."

  Tris's hand instinctively moved to his chest where the Crest of Courage had hung. "Right, my necklace..."

  "Was a beautiful symbol but ultimately insufficient," Vander finished for him. "You'll need something more permanent. Something that becomes part of you rather than merely an accessory."

  Alice stepped forward, kneeling before Tris with unexpected grace. "I can help with that. As your externalized shadow, I am already an aspect of your true self. We can work at making me our living Anchor."

  Tris studied her face—Eli's face worn like a mask over something entirely other. The familiar features coupled with the fundamentally different presence behind them created a cognitive dissonance that made his heart ache. Yet beneath that discomfort, he sensed the truth in her words.

  "Why Alice?" he asked suddenly. "I forgot. Why that name?"

  A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "Because Alice is like you… like us. Because she confronted the shadow aspects of reality while maintaining her essential self. Because she returned changed yet fundamentally whole."

  The literary symbolism wasn't lost on Tris, who found himself nodding despite his lingering reservations. He turned back to Vander, needing more concrete information.

  "You said Ereshkigal is operating outside Council sanction. What does that mean for us?"

  Vander's expression darkened. "She's desperate and dangerous. The Anunnaki Council operates under cosmic agreements that limit their direct intervention. Ereshkigal has abandoned those restrictions, which makes her both more immediately threatening and more ultimately vulnerable."

  "Vulnerable?" Tris pressed.

  "Cosmic law is self-regulating," Vander explained. "Forces that violate fundamental agreements eventually face proportional consequences. By operating outside sanction, Ereshkigal has exposed herself to intervention from higher densities."

  "Like yours," Tris concluded. “And you’ve been here for decades despite her going rogue recently?”

  “Time isn’t linear, it’s multidimensional.” He assured. "And yes, I am part of the intervention," Vander confirmed with a grim smile. "But we need to be strategic. My cover is blown, which limits my freedom of movement. The other Guardians are still operating covertly within their assigned bloodlines, gathering intelligence and sabotaging from within."

  "What's our next move, then?" Tris asked, the plural unconsciously including both his strange new companions.

  Vander exchanged a measured look with Alice before responding. "We need to get you to the next resource cache. Strengthen your Oversoul Resonance. Prepare you for what's coming. He paused, weighing his next words carefully. “Maybe we’ll run into Sarah along the way."

  Tris straightened immediately, guilt and determination flashing across his features. "Sarah. God, I almost forgot."

  "She made her choice," Alice reminded him, her voice carrying that strange echo once more.

  Vander studied him. "Finding her won't be simple. If she survived—and knowing what I know about Nephilim capabilities, she likely did—she'll be on the move, hunted by both Kennedy's forces and Ereshkigal's direct agents."

  "Then how do we find her?" Tris demanded, frustration evident in his voice.

  "I might be able to help with that," Vander said. "Before my cover was blown, I planted tracking algorithms in Kennedy's communication network. If Sarah appears on their radar, we'll know. Nothing yet though."

  Tris absorbed this information, visibly processing everything he'd learned. The mental and emotional whiplash of the past hours had left him exhausted yet keenly alert. He looked between his two unusual allies—a shadow guardian wearing his twin flame's face and an interdimensional being whose true nature remained largely mysterious to him.

  "I still don't understand everything," he admitted finally. "But I know we need to find Sarah eventually. And I know I need to increase my... what did you call it? Oversoul Resonance?"

  "ORG," Alice supplied. "Oversoul Resonance Gauge. It measures your connection to our Oversoul."

  "Right," Tris nodded. "How do we do that without Eli?"

  "The resource caches," Vander reminded him. "Your past self left breadcrumbs across lifetimes—objects, information, energy signatures that will help you remember who you truly are."

  “How do you know about those?” Tris asked.

  “I’m a big fan…” Vander responded, his tone a mix of question and answer.

  Tris looked to be having none of it, simply shooting back a weird look that went unanswered.

  "And I can guide you to them," Alice added. "The evolution I've undergone has unlocked access to memory fragments previously dormant in my consciousness. It’s not perfect. But it’s there."

  Tris fell silent for a long moment, considering his options. Finally, he pushed himself to his feet, wincing slightly as his body reminded him of the beating it had taken during the ambush.

  "Alright," he said with newfound determination. "Let's find the next cache, boost my ORG, and hope Sarah shows up on the radar soon." He fixed Vander with a penetrating stare.

  Vander grinned, the expression transforming his weathered face. "Wouldn't have it any other way, Solaris."

  "Don't call me that," Tris said sharply. "Not yet. Not until..." He trailed off, unable to articulate the loss still fresh in his heart.

  "Understood," Vander acknowledged with surprising gentleness. "Tris it is, then."

  Alice rose smoothly to her feet, offering the backpack she'd acquired in town. "I gathered supplies. Food, water, first aid. Enough for immediate needs."

  Tris accepted the pack with a nod of thanks, deliberately avoiding extended contact with her hands—Eli's hands, yet not. "How far to the next cache?"

  "Approximately two days' journey southeast over the border," Alice replied. "Terrain and weather conditions permitting."

  Tris nodded, shouldering the backpack as he surveyed the night forest stretching before them. The moon had begun its descent, stars wheeling overhead in their ancient patterns. Somewhere in that vastness, Eli existed—dispersed perhaps, but not gone. Not permanently. And somewhere, Sarah fought her own battles, alone but not forgotten.

  "Southeast it is," he decided. "Let's move while we still have darkness for cover."

  As they set off through the forest, Tris couldn't help noticing the strange synchronicity in their movements—Alice flowing like living shadow to his right, Vander moving with the calm power of an apex predator to his left. An unusual trinity formed of necessity and circumstance, bound by goals that aligned for the moment.