"Where secrets sleep, echoes scream."
Narrator (Opening)
"The sky may look empty, but it remembers. The stones remember the footsteps of the dead. The winds remember the cries of old kings. But memories… memories are tricky. They twist. They lie. They laugh. Welcome to the Pulse Archive—where truth is a performance, and history... bleeds."
I. Touchdown Trouble
The Arcbound Citadel welcomed Kael, Zayen, Eryn, and Riven like a palace halfway between heaven and an explosion. Lightning danced along the marble bridges, and the sky moaned like a giant snoring.
Kael stepped off the sky tram.
Then immediately tripped.
"Careful," said Eryn, catching his arm. "Gravity here flirts harder."
Zayen bounced out after him, arms flailing like a misfired rocket. "Whoa—this place is straight out of a fever dream! Where's the snack bar? Do they have pulse-powered noodles?"
"No," Riven said flatly.
"Okay, but, like—do you have a soul?"
"No."
Kael sighed. "Zayen… please."
The twin grinned. "What? Just making friends!"
II. The Archive of Madness
The group entered the Pulse Archive, a spiraling glass tower filled with living light. Scrolls floated in rings, glowing softly. Statues whispered in languages no one had spoken in centuries.
A holographic librarian floated up, shaped like a talking cactus.
"Welcome! You're three minutes late, which in Archive Time is technically four hundred years."
Zayen's mouth dropped. "Bro. A talking plant. Marry me."
"No thanks," said the cactus. "I'm emotionally unavailable."
Kael coughed, eyes widening as they passed a mural. A massive painting showed hundreds of fruit-shaped cores—some glowing blue, others crimson red, and one… pulsing black.
"That's... not supposed to be here," Eryn muttered.
III. Chaos Curator Appears
Suddenly, a metal door exploded open with an overly dramatic bang.
A woman twirled in wearing a flaming orange lab coat, boots made of clouds, and two hovering notebooks that smacked each other occasionally like angry siblings.
"HELLOOOOO!" she sang. "Archivist Belya has ARRIVED!"
Zayen clapped. "I love her."
Kael looked terrified.
"Time for Pulse Profiles! We're gonna scan your spirits, rattle your pasts, and maybe make a snack—depending on your trauma levels!"
Zayen stepped forward, proud. "Do me first!"
The scanner pulsed. A hologram formed—Zayen dodging explosions and time loops like a cartoon superhero.
Belya blinked. "Wow. Your laughter distorts causality. You're like a... time-jester."
Zayen struck a pose. "I prefer Chrono Comedian."
Kael rolled his eyes. "You're a disaster."
"Thank you."
Then it was Kael's turn. His pulse signature showed glimpses of the future—but too fast to see.
Belya frowned. "Strange. You don't just see time... it's like your soul sketches alternate paths before they exist."
Kael looked away, troubled. "What does it mean?"
"Nothing good," Belya whispered.
IV. Battle in the Vault
Without warning, alarms blared.
A rogue pulse-user had breached the lower archive.
"Guess it's not just history that wants attention," Belya muttered, pulling out a pulse-gun shaped like a rubber duck. "Stay back!"
But Zayen, of course, ran straight in.
"THIS IS THE PART WHERE I SHINE!"
Kael groaned and followed, with Riven silently vanishing into the shadows.
Inside the Vault—a massive room filled with floating data orbs—stood a cloaked figure radiating dark energy. Fruit-like symbols orbited them, glowing black-red.
"You shouldn't have come here," they hissed. "The soul-core isn't for you."
"Soul-core?" Kael echoed.
Zayen charged with a yell, slipped on a scroll, spun mid-air, and accidentally kicked the intruder in the face.
They flew backward, smashing into a statue of a warrior with twin swords.
Even Riven blinked.
Kael took advantage, drawing in mid-air—his Pulse activating. A glowing chain wrapped around the intruder's legs, but they screamed, burning it off with dark flames.
Riven appeared behind them in a blur. "Too slow."
One palm strike later, the figure was unconscious.
Belya strolled in casually, sipping from a steaming teacup.
"Well done, children. You've committed your first act of archive vandalism! Very proud."
V. Revelation in Silence
After the mess, Kael found Riven alone at the highest balcony.
Moonlight bathed her face.
"Why do you always disappear?" he asked.
"Because people notice less when you don't exist."
Kael stepped closer. "You saved us. Twice now. But… I saw your face in the reflection earlier."
Riven froze.
"You're not a boy," he said. "And you're not just anyone."
She turned.
"I was her," Riven admitted. "The child from the statues. The one blamed for the Pulse Collapse. I was there when the sky cracked."
Kael didn't speak.
Instead, he sat beside her.
"I don't care who you were," he said. "I care who you are now."
Riven looked away—but her fingers flexed, like maybe, for once, she wanted to hold onto something.
VI. Eryn's Secret Message
Meanwhile, Eryn pulled a secret scroll from her cloak.
The Pulse Medallion she'd kept hidden trembled.
On it, a symbol shimmered.
A black fruit… shaped like a heart.
She whispered, "Soon, they'll know. About the Soul Fruit. And what it did to my family."
Narrator (Closing)
"Secrets leak like ink. And the ink has touched them all. Kael sees things he shouldn't. Zayen laughs too loud for the silence to stay buried. Eryn hides a fruit-shaped wound. And Riven… Riven still runs from a name she once screamed into a dying sky."