The masked giant stood motionless before the crystal tree.

The thousands of tiny lights hanging around its neck pulsed softly, illuminating the silent plaza.

Each light beat with its own rhythm.

Like countless hearts.

Cassian instinctively stepped in front of Lumi.

“Who are you?”

The giant lowered its head.

“My name has been forgotten.”

Its voice echoed across the city like a distant tide.

“So they call me…”

“…The Collector.”

---

Commander Ronan raised his plasma rifle.

“Stay where you are.”

The Collector slowly looked at the weapon.

“I have watched stars die.”

“I have watched galaxies become dust.”

“I have carried the final memories of civilizations older than time.”

A faint glow surrounded the rifle.

Without touching it, the weapon gently floated from Ronan’s hands and settled on the ground.

The Commander stared in disbelief.

“I wasn’t trying to fight.”

“I know,” the Collector replied.

“I simply no longer wish to see fear.”

---

Dr. Elara stepped forward.

“The memories around your neck…”

“What are they?”

The Collector touched one of the glowing lights.

Immediately, the plaza transformed.

The crew found themselves standing beneath a brilliant purple sun.

Crystal mountains stretched across the horizon.

Strange winged beings flew between floating islands, laughing as children played beneath waterfalls that flowed upward.

Then…

The purple sun dimmed.

The oceans froze.

The sky cracked apart.

The winged people gathered together, smiling despite the end.

One by one, they dissolved into silver light.

The final spark drifted into the Collector’s waiting hands.

The vision ended.

The plaza returned.

The glowing light around the Collector’s neck shone a little brighter.

“I keep their final moments.”

“So they are never truly lost.”

Silence filled the square.

---

SERA-9 suddenly clutched her head.

Streams of blue symbols flashed across her silver eyes.

“I remember…”

Everyone turned toward her.

“I remember building this place.”

Cassian blinked.

“What?”

The android fell to one knee.

Images flooded her mind.

She saw oceans of light.

The crystal city under construction.

Millions of people working together beneath glowing stars.

She saw herself.

Not as an android.

As a living woman.

“No…”

She whispered.

“That isn’t possible.”

The Collector looked at her with quiet sadness.

“It is.”

“You were not created.”

“You were remembered.”

---

The words struck everyone with stunned silence.

Dr. Elara slowly shook her head.

“Memories can’t become people.”

“They can here,” the Collector replied.

“This ocean remembers perfectly.”

Lumi quietly looked at Cassian.

“I told you the stars were asleep.”

“They dream.”

“And dreams become memories.”

---

Suddenly…

The crystal tree shuddered violently.

One glowing star-leaf fell from its highest branch.

Before it touched the ground…

It turned black.

The Collector’s calm expression changed for the first time.

Fear.

He looked toward the glowing ocean above the city.

“They found us.”

The water overhead began turning dark.

Not all at once.

Like ink slowly spreading through clear glass.

The enormous silhouettes walking beneath the ocean stopped moving.

One by one…

They disappeared.

A deep rumbling echoed across the underwater sky.

Commander Ronan whispered,

“What is happening?”

The Collector closed his eyes.

“The Forgotten have awakened.”

The blackness spread faster.

The first crystal tower collapsed into silver dust.

The ocean trembled.

Then, from the darkness above…

A colossal hand reached down toward the city.

Its fingers were made entirely of empty space.

Wherever they passed…

Light itself ceased to exist.

The Collector looked directly at Cassian.

His ancient voice carried a desperate urgency.

“Run.”

The colossal hand descended through the glowing ocean.

It made no sound.

It cast no shadow.

Where its fingers passed, light simply… vanished.

The crystal towers nearest the plaza dissolved into gray dust without breaking apart, as though they had never existed.

“Move!” Commander Ronan shouted.

The team sprinted across the plaza as fragments of the city disappeared behind them.

Lumi remained strangely calm.

“They’re not destroying it.”

Cassian glanced back.

“Then what are they doing?”

“They’re making the universe forget it.”

---

The Collector raised both hands.

The thousands of glowing lights around his neck lifted into the air, circling above the plaza like a swarm of tiny stars.

Each light contained the last memory of a civilization.

He spoke softly.

“I have protected you for longer than galaxies have lived.”

The lights burst outward.

A shimmering dome surrounded the survivors.

The giant black hand struck the barrier.

For one heartbeat, the city was flooded with blinding white light.

Then…

Cracks spread across the shield.

The Collector staggered.

“They’ve become stronger.”

---

Dr. Elara grabbed Cassian’s arm.

“We have to help him!”

“How?”

Before she could answer, SERA-9 walked toward the crystal tree.

Her silver eyes glowed brighter than ever before.

“I remember now.”

Images flashed through her mind.

She remembered standing beside the Collector countless ages ago.

She remembered planting the crystal tree together.

She remembered making a promise.

“If the memories are ever threatened… wake me.”

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

“I wasn’t built by humanity.”

She looked at Cassian.

“I was the first Archivist.”

---

The crystal tree responded to her voice.

Its darkened branches slowly began glowing again.

Thousands of tiny stars blossomed across its limbs.

The Collector smiled.

“You finally came home.”

SERA-9 placed both hands against the trunk.

Silver light flowed from her body into the tree.

Every glowing memory in the city awakened.

The silent streets filled once more with luminous figures.

Millions of voices rose together—not in panic, but in hope.

---

The black hand paused.

Then another hand appeared beside it.

Then another.

Dozens of enormous arms reached down from the darkened ocean.

Commander Ronan stared upward.

“There are more of them…”

The Collector’s expression grew grave.

“The Forgotten are not one being.”

“They are every memory that was abandoned.”

Cassian frowned.

“Abandoned by whom?”

The Collector looked directly into his eyes.

“By the living.”

---

The dome protecting the city shattered.

The dark hands surged downward.

The crystal plaza split apart.

Cassian lost his footing and fell into a widening crack.

Before anyone could catch him, brilliant blue light erupted from below.

Instead of falling into darkness…

He landed in a vast chamber hidden beneath the city.

The room was perfectly circular.

Its walls were covered with billions of glowing names.

Some were bright.

Others had faded almost completely.

In the center stood a single empty chair carved from white crystal.

Above it floated a transparent sphere containing one tiny golden flame.

The moment Cassian stepped closer, the flame burned brighter.

A voice echoed through the chamber.

Not the Collector’s.

Not Lumi’s.

Not SERA-9’s.

A voice older than every star.

“At last…”

“The Final Witness has returned.”

Cassian froze.

The golden flame stretched into the shape of a human silhouette.

Slowly, it raised its head.

And when the light formed a face…

Cassian found himself staring at his own reflection.

Only this version of him had eyes made of living starlight.