When the Stars Went Dark
Chapter 14 - When the Stars Went Dark
The Void consumed energy.
Electricity.
Heat.
Motion.
Enhanced power.
Within hours, the city temperature dropped and the sun became a pale circle behind black clouds.
Voss believed he could control the creature.
It consumed him first.
The Guardian Initiative evacuated civilians.
Without powers, Maya worked beside firefighters, carrying children and distributing blankets.
A reporter recognized her.
“What can Red Seven do without her abilities?”
Maya lifted another supply box.
“This.”
The answer spread faster than any battle video.
Ana discovered the Void was drawn to remaining Core energy.
Maya carried the largest trace.
“You can lure it away,” Gabriel said.
“And then?”
No one knew.
Eve studied the storm.
“The Void cannot create. It only consumes.”
“What happens if it receives more power than it can absorb?” Maya asked.
A global message went out to every awakened person.
No promises.
No command.
Only a request.
At midnight, Maya stood alone in the stadium.
The Void descended.
It shaped itself into Sienna.
Then Tomas.
Then Ana.
Then Maya.
YOU FEAR BEING POWERLESS.
“I was powerless in that restroom.”
AND YOU HATED IT.
“Yes.”
POWER MADE YOU REAL.
“No. People noticed me because of power. I was real before.”
The Void attacked.
Maya opened herself to the last red energy in her body.
Around the world, thousands did the same.
Gold, blue, silver, green, white, and red energy rose across continents and converged above the stadium.
The Void consumed it.
Expanded.
Cracked.
Maya saw dead worlds inside it.
She felt compassion.
“You were made empty,” she whispered. “No one taught you another way.”
The Void reached for her.
Maya offered it the smallest memory she had.
A kitchen filled with sunlight.
The future she had shown Ana.
The Void encountered warmth it could not consume because it was not energy.
It was meaning.
Darkness folded inward.
A small white star appeared over the stadium.
The clouds vanished.
Morning returned.
Maya fell.
No power caught her.
Sienna did.
They crashed together onto the grass.
Sienna laughed through tears.
“Still think you wrote the wrong name?”
May you like
Maya looked at the bright sky.
“No. I think we all did.”
