From what he had heard, death was never truly the end for someone, merely a new beginning. Although in this case, that would prove very true for him, Prophet mused as he stared off into the broken remains of the Ceph warship that he'd severed in half when the portal collapsed.

The wreckage hung in the void like a corpse adrift in an endless sea. Jagged edges of alien metal twisted and crumpled, glowing faintly with residual energy from the violent tear. Pieces of the ship, some larger than skyscrapers, drifted away in slow, chaotic spirals, their once-formidable hulls now reduced to cosmic debris.

Beyond the wreckage, Earth hung suspended in the infinite black, its surface glowing faintly blue and green. The planet was safe-at least for now. Prophet's gamble had paid off. The Ceph portal, their gateway to complete domination, was destroyed, and with it, their hope of overwhelming humanity.

The Nanosuit's HUD displayed a flickering readout.

[ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL.]
[SUIT INTEGRITY: 17%. SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT.]

Prophet exhaled slowly, his breath fogging the inside of his visor. Funny how he could still do that, even though he didn't have lungs anymore. The thought lingered, gnawing at the edge of his mind like a parasite. By this point, was he even human anymore?

The suit had replaced so much of him-his flesh, his blood, even his thoughts sometimes felt like they belonged more to the Nanosuit than to Laurence Barnes. That name felt alien now, like it belonged to someone else, someone who had lived a lifetime ago. He flexed his fingers, watching the suit's synthetic muscles ripple beneath its armored exterior. His body had become a weapon, a tool designed to save humanity. But what had it cost him?

Was there anything left of the man who had sacrificed himself to become Prophet?

The questions had haunted him for years, their weight pressing down on him like the gravity he no longer felt. They had become sharper, more insistent, after his talk with Psycho. He could still hear the anger in Psycho's voice, the pain laced into every word: "Do you even know what you are anymore? You're not even human, mate!"

Psycho had meant it as an accusation, but to Prophet, it had felt like a confession. He didn't know what he was. The lines had blurred so long ago that he wasn't sure if he even wanted the answer anymore. Human? Machine? Some unholy fusion of the two?

And now, floating here in the vast emptiness of space, with nothing but the blackness and the broken remains of the Ceph warship for company, Prophet had all the time in the world to think about it.

He turned his gaze away from the wreckage, staring into the endless void. It was a silence so absolute, it was almost deafening. Here, there were no battles to fight, no missions to complete, no enemies to defeat. Just him and his thoughts.

Was this what he had been fighting for? To save a humanity that he might no longer belong to? He had given everything-his body, his memories, his very identity. He had become a symbol, a name whispered in fear and reverence. But at what cost?

Prophet shook his head slightly, the motion feeling heavy and sluggish in the suit. Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe it was better this way. He wasn't sure if there was enough of Laurence Barnes left to mourn.

Still, the question lingered, sharp and relentless: If I'm not him anymore, then who the hell am I?

As the silence of space pressed down on him, Prophet couldn't help but wonder if he would ever find the answer. Or if the answer even mattered at all.

He was quickly jarred from his thoughts when an alert blared inside his suit, the sharp, mechanical tone cutting through the oppressive silence like a blade.

[WARNING!]
[UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED!]

Prophet snapped to attention, his body responding instinctively even before his mind fully caught up. The HUD flickered, a cascade of red warnings flooding his vision.

"What?! From where?!" he barked, his voice echoing in the confines of his helmet.

The suit's sensors began feeding him raw data, erratic and incomplete. Energy levels spiked on the display, an oscillating graph that refused to stabilize. A map of the immediate area appeared in his peripheral vision, highlighting a distortion in the void near the wreckage of the Ceph warship.

He focused on the anomaly, his enhanced eyes zooming in on the coordinates. At first, it looked like nothing-just the same black emptiness of space he'd been staring at moments ago. But then, faint ripples began to shimmer in the distance, a distortion that twisted and bent the starlight around it.

The Nanosuit's voice broke through again.

[GRAVITATIONAL FIELD FLUCTUATION DETECTED.]
[RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION: EVADE.]

Prophet clenched his jaw. "Easier said than done," he muttered, quickly assessing his options.

The anomaly began to expand, its edges crackling with an otherworldly light. Tendrils of energy lashed out, snaking through the void like searching fingers. The Ceph wreckage caught in its path was dragged inward, twisted and crumpled as though crushed by an invisible hand.

His mind raced. Whatever this was, it wasn't natural. The Ceph? No, they were finished-or at least, they should have been. Could it be some kind of residual effect from the portal collapse? Or was it something else entirely?

The suit's thrusters sputtered as he attempted to maneuver away from the anomaly. The fuel reserves were dangerously low, and each burst of propulsion sent him lurching unpredictably. The pull of the distortion grew stronger, dragging him closer with an inexorable force.

[WARNING: ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL.]

The HUD's flickering red warnings intensified, a glaring reminder of his vulnerability. Prophet gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay calm despite the rising tide of panic. He'd survived worse. He'd faced down alien invasions, betrayed allies, and his own crumbling humanity. He wasn't about to let some cosmic anomaly finish him off.

But as the tendrils of energy reached out toward him, curling with an almost predatory intent, Prophet realized he might not have a choice, even with the Nanosuit's enhancements. Each glowing strand crackled with unnatural energy, moving like living things-hunters closing in on their prey. The pull was growing stronger, an invisible force yanking him toward the swirling anomaly.

"Damn it," Prophet muttered under his breath, his voice taut with frustration.

The Nanosuit's systems were working overtime, feeding him streams of data that offered no solutions. The gravitational pull was overwhelming, dragging him closer despite his desperate attempts to fight it. Each burst from his thrusters felt like throwing pebbles at a tidal wave-useless against the sheer magnitude of the force.

With options dwindling, Prophet scanned the area for anything he could use. His HUD flickered, locking onto a piece of jagged debris spinning nearby-a massive chunk of the Ceph warship's hull, its edges glinting in the cold void of space.

"Hold together," he growled, angling his body toward the fragment.

He reached out, his armored gauntlet outstretched as the suit's magnetic grips engaged. The tendrils of energy lashed out again, one of them brushing perilously close to his leg. Sparks flared where it connected, the energy searing through the suit's shielding. A sharp jolt coursed through him, and alarms blared in his ears.

[WARNING: DAMAGE TO LOWER LIMB.]

The suit's thrusters sputtered with strained determination, giving him just enough force to push through the invisible grip of the anomaly. Ahead of him, the chunk of debris spun slowly, almost mockingly, its jagged edges glinting faintly in the cold, alien light of the swirling portal.

"Not getting away that easily," Prophet muttered under his breath, the sound muffled in the tight confines of his helmet.

The pull of the anomaly was relentless, like an unseen hand dragging him backward. Every movement felt sluggish, as if he were swimming through a viscous tide. His HUD flickered and adjusted, locking onto the fragment of metal as his objective. Distance: 3.2 meters. A gap that felt more like an ocean.

He stretched his arm out, every muscle in his body coiled like a spring. The Nanosuit responded, amplifying his reach, its servos humming as his hand extended toward the spinning debris. The tendrils of energy crackled and shifted around him, radiating heat and malice, but Prophet didn't flinch. His focus was unshakable.

The edge of the metal was just beyond his fingertips, tantalizingly close. He reached farther, his body straining against the suit's limits, the magnetic clamps in his gauntlet primed to latch onto anything solid. For a heart-stopping moment, his fingers grazed the surface, and he felt the cold, unyielding texture of the debris.

But it spun away.

"No," Prophet growled, the word low and guttural, a burst of raw frustration that escaped before he could suppress it.

He adjusted quickly, recalibrating his trajectory with a sharp burst from the suit's thrusters. Prophet gritted his teeth harder, his jaw tight enough to crack. The debris was spinning faster now, its lazy rotation becoming erratic as the anomaly's chaotic energy began to buffet it.

He reached again, every ounce of his will focused on this one action. His arm stretched farther than he thought possible, the suit's servos whining under the strain. The glowing tendrils surrounding him grew more erratic, snapping closer as if sensing his desperation.

This time, his fingers latched on.

The magnetic clamps engaged with a sharp click, locking his grip onto the fragment of Ceph warship. The force of his momentum spun him around the debris, his body slamming against the jagged surface with a dull, metallic thud. Pain flared across his ribs, but he clung tightly, his gauntlet locked in place like a lifeline.

"Gotcha," he hissed through gritted teeth, his breath fogging the inside of his visor.

For a fleeting second, relief washed over him. The pull of the anomaly lessened, his connection to the debris anchoring him against the relentless force. But that second was all he got.

The tendrils shifted again, their predatory focus zeroing in on his prize. Prophet's HUD flashed red as the debris groaned beneath him, the edges starting to buckle under the mounting pressure.

"Hold together," he muttered, his voice a mix of determination and desperation, the words barely audible over the hum of his suit's overtaxed systems. His grip tightened on the jagged edge of the debris, the gauntlet's magnetic clamps straining to maintain their hold. Prophet could feel the vibrations through his suit as the fragment groaned under the mounting pressure, its structural integrity on the verge of collapse.

Even as the words left his lips, doubt clawed at the back of his mind. He knew the odds were stacked against him-knew that the anomaly wasn't something the laws of physics could account for, let alone his Nanosuit. The swirling, otherworldly energy wasn't just pulling him in; it was actively consuming everything in its path. The debris was already beginning to splinter, cracks spidering across its surface as the tendrils wrapped around it like vultures circling their next meal.

Prophet clenched his jaw, forcing the rising frustration back down where it couldn't distract him.

"Think, damn it. Think."

His mind raced, scanning every piece of intel, every tactical advantage the suit's systems could offer. Options flickered across his HUD, most of them grayed out and useless. The suit's power levels were plummeting. His thrusters couldn't generate enough force to escape. And the debris-his one lifeline-was seconds away from breaking apart completely.

Another tendril lashed out, striking the edge of the fragment with a crackling burst of energy. The force sent a shudder through the metal, nearly dislodging Prophet from his precarious position. He grit his teeth against the jarring impact, his muscles straining as he clung on for dear life.

"Come on, you've been through worse," he muttered to himself, a faint edge of defiance creeping into his voice.

But even as he tried to steel himself, the reality of his situation gnawed at him. The odds were overwhelming, and for the first time in what felt like years, he felt the sharp sting of helplessness. The kind of helplessness that had haunted him before he became Prophet-back when he was just a man fighting an impossible war with nothing but grit and determination.

Now, even with the suit, even with all the power he'd sacrificed to gain, it felt like he was losing.

Another tendril slammed into the fragment, and a deafening crack echoed through the void. Prophet's HUD flared red with a new warning:

[STRUCTURAL FAILURE IMMINENT.]

The piece of debris buckled beneath him, the jagged edges starting to tear away as the anomaly's pull grew stronger. Prophet tightened his grip, but the magnetic clamps were slipping, the suit's systems unable to compensate for the escalating forces.

"Hold together," he repeated, this time more to himself than to the crumbling metal beneath him. The words carried a weight beyond the immediate situation, as if he was willing the universe itself to stop working against him for just one damn second.

But the universe wasn't listening.

The fragment gave a final, tortured groan before splintering apart entirely. Prophet felt the sudden loss of stability, the jarring sensation of weightlessness as the pull of the anomaly yanked him into the void. His body twisted in the zero-gravity chaos, alarms blaring in his ears as the debris scattered around him in jagged, glowing fragments.

For a moment, time seemed to slow. Prophet watched the pieces of the fragment drift away, tumbling into the void as the tendrils of energy reached out to claim them. His own form was pulled inexorably toward the swirling vortex, every thruster burst and desperate movement futile against its overwhelming force.

And yet, even as he spiraled toward the unknown portal, something within him refused to give up. Prophet's thoughts raced, a torrent of instinct and training urging him to fight back, to survive. But the relentless pull of the anomaly was absolute, and for all the power the Nanosuit granted him, he couldn't outmatch the laws-or perhaps the chaos-of this alien force.

His HUD flickered, warnings cascading down the interface like a waterfall. Energy spikes, structural integrity failures, system overloads-each alert a grim reminder of how little time he had left. The suit's AI droned mechanically in his ears, cataloging every failing subsystem in an unnervingly calm tone.

But Prophet ignored it. He'd learned long ago that fear and panic wouldn't help him here. He wasn't the man he used to be-the man who would flinch, who would hesitate in the face of the unknown. The Nanosuit had stripped away more than his humanity; it had refined him into a weapon, a being that existed to survive against impossible odds.

Still, even weapons had limits.

The swirling vortex of energy consumed more of his vision with each passing second, its eerie glow bleeding into his dimming HUD. The tendrils of energy that encased the portal coiled and snapped around him, not with malice, but with an undeniable, indifferent power. The suit's internal systems began to shut down, section by section, as if conceding to the inevitability of the situation.

And yet, Prophet's mind remained clear.

"I won't quit," he whispered, his voice low and defiant, the sound barely audible inside the suit. It wasn't for the suit's systems, nor for whatever entity waited on the other side of the portal. It was for himself-a reminder of the man he used to be, the man who had once dared to hope, even in the face of annihilation.

But the portal was unrelenting.

The blackness at its center began to creep into his consciousness, not as pain-he couldn't feel pain anymore-but as a suffocating weight. His thoughts grew sluggish, his focus slipping as the Nanosuit's neural link strained to keep him active. A sharp burst of static rang in his ears as the interface glitched again, the dim glow of his HUD growing weaker by the second.

Prophet's grip on reality wavered. He felt the suit's systems struggling to maintain their connection, the neural interface feeding him fragmented data and corrupted visuals. Shapes twisted and distorted, the once-crisp lines of the anomaly now blurred into a haze of light and shadow.

"I won't..." His words faltered, his voice fading into the void.

The darkness was overwhelming now, not just around him, but within him, seeping into his mind like an unshakable fog. His awareness flickered, the edges of his consciousness fraying as the anomaly pulled him deeper into its grasp.

And yet, some small spark remained.

It was a faint ember, buried beneath layers of exhaustion and inevitability. It wasn't a feeling-he didn't feel anything anymore-but a memory, a voice, an idea that refused to be extinguished. It whispered in the back of his mind, a promise he'd made long ago: to fight, no matter the cost.

As the blackness consumed him, that spark within Prophet refused to be extinguished. It clung stubbornly to the edges of his fading consciousness, a fragment of defiance against the overwhelming void. Even as the portal's energy coiled around him, tendrils of alien light piercing through the last remnants of his HUD's flickering glow, that spark remained-faint, but unbroken.

Prophet's thoughts grew hazy, fragmented. The once-sharp clarity of his Nanosuit's neural interface was now a distant hum, fading like static on a dying radio. The last thing he saw before his vision collapsed entirely was the swirling chaos of the portal itself-an unnatural storm of energy that seemed less like a gateway and more like a living, consuming force.

The vortex surged one final time, swallowing him whole.

Darkness enveloped everything.

There was no sound, no sensation, no awareness of time. Just the suffocating void. It pressed in from all sides, an oppressive nothingness that threatened to drown out even the smallest remnants of thought.

And yet, somewhere deep within that void, Prophet's mind clung to existence. The spark that had refused to die before now glimmered faintly, a stubborn ember in the face of overwhelming annihilation. It wasn't hope-it was something more primal, more ingrained. A refusal to surrender.

The portal pulsed violently as if reacting to his presence. Then, without warning, it began to collapse.

Tendrils of energy retracted into themselves, the swirling maelstrom folding inward in a cascade of blinding light and thunderous silence. The oppressive pull vanished, leaving only the faintest ripples in the fabric of reality. The debris that had been drawn into its grasp moments before was now scattered across the void, drifting aimlessly in the weightlessness of space.

Where the portal had once been, there was now only emptiness.

But Prophet was gone.
_______________________________________________
Fucking power outages! The very bane of fanfic writers and I can now see why. A blackout for three full days and I couldn't do anything because most of my things were on low power and when I did get power back I had forgot to post the update to my story, so now you guys get two updates in one day as a way for me to say sorry for keeping you waiting.

Also, hope everyone's having a happy December and before anyone asks - no, I won't ship prophet with anyone, he's technically dead so it would be weird.