Finn stood at the heart of the Nexus, where the energy was palpable, putting the pieces together. Surrounding him was darkness, but the soft glow of the assembled crystals would tell otherwise-that they were arranged into something almost elegant. He felt the gravity of the moment weighing upon him.
As he flipped the switch on the homemade gadget, a maelstrom of energy pulled him into a whirlpool of color and sound; he prepared for the torque being imposed by the twisting fabric of reality as it swirled through layers of time. It was disorienting, but he kept his mind fastened to the hope of finding Sam.
He was hurled through an enormous space loaded with bright lights and misty figures. He was standing in the Chrono Nexus-a place that is so familiar, yet so strange. Time streamed past him, as if he was standing on a riverbank, with each current being different reality, timeline, and not-yet.
"Sam!" he shouted, his voice booming through the mystical expanse. "Do you hear me?"
Only the silence replied to his cries.
As he progressed in the Nexus, he saw flashes of history-glimpses of moments he knew, moments where Sam had fought against anomalies, sealed rifts, and saved countless lives. Every vision was like a scene from a movie, and Finn felt a connection with her. It was gravity, the weight of sacrifice, anchoring his being within this strange realm.
Amid the confusion, he spied a figure—a silhouette standing at the edge of one of the time streams.
"Sam!" Finn yelled again and rushed toward her. As he approached the figure turned and his heart leapt. It was her.
"Finn?" Sam's voice was soft but there was a glimmer of recognition in her eyes.
"Is it really you?" he gasped with realization flooding through him "I thought I lost you".
"You did," she said, her face bittersweet. "But I'm here. I'm… somewhere between time."
Finn's chest hurt. "I've been trying to reach you. I thought you were gone for good."
"I was," she replied, her voice steady. "I made a choice to save the timeline, to erase Cairn and his influence. But that choice cast me into this liminal space, this… in-between."
"Then we can get out!" Finn urged, rising again in excitement. "I came for you. Found the Chrono Nexus-it's a portal. We can leave this place together!"
Sam shook her head, her voice softening. "It's not that simple. The Nexus is powerful, but it's unstable. If we're not careful, we might rip time apart all over again."
We have to try," Finn moved closer, determination flaring up in him. "I cannot leave you here."
They stood in the vast expanse of the Chrono Nexus. Time currents swirled about them and whispered their secrets and tales of what could be, but there was no time. The rifts they had sealed flickered ominously, threatening to reopen at any moment.
"Okay," Sam said sternly, her voice. "Let's go step by step through this. We have to find the correct thread, the moment that may take us back."