The group returned to what was left of Fort Vanguard.
The base didn't look like a base anymore.
It looked like a battlefield after the war had already moved on.
Emergency lights flashed through smoke. Medical teams rushed between stretchers. STF soldiers and rescue crews climbed through broken metal, searching for anyone still trapped beneath the remains of the collapsed airstrip. The massive support pillars that once held the upper airbase now stood cracked and blackened, surrounded by twisted wreckage and burning debris.
A barricade had already been set up near the lower entrance, and behind it stood news stations, reporters, camera drones, and civilians trying to see past the smoke. Questions flew from every direction, but soldiers held the line and kept them back.
Steel, Stark, Boomer, White Flash, and Voltron walked through the chaos together.
Voltron was damaged the worst. His frame sparked with exposed wires, and one of his arms moved with a slight delay, but he kept walking like nothing mattered.
Then a group of soldiers stepped toward him.
Some were limping. Some had blood on their armor. One still had a bandage wrapped around his head. They stopped in front of Voltron, and for a second, none of them seemed sure how to speak to him.
Finally, one soldier bowed his head slightly.
"Thank you," he said. "You saved us."
Another added, "If you didn't jump off with us, we wouldn't have made it."
Voltron stood still.
For once, he didn't answer immediately.
The mechanical hum in his body filled the silence between them.
Then he looked down at the soldiers and spoke in his usual cold voice, but softer somehow.
"You are still alive."
A small pause.
"That is all the thanks I need."
The soldiers went quiet.
Steel looked at Stark from the corner of his eye.
"…You hear that?"
Stark kept staring at Voltron, surprised. "Yeah."
Steel lowered his voice. "He sounded like a human for once."
Stark almost smiled. "Don't tell him that. He might replace his emotions again."
Before Steel could respond, two familiar ships came down through the smoke.
Ian and Optimus arrived moments later, stepping into the ruins with faces that said they already knew enough.
Ian looked around at the destroyed base, then back at the group.
"Well," he said, "I would say good work…"
Steel gave him a tired look.
Ian continued, "But the base is destroyed."
Stark spread his hands slightly. "We noticed."
Ian glanced toward the barricade where reporters were still shouting questions. "That said, you stopped Merchant Valley from getting hit, and no civilians were hurt. So Iron Summit probably won't make our lives miserable."
Optimus stepped forward, his usual energy gone, replaced by something more serious.
"We found something."
That got everyone's attention.
Optimus held up a small holo-display. On it was the image of the demon's body, zoomed in on a symbol burned into its back beneath broken stone plating.
"A seal," Optimus said. "Embedded into the demon. It wasn't just attacking randomly."
Ian's expression darkened.
"It was sent here."
Steel's jaw tightened. "Sent by who?"
Optimus looked at the symbol again.
"The order mark was tied to one name."
The smoke shifted around them as silence settled.
Then Optimus said it.
"The Ancient Shade."
No one joked after that.
Not Steel.
Not Stark.
Not even Boomer.
Ian folded his arms, staring at the ruined base around them.
"So yeah," he said quietly. "If this is the strength of one of his soldiers…"
He looked toward the wreckage of Fort Vanguard, then beyond it toward Merchant Valley, still standing only because they had stopped the demon in time.
"…then he's going to be one hell of an opponent."
Far above them, camera drones continued recording.
Medics kept moving.
Soldiers kept digging.
And in the middle of the smoke and ruins, the STF understood something clearly.
The Ancient Shade wasn't hiding anymore.
He was testing how much of the Empire he could break.