The sky didn't fall.
It sagged.
Heavy. Gray. Pressing down on everything like the world was tired of holding itself together.
The spiral in the ocean kept turning.
Slow.
Hungry.
Ships backed away. Sirens screamed. Soldiers shouted into radios that no longer worked. Every signal kept cutting in and out, like the air itself didn't want humans talking.
But no one fired now.
Because everyone understood.
Missiles wouldn't fix this.
Nothing human-made would.
Rafi stood barefoot at the shoreline again.
Same place where everything had started.
Same smell of salt.
Same silence.
But this time, the silence felt… older.
Like something ancient was watching him specifically.
"Lila…" he said quietly.
She was on her knees in the wet sand, eyes glowing faint blue again, fingers pressed to the ground like she was checking someone's pulse.
"The Sea King is scared," she whispered.
Marco blinked. "Scared? That thing is the size of a mountain."
"He's not afraid for himself," she said. "He's afraid of what's waking up."
The cracked Deep Heart pulsed again in the distance.
Thump.
Thump.
Each beat made the water rise a little higher.
Not waves.
Level.
Like the whole ocean was filling a bowl.
"The system…" Lila muttered. "It's not emotional like the Sea King. It's not alive like us. It's just balance. Cold balance."
Marco frowned. "Meaning?"
"If life hurts the planet too much…" she swallowed, "it resets it."
Rafi's chest tightened. "Reset means… everyone dies, right?"
She didn't answer.
Because she didn't need to.
A child nearby started crying.
People packed bags again.
Running again.
Always running.
Rafi watched them and suddenly felt angry.
Not scared.
Angry.
"We didn't all hurt the ocean," he said.
No one replied.
"My mother didn't. Anna didn't. Leo didn't. I didn't."
His voice shook now.
"So why do we have to die too?"
The wind picked up.
Cold.
Sharp.
The water at his feet moved toward him instead of away.
Like it recognized him.
Lila noticed.
"Rafi… step back."
But he didn't.
The water curled around his ankles.
Warm.
Not drowning.
Not pulling.
Holding.
Like a hand.
Suddenly
Pain flashed through Lila's head again.
Harder than before.
She gasped.
Images exploded inside her mind.
Not the Sea King.
Not the Deep Heart.
Something else.
Years ago.
A storm.
A small boy almost drowning.
Water swirling around him…
But not taking him.
Saving him.
Her eyes widened.
She grabbed Rafi's shoulders.
"Your mother… when you were little… did you ever almost drown?"
Rafi froze.
"How do you know that?"
"Tell me."
He nodded slowly. "When I was five. Boat broke. I fell in. Everyone thought I was gone."
"And?"
"The water pushed me back to shore," he whispered. "Like something threw me."
Lila's breath stopped.
Marco stared. "Okay… that's weird, but what does that"
"The ocean didn't choose me," Lila said.
Her voice cracked.
"It chose him."
Silence.
Rafi blinked. "What?"
"The Heart bonded with me because I understood it," she said. "But the Deep… it needs something else."
"Something pure," the blue woman from the underground city said softly behind them. No one had seen her approach. "Someone not connected to the damage. Someone the ocean already protected once."
Everyone looked at Rafi.
His stomach dropped.
"No," Marco said immediately. "No way. He's just a kid."
"The system won't listen to adults," she said. "Adults built the harm."
The Deep Heart pulsed louder.
Water climbed the shore another inch.
"The Sea King can fight," Lila whispered. "I can speak."
She looked at Rafi.
Tears forming.
"But you…"
Her voice broke.
"You can decide."
Rafi's head spun. "Decide what?"
The blue woman answered gently.
"Whether humanity deserves to exist."
The words hit harder than any wave.
Marco stepped forward. "That's insane! You can't put that on him!"
But the wind had stopped.
The sea had stopped.
Even the spiral slowed.
Waiting.
For him.
Rafi looked at the broken city.
At Anna holding Leo.
At Marco shaking.
At Lila glowing faint blue, half human, half ocean.
At the water that had never hurt him.
His chest hurt.
"I'm not special," he whispered.
Lila smiled sadly.
"That's exactly why you are."
Far out in the deep
The cracked Heart opened slightly.
Like an eye.
Looking straight at the boy.
Waiting for his answer.