--- Title: Vox And The Room Source: Vox and the room -- master edit .txt Word Count: 384 Collection: standalone ---

The room was not a room. It was the negative space between moments. A cage built to hold what could not be. And in the center of that cage, bound in the echo of a paradox, was a boy. Zidion. His Zidion. But this Zidion was wrong. Broken. His skin was the color of old moons, his hair like spun event horizons. The cage hummed with a power that Vox knew would unravel the boy in an instant, should it be released. 'Hello, brother,' the boy said, his voice the sound of a dying star. 'I've been expecting you.' Vox did not hesitate. He reached out with his power, the force that could move worlds and rewrite laws, and he tried to take Zidion away. But the cage held. It did not yield. 'You can't save him,' the echo said, and Vox knew it was right. 'He's already gone.' Vox looked at the boy, at his Zidion, and he knew it was true. The boy was not there. He was a puppet, a hollow thing animated by the cage's power. 'Then I'll destroy the cage,' Vox said, his voice tight with grief. 'I'll unmake this place, and you with it.' The echo laughed, a sound like glass breaking. 'You can't. This cage is a part of you. A part of what you did.' Vox did not understand. He did not want to. He only wanted his Zidion back. 'Give him to me,' he said, his voice a snarl. 'Or I'll take him from you.' The echo only laughed again. 'You can't take what's not there. And you can't destroy what's already broken.' Vox lunged, his power a storm of raw force. But the cage held, unmoving, unyielding. And in its center, the boy only smiled, a sad, empty smile. 'Goodbye, brother,' he said, and then he was gone. Vox stood in the ruins of the cage, his power spent, his grief a heavy weight in his chest. He had failed. He had lost his Zidion. And in that moment, he knew a truth that was colder than any star. He was not alone in the shadows. He was trapped with something that knew him. Something that had used his own power against him. And something that was not afraid to break what he loved."