Lyria wakes in a black, featureless cell subjected to blinding light, distorted screams, and shifting gravity. Starving herself, she hallucinates and relives losses from the camps and Hyperion, framing herself as a lifelong bystander and victim. A single visit from Victra confirms her captivity is retribution for the abducted children; Victra vows to strip Lyria’s sanity but assures Liam is unharmed.

Despair deepens as Lyria soils herself, screams at the door, and is tormented by visions of enemies and loved ones. Remembering recruitment tales of Darrow and her own passivity, she feels disgust at her surrender. She resolves that survival is her fight and forces herself to eat the rationed synth food, the hallucinations receding.

Adapting to the environment, Lyria rigs sleep by tying herself to a vent when gravity inverts, stuffing cloth in her ears and using a blindfold to blunt the stimuli. She studies the reactive light patterns, finding no clear code but reclaiming a sliver of agency and routine.

While fastening herself to the vent, she discovers a blood-written message on cloth: Volga, another prisoner, asking if she is alone. Rage surges—Volga helped kill Kavax—but Lyria recalls the Obsidian’s haunted remorse and recognizes they were both used by Ephraim. Choosing connection over isolation, Lyria pricks her thumb and writes back in blood.

By choosing to live and reaching out to Volga, Lyria shifts from passive victim to active survivor, establishing a fragile lifeline that could become alliance within Victra’s prison.