The final hours ticked away.
Three days since Axel warned Alex and her family. The Dunphys had retreated inland as he asked, finding refuge in the Colorado Rockies under the guise of a vacation. But for Axel, the storm was now.
Astrais hovered unseen just beyond Saturn, still cloaked in silence.
The alien crafts from the Battleship universe had crossed Jupiter's orbit and were now passing Saturn. Their trajectory held steady—Earthbound. But Axel had no intention of stopping them. As much as it pained him to watch from afar, he knew how this story played out.
He had seen it in his previous life.
The humans would rise. The battles would be hard, but they would overcome. The alien threat was real, but not beyond Earth's ability to face.
"No," Axel whispered to himself as he stood in the command center of Astrais. "This isn't my fight."
He had something far more important to uncover.
With the five alien ships past Saturn and Earth's fate moving along its destined path, Axel set his course elsewhere. He wasn't going to battle them—he was going to find where they came from.
He had spent weeks analyzing the signal traces, identifying the exact solar system the alien crafts had launched from. The coordinates glowed brightly on Astrais' navigation console. It was time to go.
He knew his ship was more advanced—its technology centuries beyond even what the invaders carried. Astrais was a ghost among metal titans, and Axel had the advantage. He would explore their world. Study it. Understand who or what had sent them.
In this universe, Axel knew one thing for sure: power is the only law. The strong devours the weak.
But before his departure, he had something else to do.
Inside the Astrais' memory vault, Axel recorded a final message. A transmission encoded and scheduled to be sent to one person only—Alex Dunphy.
The hologram began:
"Hey, Alex. If you're seeing this, I'm... already gone. I couldn't tell you before. I wanted to, believe me. But I had to go. There's something out there—something bigger than anything I've ever seen. And I have to know what it is. I don't know how long I'll be away. Could be months. Years. Or longer. But know this—if there's a way to come back, I will. You're the first person I'll find. You always have been.
Please don't look for me. Live. Learn. Be amazing, because you already are."
The message ended.
Axel watched the recording once before uploading it to Astrais' encrypted transmission system. It would only be delivered after he passed beyond the outer edge of the solar system.
He didn't tell anybody he was leaving Earth. Only that he would be gone, and they shouldn't look for him.
He stepped into the pilot chamber, surrounded by glowing instruments, the humming of engines rising with power.
As the countdown to warp drive began, Axel took one last look at the blue dot in the distance.
Earth.
"They'll be okay," he said softly. "You'll be okay."
And with that, Astrais surged forward, vanishing into the void beyond Pluto, heading into deep space.
To find answers.
To discover the world of the aliens.
To write a new chapter.
The stars stretched and folded.
And Axel Leo was gone.