Six months into her fieldwork, Elena found herself standing outside a rebuilt research facility, the same coordinates that had once marked Origin Point, now transformed into an international prevention training center where she'd been assigned for a three-week rotation.
She called Marcus that evening, video connecting across several time zones, his face appearing tired but genuinely happy to see her.
"You're actually there," Marcus said, studying the background of her video call. "At Origin Point."
"Feels strange," Elena admitted, glancing around the transformed space. "They've completely rebuilt it. New purpose, obviously, but the same location where everything almost went catastrophically wrong."
"How's the rotation going?" Marcus asked.
"Harder than I expected, honestly," Elena sai
