Lee stood in a field of white.
No sky. No ground. No horizon. Just white, stretching in every direction, endless and empty.
"You wanted the truth," a voice said. "Here it is."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It was the voice of the Dawnblade older than the stars, colder than the void between them.
"Show me," Lee said.
The white shifted.
Lee saw himself a baby, wrapped in black silk, floating down a river of shadow. He saw the old ones the ones who had split his soul, who had put the light in one child and the darkness in another. He saw their faces, their desperate eyes, their trembling hands.
We're sorry, they whispered. We're so sorry. But the world is ending. The Hollow King is coming. We need a weapon. We need a sacrifice.
We need the Light Bringer.
Lee watched as they placed him in a basket and set him adrift on the Rust Sea. Watched as they took his twin Inyocha and threw him into the darkness of the Sunken City. Watched as they sealed the door behind him.
One to carry the light, they whispered. One to carry the shadow. And when the time comes, they will be reunited. And the world will be saved.
Or destroyed.
We don't know which.
The vision shifted.
Lee saw the future or *a* future, one of many. He saw himself standing before the Hollow King, Dawnblade in hand, golden light blazing. He saw Inyocha beside him, shadows swirling, red eyes burning. He saw their friends Kira, Taro, Ren fighting and dying and screaming.
He saw the Hollow King smile.
You cannot save everyone, the King said. You cannot save anyone. You can only choose.
Choose, Light Bringer.
Who lives?
Who dies?
Who do you love enough to sacrifice?
The vision ended.
Lee stood in the white field, his heart pounding, his hands shaking.
"That's not the future," he said. "That's a possibility. And I reject it."
The voice laughed cold, cruel, amused. "You cannot reject truth, child. Truth is what it is."
"Then show me a different truth. Show me the truth where we win. Where everyone survives. Where the Hollow King falls and the world is saved."
"That truth does not exist."
"Then I'll make it exist."
Lee grabbed the Dawnblade not the vision, the real Dawnblade, the one on the pedestal and pulled.
The white field shattered.