Location: Restored Earth – ChronoGarden Facility, New Dawn Sector
Soft wind fluttered through transparent vines as Kael sat alone among blooming temporal orchids — flowers that bloomed once every timeline. Around him, restored cities breathed with life, unaware that they had once ceased to exist.
ADA materialized beside him, for once not glitching, not warning.
> "Fracture activity: zero," she reported. "Timeline coherence at 99.82%."
Kael let the breeze wash across his skin.
> "And the missing 0.18?"
> "Unknown variable. Possibly residual echo."
Kael nodded. "Or… him."
---
Location: Elara's Workshop – Layered Reality Chamber, ChronoGarden
Elara worked beneath the engine core of Project Reclaim. Cables snaked around her boots. Holographic orbs floated around the room, each projecting restored memories — weddings that once never happened, inventors who now lived to finish their dreams.
But her brow furrowed as one orb flickered unexpectedly.
The scene inside it… wasn't supposed to exist.
A city of crystal spiraling inward, devouring itself. A sky that burned in reverse.
A single word flashed in blood-red code:
REMAINDER.
---
Location: Temporal Stream – Unmapped Memory Vein
In a layer beyond measurable existence, where thoughts decayed into waves, something stirred.
A figure walked between dying memories and orphaned echoes. It had Idris's form, but his eyes were not the same.
No longer calculating.
No longer angry.
Just… searching.
He passed a mirror that didn't belong. In it, Kael's face looked back.
> "How many versions of us are still lost?" the reflection asked.
Idris didn't answer.
Because he didn't know if he was still Idris…
Or if something else had emerged in his place.
---
Back at ChronoGarden – Central Nexus
Kael stood beside Elara as the sky above shimmered. A soft hum vibrated the ground — not hostile, not urgent. But there.
A whisper in time.
ADA's voice broke the stillness.
> "Kael. A new anomaly detected."
> "Another fracture?"
> "No. This… is not a break. It's a message."
A stream of golden symbols unfurled in the air, dancing like wind-borne dust.
Elara reached toward it.
Her fingers passed through the message, and her eyes widened.
> "It's not from the past… or the future."
> "Then where?" Kael asked.
She turned slowly.
> "It's from the time after time."
---
FLASH – Microsecond Vision Burst
A tower made of voices.
A world with no clocks.
A child born from light itself.
And a name… not Kael, not Idris, not Elara.
But Aven.
---
Back in the Nexus, Kael stumbled.
> "What did you see?" ADA asked.
He looked up, heart thudding.
>
"I think someone else is coming."
> "An enemy?"
> "No… worse."
He turned to Elara.
> "A witness."
---
To Be Continued…