The streets were on fire.Not from flames, but from time breaking.Buildings stretched and flickered. Streetlamps glowed with colors that didn’t exist. A shattered clock tower in the distance pulsed—sometimes whole, sometimes just rubble. Cars hovered, frozen mid-crash, then jerked forward and slammed into the ground. A child’s balloon floated upward… then reversed and sank.Lena ran through it all, heart pounding.Her hand was locked around the boy’s. His small fingers were warm, but his eyes were ice.Kai moved ahead, blade in one hand, gun in the other. He didn’t speak. Didn’t slow down. Every time time snapped, he flinched—like he could feel it inside his body.They were running through a part of the city that shouldn’t exist anymore.Lena remembered news reports from years ago. District Nine had been wiped out in a fire. Everyone thought it was a gas leak.It wasn’t.This was the place where time had first cracked.“This is wrong,” Lena whispered, out of breath. “We’re not suppos

Lena couldn’t breathe.She lay on the cold ground, chest rising and falling too fast, her eyes wide with terror. Blood trickled from her nose and ears. Her fingers twitched. Her whole body shook like a broken machine.Kai held her in his arms, trying to keep her still.“Lena,” he said, voice tight, “stay with me.”Her eyes locked on his for a second. Then she flinched, like she didn’t recognize him.She whispered, “I saw… too much.”Eli crouched beside them, his face calm but pale. “She touched her other self. The one locked away. Their memories are merging. That’s not supposed to happen.”Lyra stood back, gripping her weapon. “What happens if she can’t take it?”Eli didn’t answer.He didn’t have to.Inside Lena’s mind, the world was breaking.She stood in a hallway that stretched forever. On either side were doors — hundreds of them. Some were locked. Some cracked open. All of them pulsed with light.Behind one door, she saw a younger version of herself screaming inside a lab.Behind

The sky above the Nexus was calm now.The wind had stopped.The ticking had gone silent.But Lena’s heart wasn’t calm. Not even close.She stood next to Eli, staring at the glowing gate in front of them — swirling blue light, pulsing like a heartbeat.“This is the timeline we erased?” she asked.Eli nodded. “One of them. The most dangerous one.”“Why is it still here?”“Because it refused to die.”Kai stepped up behind them. His face was bruised, blood dried on his cheek, but his eyes were focused.“You don’t have to go,” he told Lena.“Yes, I do,” she said.“What if you don’t come back?”She looked at him, trying to smile. “Then you’ll just have to come find me.”He didn’t smile back. “I’m serious.”“So am I.”They stood in silence for a moment.Then Kai pulled her into a tight hug. “Don’t let her take you.”Lena whispered back, “I won’t.”Eli placed his hand on the gate.The light flared.And Lena stepped through.She landed in a world that was wrong from the first breath.The air w

Lena didn’t move.She stared up at the moon, her chest tight, her pulse racing.It was supposed to be whole now—clean, fixed. The resets were over. Eli had said this was the first true timeline.But there it was.The scar.A long, black slash across the center of the glowing moon. It didn’t pulse or move. It just sat there, like a wound the world was trying to ignore.Kai stood beside her, silent.Eli stepped forward, frowning. “It shouldn’t be there.”Lena nodded slowly. “Then something followed us.”Eli looked toward the horizon. His face darkened. “No. Something escaped the reset.”Later that night, they sat around a fire in the middle of the open field.The wind was soft. The air smelled like fresh earth and grass. It was the most peaceful place they’d seen in a long time.But no one was at ease.“I saw her,” Lena said quietly.Kai looked up. “Saw who?”“At the edge of the forest. Before we woke up here.” She looked down at her hands. “It was… me.”Kai frowned. “Again?”“No. Not l

Lena opened her eyes slowly.She was no longer on the cliff.Instead, she stood in a vast empty space — white as snow, smooth like glass.No wind. No sound.No sky.She took a step forward.Her footsteps made no noise.She looked around, confused.“Where am I?” she whispered.A voice answered, calm and cold.“Welcome to the Edge of Silence.”Lena turned sharply.A tall figure stepped out of the white mist.He wore a dark cloak that seemed to swallow the light.His eyes were deep pools of black.“I’m Nix,” he said. “Guardian of this place.”Lena clenched her fists.“What is this place?”“Between timelines,” Nix said. “A place for those who break time.”Lena’s breath caught.“Why am I here?”“Because you exploded the timeline,” Nix replied. “Your anchor pendant overloaded. You shattered the balance.”Lena’s heart pounded.“I didn’t mean to.”“Intentions don’t matter here,” Nix said. “Only consequences.”She looked at her hands, still glowing faintly.The pendant was gone.The warmth was