Smoke.It blossomed in a single heartbeat—rolling across the steel floor in thick gray waves. Bobby coughed, his lungs burning, eyes watering as the acrid cloud swallowed Lyra, the Loopers, everything. Shapes flickered inside the haze—arms, silhouettes—but then blurred into nothing.A sharp, mechanical whir cut through the chaos.Bobby’s pulse hammered. His mind screamed: Run! But before his muscles could obey, cold, hard metal wrapped around his wrist.A hand. But not human.Its grip was too strong and unyielding—its fingers like steel pistons wrapped in synthetic flesh. For just a second, Bobby's eyes caught it through the swirling smoke. He saw a tall figure of dark alloy and carbon-fiber plating, eyes aglow with faint blue rings. An artificial face, expressionless. And on its chest, burned into the plating, two letters: B.F.Bobby blinked through tears, mind racing. B.F.—Bob’s Fragment? Bob’s Friend? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the voice within the machine that rumbled

The bell rang, but Bobby barely heard it. Mr. Modric still hadn’t looked away. His eyes, normally tired, seemed deeper now like pits that held something ancient—something that saw through Bobby rather than at him.And then, for a split second, Bobby glimpsed something impossible: Mr. Modric's skin seemed to glitch, flickering between flesh and something else.Something masked.---Students rose noisily, chairs scraping the floor, chatting about lunch and memes and homework. Bobby barely registered any of it.Modric’s stare pinned him in place, and Bobby’s mouth felt dry as dust.Then the teacher’s lips twitched. Just slightly. Almost a smirk.“See you after class, Bobby,” he murmured, too quietly for anyone else to hear.The words felt like cold iron dropped in Bobby’s stomach.---As the room emptied, Bobby’s head buzzed with static.He knows. He knows who I am.A Looper. Echo Looper.Bobby panicked. His hands shook as he shoved books into his backpack, mind spinning.Darius. Tell

The words on the screen felt colder than anything Bobby had ever read."I’ve been watching you."His heart skipped—shock written on his face. His mouth was agape and his eyes widened a little bit. His fingers went slack, and the phone slipped onto the cracked asphalt beside him.BF-85 stood silently a few feet away. The dull hum of its servos was the only sound in the alley.Watching me? Bobby thought, chest tightening. How? Since when?Images flashed through his mind like a ray of light: The hidden cameras he’d spotted on streetlights, the faint static in his phone speaker late at night, the strange flickers in his reflection whenever he passed a shop window—were all signs that he was been watched.Future Bob had seen it all. It all made sense—Bobby hadn't paid attention to the possibility.As if a bolt of lightning struck his thoughts, he remembered one of the Echo Loopers saying something linked to the revelation:“A place Bob can’t see us...”So, they knew all along—he pondered t

For a few seconds, Bobby couldn’t speak.The bruises, the blood, and the bandages on Darius’s arm all looked worse up close.Sympathy glimmered in Bobby's eyes. His expression seemed sad and remorseful.Bobby swallowed hard. His voice felt trapped behind the shock tightening his throat.“God,” he whispered again, softer this time. “What happened to you?”---Darius let out a slow breath, a rough sound scraping against cracked lips. His good eye looked glassy with pain, but behind it, there was still something sharp—alive.“They nearly got me,” Darius rasped, voice low and shredded. "After that robot took you away, other loopers arrived and ganged up on me. At first, they thought that teacher had killed you. I believe they came, hoping to see your lifeless body lying on the floor. I saw the disappointment in their eyes. They were desperate"Darius paused, his eyes fixed on Bobby.“I was stupid. I thought I could slow them down,” he let the words drop, sighing with pain—gritting his te

For a moment, Bobby’s heart stopped.Standing beside his mom, half-shadowed by the hallway light, was a woman. Shoulder-length dark hair tucked behind one ear, wearing a soft gray sweater and jeans. She looked perfectly ordinary—the type that can't arouse strong suspicion.Except Bobby knew that face.Lyra Mallis. It was undeniably her.---His breath caught painfully in his chest. His vision narrowed to a tunnel—her face and nothing else. The same woman who’d stood among the Loopers, who’d held a gun in shaking hands and whispered “You’re not a monster, Bobby. But Bob is.”And now she stood in his living room. Smiling politely—deception at its finest.Bobby's mind remained alarmed. He felt scared. Worried. Troubled.---“Bobby?” his mom prompted, her voice oddly cheerful. “This is Lyra. She started working in HR last month. We got to talking and… well, I thought you two should meet.”Lyra’s gaze settled on Bobby. Warm brown eyes. Calm, gentle smile.“Nice to meet you, Bobby,” she sa