Thiago stared at the name floating above the city.Marcus Hale.After everything they had endured, after countless resets, collapsing timelines, and the creation of a new beginning, Marcus was still alive.Worse, he remembered everything.Thiago clenched his fist."Of course he does."Selene studied the silver point in the sky."That signal isn't coming from another timeline."Thiago turned toward her. "What do you mean?""Every previous transmission carried some trace of temporal displacement. This one doesn't. It's coming from somewhere within our reality."Adrian shook his head."That doesn't make sense.""Why?""Because Marcus wasn't supposed to exist in this version of the world."Thiago looked at him."Explain."Adrian hesitated."In the futures I remember, Marcus always survived the first reset. Sometimes he hid. Sometimes he escaped beyond the boundary. Sometimes he became part of the system itself."He pointed toward the silver light."But after you created the new beginning,

The lights went out.For three seconds, nobody moved.Then Thiago heard Selene whisper, "Thiago?""I'm here.""Where is the child?"Thiago tightened his hold on Adrian and reached toward the transparent chamber.It was empty.His blood ran cold."Adrian, stay with your mother."He rose and searched the darkness with his hands, expecting to find the newborn lying somewhere beneath the chamber.Instead, he heard a small sound behind him.A laugh.Thiago turned.Two tiny brown eyes stared at him from the floor.The baby was sitting upright, wrapped in a blanket that had not been there before.He looked perfectly ordinary.Almost.Thiago crouched slowly."Hello, little one."The baby tilted his head.Then he smiled."Dad."Thiago stopped moving.Behind him, Selene gasped.Adrian sat up."No," he whispered.The baby turned toward him.For a moment, the child's expression changed. His eyes narrowed as though he recognized something familiar.Then he reached toward Adrian."Brother."Adrian

The hand gripping the broken edge of the floor tightened.Then another hand appeared.A second Thiago pulled himself out of the darkness.He looked exactly like Thiago Moretti, down to the scar above his left eyebrow. His black shirt was torn, his face was pale, and his dark eyes carried an exhaustion that made him appear decades older.But the wedding ring on his finger was different.Thiago glanced at the ring on his own hand.Both rings were identical.Selene immediately stepped in front of Adrian and the baby."Nobody moves," she warned.The stranger laughed quietly."Still giving orders, Selene? You haven't changed.""Who are you?""You already know.""I know what you look like. That doesn't tell me who you are."The stranger climbed out of the hole and stood upright."I'm Thiago Moretti.""That's impossible," Adrian said.The stranger looked at him."Is it? You were born seventeen years in the future, aged backward, aged forward, and survived timelines that no longer exist. Yet