Soren's POVWe moved like shadows through the waking city.The trucks we had loaded at dawn were already disappearing into side streets. Nadia had split the allies into small groups. Each one carried cases of food, water, and medical kits to houses and warehouses I had marked weeks ago. I moved with them, spatial pocket always open, pulling supplies from storage faster than anyone could carry them.Elodie saw me once. She was crossing the street near the Harrington building, walking to work like every other morning. She froze when she recognized me. Her eyes widened for half a second. Then she looked away, pretending I was just another face in the crowd.I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.Instead I nodded once to the two allies waiting near the corner. “Get this to the Harrington place. Quietly. If she asks, say it’s a safety program.”One of them swallowed. “You sure? She’s your wife.”“I’m sure.”The other one hesitated. “But the family… they’re not going to like it.”“They don’t have to li

Soren's POVBennett’s words still rang in my ears as we moved. “Their main facility is beneath your old home.” I didn’t wait for backup. I opened the spatial pocket and pulled the first case of supplies out. Nadia grabbed a rifle. The future Soren took medical kits. Caleb loaded a pistol and fell in beside me.“We go now,” I said. “Before Bennett makes it worse.” We moved fast. The city was already changing. Power flickered. Then it died.Streetlights went out one by one. Cars stopped mid-block. Phones went dark. The broadcast that had started earlier cut off completely. The world was collapsing.We reached the old power station basement by 11:47 p.m. The entrance was already open. Security guards stood in the doorway, rifles ready. Their leader stepped forward when he saw us.“You shouldn’t be here,” he said. I stopped ten feet away. “Tell me who you really work for.”He smiled like he had all night. “You know who we are. The organization. The one that’s been pulling strings since th

Soren's POVWe ran straight back toward the settlement. The distortions were everywhere now. One big one was right under the base we had built, pulsing like a second heartbeat. The ground kept shaking. Black cracks split the air. From them, creatures started pouring out — twisted things with too many joints, eyes that glowed wrong, mouths full of teeth that weren’t meant for this world.Derrick’s voice came over the radio, steady as always. “Soren! We’ve got incoming! The settlement’s under full attack! The big distortion is ripping the ground open! Caleb, hold the west side!”Nadia’s voice answered fast. “I’m organizing the evacuation route! Future Soren and I are holding the east side! Soren, move the people and the last supplies now!”I opened the spatial pocket and pulled people out by the handful. “Move! The creatures are coming through the distortions! Don’t fight them, run! Caleb, seal the west side!”Caleb was right beside me. “I’ve folded half the perimeter! They can’t cross

Soren's POVThe memories hit me like a truck. I saw the alternate Soren’s life, the one who had tried and failed in every timeline. I saw him standing over the Harringtons, offering them everything, watching them die anyway. I saw him changing the reset, sending me back, thinking he could fix it alone. His regrets were written in every scar, every choice, every night he had spent alone staring at the dark wondering why he kept coming back. I saw him begging Elodie to choose him over her family, over and over, and watching her choose them instead. I saw him trying to warn the Harringtons, only to be betrayed again and again. Every single failure. Every single time he had thought he was the hero.Then the future Soren’s life crashed in. The man who had seen the end coming, who had planned, who had trained, who had prepared the base. I saw his victories, the small ones, the quiet ones, the way he had kept a group of survivors alive for weeks when everyone else had died. I saw him teachin

Soren's POVWe walked toward the strange light. It wasn’t a distortion. I knew that the moment we stepped closer. The Fold was still sealed. The distortions were gone. This was something else. A hole in reality that wasn’t part of the spatial pocket. A doorway that had been hidden outside normal space.Nadia kept her rifle ready. “It’s not one of ours. I can feel the difference in the air. This isn’t the fold we sealed. This is… new.”Caleb folded his hands, eyes narrowed. “It’s not in my pocket either. I’ve folded space before, but this feels different. Like it was waiting for us to find it.”The future Soren; the version that had already disappeared had been the last to see it coming. I was the one who had carried his memories. This was the thing he had tried to warn us about. The thing he had spent his whole life preparing for.We reached the edge of the light.It was a perfect circle of white, like a doorway cut into the sky. Inside, I could see a structure that wasn’t there befo