MARCUS CHEN; The Reborn

CHAPTER 1

THE GENERAL DIES AT DAWN

The poison tasted like copper and regret.

Marcus Chen's vision blurred as he slumped forward in the steel chair, chains cutting into his wrists. Blood dripped from his nose onto the concrete floor of Sub-Level Nine, each drop echoing in the silence. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, that same mechanical hum that had driven three prisoners insane last year.

He'd counted the days. Two hundred and seventeen since the trial that wasn't a trial. Since they'd paraded him in front of cameras and called him a monster.

"Still conscious?" Director Hale stood by the door, checking his watch like he had somewhere better to be. "The sedative should've worked by now."

"Disappointed?" Marcus coughed. More blood. "Want to... watch me beg?"

"I want this over with." Hale adjusted his cufflinks. Italian silk, probably cost more than a soldier's monthly pay. "You made it personal when you refused the deal."

Marcus laughed, though it came out as a wheeze. "The deal where I... confess to murdering fourteen hundred civilians? That deal?"

"The deal where you live." Hale moved closer, expensive shoes clicking against concrete. "Dishonorable discharge. Quiet retirement. Pension intact. Your name becomes a footnote instead of a headline."

"While the real killers walk free."

"The real killers are patriots doing necessary work." Hale crouched down, meeting Marcus's eyes. "You were a good soldier, Chen. Best tactical mind I've seen in twenty years. But you don't understand how the game is played."

"I understand." Marcus spat blood. "Stage a crisis. Blame a hero. Cash the checks when Congress authorizes response funding. How much did Firebase Theta make your friends? Billions?"

Hale's expression didn't change, but his jaw tightened. Just a fraction. Just enough.

"You weren't even in-country when Firebase Theta happened," Marcus continued. His tongue felt thick, words slurring. "Northern theater. Three thousand miles away. I have proof."

"Had proof." Hale stood. "Past tense. The evidence burned with your apartment. The witnesses recanted. The satellite data was corrupted. It's amazing how fragile truth becomes when no one wants to hear it."

Marcus tried to lift his head, but the muscles wouldn't respond. The poison was working faster now. His heartbeat slowed. Thump. Thump. Thump. Each beat weaker than the last.

"My team," Marcus whispered. "What happened to them?"

"They believed the official story. Easier than believing their commander was innocent." Hale walked to the door. "History is written by survivors, General. And you won't be one."

"Someone will figure it out."

"No." Hale paused at the threshold. "They won't. Because in six months, we're going to stage something bigger. Something that makes Firebase Theta look like a practice run. And when Congress is terrified enough, desperate enough, they'll give us everything we want. Unlimited funding. Unlimited authority. A blank check to reshape the world."

Marcus felt his vision tunneling. Darkness creeping in from the edges.

"You could've been part of it," Hale said. "We offered you glory. A second chance. A purpose beyond your idealistic notions of honor."

"Go to hell."

"Eventually." Hale opened the door. "But not today."

The door sealed with a pneumatic hiss.

Marcus was alone.

Thirty-two years old. Youngest five-star general in modern military history. Commander of the Shadow Corps. Architect of the Iron Valley Campaign. The soldier who'd never lost a battle until politics became the battlefield.

His breathing slowed. In. Out. In. Out.

He thought about his father. General Thomas Marcus, the legend who'd disappeared when Marcus was twelve. The man whose shadow Marcus had spent his life trying to escape and honor simultaneously.

Sorry, Dad. I wasn't strong enough.

He thought about his team. The soldiers who'd trusted him. Believed in him. Died for him.

I should've seen it coming. Should've known.

He thought about Firebase Theta. The atrocity that destroyed fourteen hundred lives and pinned the blame on the one man who would've died to prevent it.

They're going to do it again. And I can't stop them.

Darkness closed in completely.

Marcus Chen's heart stopped.

And then it started again.

Marcus gasped, jerking upright so violently he nearly fell out of bed.

Bed?

He wasn't in the Obsidian Hold. Wasn't chained to a chair. Wasn't dying.

Sunlight streamed through cheap curtains. Real sunlight, warm and golden, not the sterile fluorescents of the prison. Dust motes drifted lazily through the air. A ceiling fan spun overhead, wobbling slightly off-balance.

Marcus looked down at his hands.

They were young. Smooth. No calluses from rifle grips. No scars from the Karachi extraction. No radiation burns from Moscow.

His hands were eighteen years old.

"What the hell..."

He stumbled to the mirror above a small sink. The face staring back was his, but younger. Sharper jawline. No stress lines. Eyes still clear instead of the war-weary thousand-yard stare he'd carried for a decade.

This was his face from the National Defense Academy. From his first year.

A calendar hung on the wall. August 17th.

The exact date he'd arrived at the academy fourteen years ago.

"No." Marcus gripped the sink edge. "This isn't possible."

Then the voice came.

Not out loud. Inside his head. Cold and mechanical and absolutely certain.

[WARDEN SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]

Blue text appeared in his vision, hovering in the air like augmented reality. Except there was no headset. No interface. The words simply existed in space.

[INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.]

[HOST: MARCUS CHEN]

[STATUS: REBORN – DAY 1]

[PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: PREVENT SEVEN CATASTROPHIC EVENTS]

[TIME REMAINING: 3,650 DAYS]

[FAILURE CONSEQUENCE: DETONATION]

Marcus's heart hammered. "What is this? What are you?"

[SYSTEM AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED. PLACE HAND ON WARDEN MARK.]

His left forearm burned. Marcus yanked up his sleeve. A symbol glowed beneath his skin—geometric, intricate, like circuitry carved into flesh. It pulsed with each heartbeat.

"No. No, I'm not doing this." Marcus backed away from the mirror. "I'm dead. This is dying. This is my brain shutting down and hallucinating."

[HOST IS ALIVE. REBIRTH IS COMPLETE. AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED TO PROCEED.]

"I don't want to proceed! I want to—"

The door burst open. A young man with an expensive haircut and designer workout gear leaned in. "Yo, Chen! Formation starts in ten minutes. If you make us late, I'm reporting you."

Marcus stared at him. Leon Cross. Congressman Nathan Cross's son. The spoiled rich kid who'd made Marcus's first semester hell with his connections and his attitude.

Leon, who in Marcus's original timeline had graduated third in their class and gone into politics. Who'd stood beside his father during the press conference where they called Marcus a war criminal.

"You hear me?" Leon snapped his fingers. "Earth to Chen."

Marcus's hand moved on instinct, reaching for the sidearm that should've been on his hip. But there was no weapon. Just Academy-issue shorts and a t-shirt.

"I hear you," Marcus said quietly.

Something in his tone made Leon hesitate. The cocky smirk faltered. "You good, man? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I am a ghost.

"I'm fine." Marcus straightened. "I'll be there."

Leon studied him for another second, then shrugged. "Whatever. Don't be late." He left, door slamming behind him.

Marcus looked at his forearm again. The mark glowed brighter, insistent.

[AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.]

"If I do this," Marcus whispered, "if I touch this thing, I'm accepting that this is real. That I'm actually here. That I've been given a second chance."

[CORRECTION: YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN A MISSION.]

"What's the difference?"

The system didn't answer.

Marcus closed his eyes. He could still taste the poison. Still feel the chains. Still hear Hale's voice: In six months, we're going to stage something bigger.

If this was real—if he was somehow, impossibly back—then he had knowledge no one else had. He knew what was coming. Knew who the enemies were. Knew exactly how they'd destroyed him.

And if the system was real, he had more than knowledge. He had power.

Marcus placed his hand on the glowing mark.

Pain exploded through his nervous system. Not the dull ache of poison—this was electricity, data, pure information burning pathways into his brain. He saw flashes of futures that hadn't happened yet, tactical scenarios playing out in microseconds, probability trees branching into infinity.

He saw Firebase Theta. Saw the explosion. Saw the bodies. Saw Hale standing in the command center, orchestrating it all.

He saw seven disasters, each one larger than the last, each one connected to the conspiracy that had killed him.

And he saw himself. Multiple versions, multiple timelines, multiple possibilities of what he could become.

The pain stopped as suddenly as it started.

Marcus opened his eyes. The room looked the same, but everything felt different. Sharper. Clearer. He could see stress fractures in the ceiling plaster, calculate the structural integrity of the furniture, track seventeen different exit routes from the room.

[AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE.]

[WARDEN SYSTEM ONLINE.]

[WELCOME, MARCUS CHEN.]

[FIRST MISSION WILL DEPLOY IN 4 HOURS, 23 MINUTES.]

[PREPARE YOURSELF.]

Marcus looked at his reflection one more time. Eighteen years old. Alive. Given a second chance he didn't ask for and didn't understand.

But Hale's words echoed in his memory: They're going to stage something bigger.

Not in this timeline, they wouldn't.

Marcus grabbed his Academy uniform from the footlocker. As he dressed, his mind was already working. Cataloging threats. Identifying allies. Planning moves three steps ahead.

He'd died betrayed, broken, and helpless.

He wasn't going to make the same mistakes twice.

Someone knocked on the door. "Chen! Move it!"

Marcus took one last look at the Warden mark on his arm. The glow had faded, but he could feel it there. Waiting. Counting down.

"Yeah," he called back. "I'm coming."

He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Cadets rushed past, heading to formation. They looked so young. So naive. None of them knew what was coming. None of them knew that war wasn't just fought on battlefields.

But Marcus knew.

And this time, he was going to win.