ZERO NEXUS

Chapter Four ( THE ANCHOR BREAKS)

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 another, Kai lay bleeding out, whispering her name.

In another, she stood on top of a mountain of burning cities, eyes glowing white.

She stumbled back. “No… this isn’t real.”

The hallway whispered back, “It was.”

Then a voice rang behind her — her own voice.

“You shouldn’t be here,” it said.

Lena turned.

Her copy stood at the end of the hall — older, colder, eyes filled with power and no mercy.

“You’re the weak one,” the copy said. “You ran. I stayed.”

“You were locked away,” Lena whispered.

“I chose to stay,” the copy said. “Because the world doesn’t deserve to survive.”

Lena backed away. “You’re just a piece of me. You’re not me.”

But her other self laughed. “I’m the version they erased. The one they were afraid of. You think you’re the Anchor? I’m the fuse.”

The hallway cracked.

Time bled through the walls.

The copy stepped forward. “The more you remember, the more you become me. And when we merge…”

Her smile twisted.

“…there’ll be no going back.”

Outside, Lena’s body shivered.

Kai gripped her hand. “What do we do?!”

“She has to break the link herself,” Eli said. “If we force it, she’ll lose her mind.”

“How much time does she have?”

Eli looked at Lena, then the girl still strapped to the chair — the one who looked exactly like her.

“She has minutes.”

Kai turned to Lyra. “We need to destroy the copy.”

“You saw what happened last time someone tried,” she said. “The last person exploded.”

Kai’s jaw clenched. “So we do nothing?”

“We wait,” Eli said softly. “We wait and hope she’s stronger than the version she used to be.”

Back inside her mind, Lena ran.

The hallway collapsed around her. Doors burst open, flooding her with memories that didn’t belong to just one life.

She saw children being experimented on. Screams. Glowing wires.

She saw Kai — younger, confused, bleeding — kneeling over a burned body. Her body.

She saw herself in a room full of mirrors. All versions. All wrong.

She fell to her knees.

“Make it stop,” she begged.

Her copy appeared again. “You’re not made for love or peace. You were designed to end resets. You were built from destruction.”

“No,” Lena said.

“Yes,” the voice hissed. “You’re not real. You’re a patch. A tool. An Anchor to keep the Zero Child from destroying everything. But when the Anchor breaks—”

The hallway split open.

Fire rose.

“—everything resets.”

Back in the real world, the chair holding the second Lena cracked.

Her body arched. Her mouth ripped open — stitches bursting.

She screamed.

Eli staggered back. “She’s waking up.”

Kai raised his gun. “If she gets up, I put her down.”

“She’s her,” Lyra warned.

“No,” Kai said. “She’s what Lena could’ve become.”

Then the girl opened her eyes.

And screamed so loud, the walls cracked.

Blood ran from every screen.

The lights exploded.

Kai fired.

The bullet froze in the air.

Time stopped.

Everyone froze—except Lena.

Her eyes snapped open.

But they were glowing white.

“Lena?” Kai whispered.

She looked at him — but didn’t move. Her voice echoed like it came from a thousand versions of herself.

“I remember now.”

“Are you… you?” Kai asked.

Lena stepped forward.

“I’m all of me.”

The room bent around her.

Eli moved first.

He ran to the girl in the chair — the original Anchor — and touched her chest.

She gasped.

Her body relaxed. The energy faded.

Eli turned to Lena.

“You brought balance,” he said softly.

But Lena’s face was tight. Cold.

“I didn’t choose this,” she said. “They made me.”

Kai walked up slowly. “But you still fought it. That’s what matters.”

Lena looked at him, something flickering in her eyes. “I saw you. All the versions of you. Some loved me. Some killed me.”

“I’m not them,” he said.

“I know,” she whispered.

Then she fainted in his arms.

They took shelter in a safe zone — a hidden tower frozen in time.

The girl from the chair, now quiet, slept in one of the back rooms.

Her name was Mira.

Lyra stood guard. Eli meditated. Kai sat with Lena, waiting for her to wake.

When she finally opened her eyes, the first thing she said was:

“Don’t let me become her again.”

“You won’t,” Kai promised.

“You don’t know that.”

“I know you.”

That made her chest ache.

She reached for his hand and held it tight.

Later that night, Mira woke.

She didn’t speak, just stared at Lena from across the room.

“You’re me,” she said finally.

Lena nodded. “In a way.”

“You survived,” Mira whispered.

“You did too.”

“No,” Mira said. “I was left behind. You were the one they saved.”

Lena walked over and knelt beside her. “Then let’s save each other now.”

Mira started to cry.

For the first time in years.

Eli stood suddenly. “Something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” Kai asked.

“The resets… they’re happening already.”

Lena stood too. “But you’re still here. That means—”

“No,” Eli said. “It means I’m resetting too.”

“What?”

“I’m not supposed to exist after a certain point. That’s why I’m breaking.”

His hands shook.

A pulse spread out from his body — invisible, but felt.

“Eli,” Lena said gently, “what’s happening to you?”

“I’m fading,” he said. “Time won’t let me go forward anymore.”

“Then we stop it,” Kai said.

“How?” Lyra asked.

Eli looked at Mira. “She knows.”

All eyes turned to the quiet girl in the corner.

Mira stood slowly.

“There’s one place left,” she said. “One timeline that never resets. The Core Timeline. But getting there means losing something.”

“Losing what?” Lena asked.

Mira looked at her. “You.”

They leave the tower, heading toward the coordinates Mira gives them.

As they cross a broken bridge, Lena pulls Kai aside.

“If I disappear,” she says, “promise me something.”

“No,” he says immediately. “I’m not promising anything that means losing you.”

“I have to stop this,” she says. “Even if it costs me.”

He cups her face.

“You’ve already saved me,” he says. “Now let me save you.”

Before she can respond, a blast hits the bridge.

Ryloth appears again — real this time.

“Game over,” he says.

He grabs Eli.

Lena screams.

The world goes white.