ZERO NEXUS

Chapter eight (THE SCARRED MOON)

Lena didn’t move.

She stared up at the moon, her chest tight, her pulse racing.

It was supposed to be whole now—clean, fixed. The resets were over. Eli had said this was the first true timeline.

But there it was.

The scar.

A long, black slash across the center of the glowing moon. It didn’t pulse or move. It just sat there, like a wound the world was trying to ignore.

Kai stood beside her, silent.

Eli stepped forward, frowning. “It shouldn’t be there.”

Lena nodded slowly. “Then something followed us.”

Eli looked toward the horizon. His face darkened. “No. Something escaped the reset.”

Later that night, they sat around a fire in the middle of the open field.

The wind was soft. The air smelled like fresh earth and grass. It was the most peaceful place they’d seen in a long time.

But no one was at ease.

“I saw her,” Lena said quietly.

Kai looked up. “Saw who?”

“At the edge of the forest. Before we woke up here.” She looked down at her hands. “It was… me.”

Kai frowned. “Again?”

“No. Not like before. This one wasn’t twisted or broken. She didn’t have a weapon. She didn’t even look angry.” Lena swallowed hard. “She looked calm. Too calm.”

Eli stood. “Then we’re not alone here.”

Kai’s jaw tightened. “I thought this was the Core Timeline.”

“It is,” Eli said. “But the truth is… there’s always one thing that slips through. A scar. A crack.”

“And this version of me?” Lena asked. “What is she?”

Eli hesitated.

Then said, “She might be the Original.”

The wind grew colder.

Kai stood, brushing ash from his hands. “What do you mean, the Original?”

Eli looked at them both. “The first version of Lena. The one who existed before time split. Before the Anchors. Before the Circle. Before the Nexus. Everything started with her.”

Lena’s heart sank. “I’m not her?”

“No,” Eli said. “You’re her echo. The final echo. The best part of her. But the first version…” He looked toward the trees. “She was never reset. She watched the world reset, over and over again. And eventually, she stopped trying to save it.”

“Then what does she want now?” Kai asked.

Eli didn’t answer.

Lena already knew.

“She wants to finish what she started.”

They didn’t sleep that night.

The stars overhead flickered like candles about to go out.

Lena stood alone near the treeline, watching the shadows shift.

She didn’t hear the footsteps behind her, but she felt them.

“Is this how you feel every time?” the voice asked.

Lena spun around.

She was face-to-face with her again.

The Original Lena.

Same face. Same eyes. But colder. Empty. Like all the pain and hope had been drained and replaced with… silence.

Lena stepped back. “What are you?”

“I’m you. Before you were broken. Before you were hopeful. Before they used you like a tool.”

“You’re not me.”

“I’m what you were meant to become,” the Original whispered.

Lena’s hand curled into a fist. “Why are you here?”

“To end this.”

They walked together through the woods, a strange silence between them.

Lena kept a safe distance.

The Original’s steps were light, almost ghost-like.

“The reset didn’t erase me,” she said softly. “It just buried me. But I’ve always been here. Watching. Waiting.”

“For what?” Lena asked.

“For the timeline that stopped fighting fate. The one where everyone thinks peace has come.”

“And now?”

“Now I finish what the Circle started. No more Anchors. No more time loops. No more pretending things can be fixed.”

“You’re going to destroy everything,” Lena said.

“No,” the Original replied. “I’m going to free it.”

Back at the camp, Eli gasped.

He clutched his chest, stumbling to one knee.

Kai rushed to him. “What’s happening?”

“She’s bleeding into me,” Eli groaned. “She’s corrupting the thread. If she takes over… everything we rewrote will unravel.”

Kai’s heart dropped. “Where’s Lena?”

Eli looked up, eyes wide. “She’s with her.”

Lena turned sharply. “You say you want to free time. But you’re only erasing it. That’s not freedom. That’s destruction.”

The Original looked at her carefully. “You still don’t understand, do you? You think you’re a person. But you’re a patch. A placeholder. A safety net.”

“I don’t care what I was made for,” Lena said. “I’ve lived. I’ve loved. That makes me real.”

The Original stepped close. “Then prove it.”

She reached out and pressed two fingers to Lena’s forehead.

Lena’s world went black.

She saw it all.

The labs.

The experiments.

The first Anchor program.

She was strapped to a chair, screaming. The Original watching through glass.

“I was the test,” the Original whispered in her mind. “You were the backup.”

Lena fell to her knees inside the memory.

The pain was too sharp, too deep.

“No,” she gasped. “I don’t believe you.”

“You remember it,” the Original said.

And she did.

The first time she died.

The first time time rewound.

The first time Kai cried over her broken body.

Back in the real world, Eli struggled to keep himself grounded. Mira and Kai tried to steady him, but time around them twisted like a broken mirror.

“The fabric’s tearing,” Eli said. “She’s inside Lena’s mind. If Lena breaks—”

Kai shook his head. “She won’t.”

Mira whispered, “How do you know?”

Kai’s eyes burned. “Because she never has.”

Inside her own mind, Lena stood in front of a mirror.

And her reflection was gone.

Just a shadow now.

A voice whispered, “Give in. It hurts less.”

Lena closed her eyes.

And thought of Kai’s hands.

Eli’s laugh.

Mira’s tears.

The world she’d touched. The lives she’d changed.

She whispered, “I’m not a placeholder.”

The shadow hissed.

And Lena stepped forward—

And shattered the mirror with her fist.

Her eyes flew open.

The forest around her bent and groaned.

The Original screamed.

Lena’s body glowed — but not with power.

With memory.

Light poured out of her skin — scenes, feelings, voices.

Everything she’d fought for.

Everything she’d lost.

Everything she refused to forget.

The ground split.

A wave of energy rippled out.

Back at the camp, Eli stood again, gasping.

“She’s fighting her,” he said. “And she’s winning.”

Kai ran toward the trees. “Where is she?!”

“Follow the light!” Eli shouted.

Lena and the Original circled each other beneath the broken moon.

“You think love makes you strong?” the Original sneered.

“It does,” Lena said. “Because it’s the one thing you never had.”

The Original charged.

Lena ducked and grabbed her arm, twisting.

“I’m not here to destroy you,” Lena whispered. “I’m here to save you.”

The Original froze.

Her body shook.

A tear ran down her cheek.

“Why?” she whispered. “Why save me?”

“Because I am you,” Lena said. “And you deserved better too.”

The Original dropped to her knees.

Light poured from her chest.

And Lena knelt with her, holding her.

“I’m so tired,” the Original said.

“I know,” Lena whispered.

“I wanted peace.”

“You have it now.”

The Original’s body dissolved into light.

And then—

A deep silence fell across the world.

Lena turned.

Kai stood a few feet away.

His eyes full of tears.

“You came,” she said, voice shaking.

“Always,” he said.

He ran to her and pulled her into his arms.

And this time…

There were no resets.

No glitches.

No echoes.

Just her heartbeat.

And his.

But as they walked back to the camp, hand in hand, Eli stood by the fire.

His face was pale.

His hands were shaking.

“I felt something,” he said.

Lena stopped. “What?”

“A new pulse. A new reset.”

Kai frowned. “But I thought we fixed it.”

Eli looked up, his eyes wide with fear.

“This wasn’t from her.”

“Then who?” Lena asked.

And behind them…

A soft laugh echoed in the trees.

A child’s laugh.

Familiar.

But wrong.