ZERO NEXUS

Chapter three (THE CHOICE)

The gun felt too heavy in Lena’s hand.

Her fingers trembled as she stared at it — black metal, cold, real.

Time was still frozen. The tunnel was quiet. Too quiet.

Kai was stuck mid-stride. His mouth halfway open, like he’d been about to shout her name. Eli knelt nearby, his hand almost touching the ground, his bright eyes locked on something… but unmoving.

Everyone was frozen — except her.

And Ryloth.

He stood only a few feet away, watching her calmly. His eyes didn’t blink. They didn’t even look human.

“I don’t understand,” Lena whispered. “Why me?”

“Because the world trusts you,” Ryloth said. “The boy trusts you. Kai does too. That makes you dangerous.”

“Then why give me a gun?” she asked, voice tight.

“Because I’m not your enemy,” he said simply. “You think I want the reset? No. I want control. Stability. The child threatens that. But you… you can end it before it starts.”

Lena’s heart pounded in her ears.

“You want me to kill a kid,” she said.

“He’s not a child,” Ryloth said. “He’s a weapon. You saw it yourself—he broke the hallway with a glance. He bends time. He’ll tear the world apart. And you’ll be standing right next to him when it happens.”

Lena looked down at the gun.

Her reflection stared back at her from the black barrel. She didn’t look like herself.

“He trusts me,” she whispered.

“And that’s why he won’t see it coming,” Ryloth said.

Lena looked at Eli. Frozen. Fragile. Still just a kid, no matter what he could do.

A memory surfaced — not her own, but real. A flash of fire. Screaming. She was burning. She reached for someone — for Eli — and he didn’t move.

He just watched.

Was that a vision? Or a memory from another timeline?

She didn’t know.

She raised the gun.

Her hands shook.

“Do it,” Ryloth said.

Lena closed her eyes.

Then turned the gun and fired—

At Ryloth.

The blast lit up the tunnel. Ryloth flew backward, crashing into a metal beam.

Time snapped back.

Kai yelled. Eli gasped. Lyra dropped to a crouch.

“Lena!” Kai shouted, grabbing her shoulder. “What happened?!”

But before she could answer, Ryloth stood.

There wasn’t a mark on him.

“I’m disappointed,” he said coldly.

Then he vanished — dissolved into dust.

Kai spun around. “What the hell was that?!”

Lena fell to her knees, shaking.

“He froze time,” she whispered. “He tried to make me kill Eli.”

Kai’s eyes widened. “He can control the freeze?”

“No. He was inside it,” Eli said. “He’s not supposed to be able to. That’s not natural.”

“Was he real?” Lena asked.

“Not entirely,” Eli said. “But his message was.”

Kai knelt beside her. “Are you hurt?”

“No. But… something’s wrong. I’m remembering things that didn’t happen.”

Lyra stepped forward. “She’s breaking the surface.”

“The surface of what?” Lena asked.

“Your mind,” Lyra said. “The old resets. They’re buried inside you. They always were.”

They left the tunnel before another glitch swallowed it whole.

Kai led them into a hollowed-out transit station. It used to be part of the city’s monorail. Now it was a mess of twisted steel and flickering echoes of people who no longer existed.

Eli fell asleep instantly, curled up like he’d done it a thousand times before.

Lena sat close, watching his chest rise and fall.

“You still don’t trust him,” Kai said softly, sitting beside her.

“I don’t trust myself,” she whispered.

Kai was quiet.

Then, “I’ve seen resets before. I’ve felt time bend, people vanish, places shift. But this… this is different. It’s faster. Wilder. He’s not doing it on purpose.”

“He’s scared,” Lena said.

“Yeah,” Kai said. “But scared people are dangerous.”

Lena turned to him. “Why are you so calm?”

“I’m not,” he said. “I’m just good at hiding it.”

She gave a weak laugh. “Figures.”

Kai’s hand brushed hers. Just a little. Just enough to feel real.

“You didn’t shoot him,” he said. “That means something.”

“I almost did,” she whispered.

“But you didn’t.”

She looked up at him. “If I become dangerous too… will you kill me?”

Kai didn’t answer.

Not with words.

He looked her in the eyes, and she saw it: he would try to save her first.

But if he couldn’t…

He’d do what had to be done.

The next morning, the world had changed again.

Lena woke up to silence.

No wind. No echoes. No birds. No glitches.

Just stillness.

Kai was gone.

So was Eli.

Panic shot through her chest. She stood fast, heart racing.

Then she saw a note carved into the wall with a knife:

“Gone ahead. Don’t trust shadows.”

Shadows?

She turned, and one moved.

Not hers.

She grabbed a rusted pipe and backed away.

The shadow moved again—slow, gliding, too smooth.

Then a shape formed behind the glass window of the monorail booth.

A girl.

Same age as Lena. Same eyes. Same scar on her chin.

Identical.

Lena stared.

Her reflection stared back.

No… not a reflection.

The girl on the other side of the glass raised her hand.

Lena didn’t.

Then the girl spoke — her lips moving without sound:

“You’re not the real one.”

Lena stumbled back. “What—?”

The girl pressed a hand to the glass.

The wall cracked.

Lena turned and ran.

She caught up to Kai and Eli three blocks away in an alley full of shattered drones.

“What happened?” she panted.

“You okay?” Kai asked.

“There was someone—me—but not me—” she tried to explain.

Eli looked at her calmly. “You met your echo.”

“My what?”

“Every reset leaves behind a trace of who you were. When you start to remember… they start to notice.”

“Notice what?”

“That you don’t belong anymore.”

Kai swore under his breath. “They’re getting bolder. We need to move.”

“Where?”

Eli looked at Lena. “Home.”

They arrived at a quiet clearing — an old research station buried beneath a hospital. Dust covered everything. Machines blinked with low battery. Screens showed maps of timelines, data codes, flickering pulses.

Lena walked in slowly. “What is this place?”

Kai answered. “This is where I was made.”

She turned to him.

“Made?”

“I was part of the original Project Anchor. Before you.”

“What happened?”

“I failed.”

Eli walked to a broken screen and touched it. Blue light flared — showing images of Lena as a child, inside the facility, with wires in her arms.

Lena froze.

“I was here,” she whispered.

“You never left,” Eli said.

TWIST REVEAL:

Lyra arrived shortly after, out of breath.

“We found something,” she said. “There’s another Anchor.”

Kai stiffened. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s real,” Lyra said. “Alive. And being kept by the Circle.”

“Why would they—?”

“They say she’s the original. The first. Before Lena.”

Lena’s heart dropped.

“There’s someone else like me?”

“No,” Eli said. “There’s someone worse.”

They traveled for hours, through fractured time-zones and mirror corridors that led nowhere.

Finally, they reached a chamber carved into the earth.

Inside was a girl.

Strapped to a chair. Pale. Eyes wide. Mouth sewn shut.

She looked exactly like Lena — only her face was twisted with rage.

Her energy pulsed around her like static.

Lena stepped closer. “Who is she?”

Kai whispered, “She’s what you would’ve become… if you hadn’t escaped.”

The girl stared at her.

Tears leaked from her eyes.

Eli touched Lena’s shoulder. “If she wakes, the reset will start.”

“She’s suffering,” Lena said. “We can’t leave her like this.”

“If you free her,” Kai said, “you might destroy everything.”

Lena reached forward.

The girl’s fingers grabbed hers.

Suddenly, Lena’s mind was ripped open—

Lena fell backward, screaming.

Blood ran from her nose.

Kai caught her.

“She saw too much,” Eli said.

“She connected to her other self,” Lyra whispered. “They’re merging.”

“What happens if they merge?” Kai asked.

Eli looked at him.

“The real Lena dies.”