ZERO NEXUS

Chapter two ( CLITCH CITY)

The streets were on fire.

Not from flames, but from time breaking.

Buildings stretched and flickered. Streetlamps glowed with colors that didn’t exist. A shattered clock tower in the distance pulsed—sometimes whole, sometimes just rubble. Cars hovered, frozen mid-crash, then jerked forward and slammed into the ground. A child’s balloon floated upward… then reversed and sank.

Lena ran through it all, heart pounding.

Her hand was locked around the boy’s. His small fingers were warm, but his eyes were ice.

Kai moved ahead, blade in one hand, gun in the other. He didn’t speak. Didn’t slow down. Every time time snapped, he flinched—like he could feel it inside his body.

They were running through a part of the city that shouldn’t exist anymore.

Lena remembered news reports from years ago. District Nine had been wiped out in a fire. Everyone thought it was a gas leak.

It wasn’t.

This was the place where time had first cracked.

“This is wrong,” Lena whispered, out of breath. “We’re not supposed to be here.”

Kai didn’t turn. “No one’s supposed to be here. That’s why it’s safe.”

“Safe?” she snapped. “The sky is blinking!”

As if on cue, the sun blinked. Night fell in a flash—then jumped back to morning.

Lena stumbled and nearly fell.

The boy caught her wrist.

“Don’t resist the current,” he said softly.

She looked at him, sweat clinging to her brow. “What are you?”

He looked up at the sky. “The reason the world is breaking.”

They reached an old underground tram station, buried beneath the remains of a mall. The air was thick with dust. Time glitches were slower here, like deep water—still dangerous, but less violent.

Kai sealed the rusted door behind them and turned to face Lena.

“We rest here. One hour. Then we move.”

“No,” Lena said. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

Kai’s eyes darkened. “We don’t have time for a therapy session.”

“I almost died,” she snapped. “We all did. And I just watched a hallway disappear in front of my eyes, so don’t tell me to shut up and follow orders like I’m nothing.”

Silence fell.

Kai looked at her again. Really looked at her.

For a second, something in him cracked.

Then he walked past her and sat on a broken bench, shoulders heavy. “You want the truth?” he muttered. “Fine.”

He looked at the boy. “His name is Eli. He’s the Zero Child. Every 88 years, someone like him is born—someone with the power to reset time.”

“Reset?” Lena repeated. “Like… go back?”

“Not just back,” Kai said. “Everything changes. Entire timelines. Governments fall. People vanish. The world restarts, and no one remembers what it used to be.”

Lena shook her head. “That’s impossible.”

Kai laughed once. “So is standing inside a building that died twenty years ago.”

She swallowed. Her legs shook.

“What does this have to do with me?”

Kai didn’t answer. But Eli did.

“You’re the Anchor,” he said simply. “You were made for me.”

Lena’s stomach turned. “What do you mean ‘made’?”

Kai stood again. “It means you’re the reason he doesn’t tear the world apart just by existing. You keep him balanced. Without you, he loses control. And if that happens—”

“The world resets,” Lena whispered.

Eli nodded. “And this time… it might not come back.”

An hour passed.

Lena sat by a shattered vending machine, trying to keep her thoughts from spinning out of control.

Her whole life, she’d been invisible. Unwanted. Tossed from foster homes, left alone in shelters, told she was average. But now she was made for something?

She didn’t want it. Didn’t believe it.

Kai handed her a protein bar. She took it silently.

“You good?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

He smirked. “At least you’re honest.”

She looked at him. “Why are you helping him?”

Kai’s smile faded. “Because I helped them build him. And I owe the world for what I did.”

He walked away before she could ask more.

The group left the station and slipped deeper into the city ruins.

Every block felt like walking through dreams and nightmares mixed together. Lena saw things that made no sense—a man stuck mid-sneeze, a tree growing backwards, fire moving like water.

They ducked inside an abandoned church.

Kai signaled them to stay low. “We’re close to an old contact of mine. She can get us out of this zone.”

As he scouted ahead, Lena sat with Eli in the pew.

“Why me?” she asked.

Eli tilted his head. “Because you remember.”

“Remember what?”

“The old world. Even if you don’t know it.”

“What does that mean?”

But Eli went quiet. His hands were folded neatly in his lap.

Suddenly, the church door creaked.

Lena stood up fast. “Kai?”

No answer.

Then a voice echoed from the hallway: cold, smooth, and far too familiar.

“Lena.”

She froze.

She turned slowly… and stared into the face of her mother.

But that couldn’t be. Her mother had died in a fire when Lena was six.

“Mom?” she whispered.

The woman smiled, eyes glassy. “I’ve missed you.”

Eli stepped forward. “Don’t touch her.”

The woman tilted her head—exactly like Eli had earlier.

Then she flickered.

For a moment, Lena saw static instead of a face. Glitches ran down her mother’s body like broken code.

“That’s not real,” Lena whispered, backing away.

“No,” Eli said. “It’s a memory. A trap. This place is bleeding.”

The woman lunged.

Eli raised his hand—and froze her in mid-air.

Her face was still smiling.

Lena stared, trembling.

“Make it stop,” she begged.

Eli closed his eyes. The image shattered like glass.

Lena fell to her knees, shaking. “What was that?!”

Eli looked at her with sadness. “Your mind is opening. The closer we get to the center, the more you’ll remember.”

“Remember what?” she cried.

“That you’ve been here before.”

Kai returned minutes later. He saw Lena shaking and dropped beside her.

“What happened?”

“I saw my mother,” she whispered. “She was… wrong. Glitching.”

Kai clenched his jaw. “It’s starting.”

“What is?”

He looked around, eyes narrowing. “The timeline’s collapsing faster than I thought.”

He reached into his pack and pulled out a cracked data chip.

“This has the name of the first reset. The one no one remembers. We’re going to the core.”

“Where is that?”

Kai looked at Lena.

“Inside you.”

They traveled until night—though it blinked into day twice on the way.

Kai guided them to a hollowed-out train tunnel. Here, the glitches were gentler. Time bent, but didn’t snap.

Lena sat by a rusted track and watched Eli draw circles in the dirt.

She turned to Kai. “How long do we have?”

“Five days. Maybe less.”

“Until the reset?”

“Until everything collapses.”

Lena stared at him. “What happens if we stop it?”

Kai’s eyes were haunted. “No one knows. It’s never been stopped before.”

“Why are you helping me?” she asked softly.

He looked at her—really looked. “Because you’re the only one who hasn’t tried to use him.”

Lena blinked. “I don’t even want this.”

“Exactly.”

They were quiet for a while.

Then Eli looked up. “Someone’s coming.”

From the tunnel mouth, a tall woman in all black stepped forward. She wore a torn cloak and had silver scars running across her face.

Kai stood up instantly. “Lyra.”

The woman smiled. “Still alive, Kai. Impressive.”

“Where’s your tracker?”

“Dead,” she said. “Like half my people.”

She looked at Eli and bowed slightly. “Zero Child.”

Then she looked at Lena.

“You,” she said.

“What about me?” Lena asked warily.

“You’re the variable,” Lyra said. “You were never supposed to wake up in this timeline.”

Lena frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Lyra turned to Kai. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Tell me what?”

Kai’s silence said it all.

Lyra stepped closer. “You died, Lena. In the last reset. Burned alive in Blacksite Twelve. That was supposed to be your end.”

Lena’s body went cold.

Kai reached for her hand. “Lena—”

But Lena pulled away, stepping back. “You lied to me.”

“I was trying to protect you,” he said.

Lyra’s voice was soft. “She has to remember, Kai. She’s the only one who can survive what’s coming.”

Suddenly, the tunnel lights exploded.

Eli fell to his knees.

“He’s here,” he whispered.

Kai grabbed his blade. “Who?!”

But it was too late.

From the darkness, a figure emerged.

Commander Ryloth.

Alive. Smiling.

“I told you,” he said. “You can’t run from destiny.”

He raised a hand—and time froze again.

Only Lena could move.

She looked around.

Kai. Frozen mid-step.

Eli. Stuck mid-blink.

Only Ryloth walked toward her.

“You want to save the world?” he whispered. “Then kill the boy.”

He placed a gun in her hand.

“Or everything ends.”