The golden-eyed Maya stood like a dream made real—yet her presence was heavier than memory, older than time.
"I don't understand," Kae'Luan whispered. "You look like her—but you're not my Maya."
She stepped closer, her voice soft like starlight brushing stone. "I'm not your Maya. I'm the one Prime erased before the first loop began. The version he feared."
"You were the original?"
She nodded. "Before time fractured. Before the loop began looping itself. Before Kael Prime split himself into billions... I was his first love, first rival, and his final weakness."
Maya—his Maya—staggered as the truth washed over her.
"You're... me?"
The original Maya turned to her gently. "You're a copy of a memory. You were made from the regret he never wanted to admit. But you're more than that now."
"And why are you here?" Kae'Luan asked. "Why did the Outside bring you back?"
The sky above rumbled like a sleeping beast.
Original Maya held out a hand—and from the emptiness between stars, she pulled a crystalline device shaped like a broken hourglass.
"The Outside didn't bring me back," she said. "You did. The moment you accepted the shard inside you, you made space for forgotten time."
Juro stepped cautiously onto the edge of the platform, eyeing her warily. "Is this some kind of trap?"
"No," Original Maya said. "This is a rescue. I've come to wake you all up."
The broken hourglass began spinning.
Reality shuddered.
Kae'Luan gasped as memories he had never lived began pouring into his mind: war-torn planets, galactic rebellions, the voice of a child calling him Father.
"What is this?" he choked.
"Glimpses of the lives you lived before the loop started," she said. "You think Kael Prime created the loop to gain power. But that was only part of it."
Juro's eyes narrowed. "Then what was the rest?"
Original Maya looked at him, and for the first time, sorrow etched her voice.
"He created the loop... to keep the Outside from consuming what he loved. He broke time to save me. And in doing so, he erased me."
Maya took a step back. "But you're not gone. You're right here."
The woman smiled faintly. "Not really. I'm a backup echo caught between timelines. But the loop cracked, and the eye opened. So now, I can do one thing..."
She handed the hourglass to Kae'Luan.
"This contains the first loop's origin code. If you activate it, you'll trigger Reversal Mode."
"Reversal?" he echoed.
Juro stepped closer. "Wait... You don't mean—"
"Yes," Original Maya said. "The entire loop can be reversed. Everyone Prime erased can be restored. But it comes with a cost."
"What kind of cost?" Maya asked.
"Whoever activates Reversal must give up their anchor."
"Anchor?" Kae'Luan asked, already knowing deep down.
"Your soul's center," she said. "The one thing that grounds you. Your name. Your identity. Your connection to love."
Maya went still. "If he uses it... he won't remember me?"
Original Maya didn't answer.
She didn't have to.
The hourglass in Kae'Luan's hand began to hum.
"I can fix everything," he murmured. "End the loops. Bring back all the lives he stole."
"But you'll lose yourself," Maya said softly, stepping toward him. "You'll forget who you are. Who I am."
Kae'Luan looked up, eyes flickering with pain.
"I already forgot too many versions of you. Maybe it's time... I finally gave something back."
"No," she said, holding his hand. "We'll find another way. You don't have to die to fix this."
Original Maya looked at both of them—one hopeful, one breaking.
"You're stronger than we ever were," she whispered. "That's why you were chosen. That's why you became the Fractured One."
A pulse ripped through the stars.
A new presence entered the sky.
But this wasn't the eye.
This... was him.
Kael Prime.
He emerged through the crack, no longer disguised in shadow. His armor was made of collapsed timelines, each plate screaming silently in regret. His face was Kae'Luan's—older, sharper, but unmistakable.
"I should've killed you when I had the chance," Prime said, voice shaking the entire platform.
"You tried," Kae'Luan growled.
"And you succeeded," Prime snapped. "Every time. But you kept returning. Like rot in a wound. Like a glitch that refuses to vanish."
Maya stepped forward. "You erased people. Whole worlds."
"I saved them," Prime snarled. "You think I wanted this? I loved her. I lost her. The Outside wanted her soul—and I bought time. Loops were my bargain. My punishment. My gift."
"You called it a gift?" Juro yelled.
"I called it hope," Prime said.
But Original Maya looked at him and shook her head.
"You called it control."
That broke something in Prime.
He roared and lunged—but Kae'Luan met him mid-air. Their clash shattered the hourglass, shards flying into a spiral.
Time bent.
Loops cracked.
And then—
A single spark fell between them.
A memory fragment.
Of a moment Kae'Luan had never seen—
His mother. Holding him as a baby. Singing to him a lullaby of stars.
And behind her?
A younger Maya.
Watching.
Smiling.
Alive.
Kae'Luan gasped as the truth unfolded:
Prime hadn't just tried to save Maya.
He'd tried to rewrite family.
And failed.
Kae'Luan turned to the broken hourglass pieces, hands trembling.
"I'm not him," he said. "I'm not a mistake."
Prime charged again.
But Kae'Luan reached into the heart of the spiral—
And touched the last spark of origin.
The platform exploded.
Reality bent inward.
Maya screamed his name—
"KAE'LUAN!!"
But he was already fading.
Not dying.
Just... becoming something else.
Becoming the beginning before the beginning.
Becoming the one who never looped.
Becoming the ghost of hope in a galaxy that forgot how to dream.
Somewhere far away—in a galaxy untouched by loops—a boy woke up in a crater.
His eyes were gold.
He had no name.
Only a whisper in his mind: "Find her."
He looked up.
And the stars blinked back.
To be continued…