Anchor 1V1.A – The Bleeding Hour
The emergency beacon flared like a pulse in the dark—louder in the mind than the ears. Ghost Ronin described it best:
> "Like someone screaming through history with their last breath."
The ChronoKnots landed in Anchor 1V1.A, a ruined citadel suspended in the middle of an endless eclipse. The sun was frozen at the horizon, casting permanent twilight over the battlefield.
It wasn't quiet.
It was too still.
Time wasn't moving forward here.
It was leaking.
---
Bodies of soldiers—clones, mechs, and rebels—stood mid-combat, not dead, but paused. A bullet hung in the air, embedded halfway through a general's chest.
Kael scanned the perimeter. "There was a battle… until time locked up."
Aren pointed at the beacon source: a tower built of broken hourglasses and melted sundials. "It's coming from there. But we're not alone."
They weren't.
They could all feel it—something was hunting them.
Something that remembered killing them, even if they hadn't died yet.
---
Inside the tower, the air changed. The beacon glowed crimson, warping gravity.
Myra whispered, "This is a trap."
Kael nodded. "Yes. But not for us."
They found the message, looping in ancient chrono-script, written in blood and scratched into the walls:
> "I killed Kael Varin. I will do it again."
Ghost Ronin raised his blade. "We've got a fan."
A voice echoed behind them—calm, melodic, and terrifyingly familiar.
> "Fan? No, no. I'm your replacement."
They turned.
Standing atop a twisted staircase was a man clad in armor made from shards of time—glass from broken timelines, stitched together with chrono-thread.
His face… was Kael's.
Older.
Colder.
Crueler.
---
Name: Kaelen
A variant. A what-if Kael who had made different choices.
Who had won the war by sacrificing everyone.
He wasn't here to warn them.
He was here to erase them.
---
Kaelen moved like time bending inwards. Every strike wasn't just an attack—it was a flash of a timeline where the team lost:
Aren died alone in Anchor A3-R, crying out Kael's name.
Myra turned into a weapon, hollow and enslaved.
Ghost Ronin burned in a black sun loop.
Kael… fell into madness.
Kaelen shouted mid-strike, "I've seen all the outcomes. Only one survives. Me."
Kael blocked, barely. "You're wrong."
"Am I? You led them here. You always lead them to death."
---
Myra launched a time-ripple grenade—Kaelen blinked through it.
Aren reprogrammed a time-nexus field to fracture his movement—Kaelen used it to split into two versions of himself.
Ghost Ronin shouted, "We can't beat him in sync!"
Kael yelled, "Then let's fight out of sync!"
---
The team scattered—not through space, but time.
Myra moved 4 seconds ahead.
Aren, 3 seconds back.
Ghost Ronin, perfectly delayed.
Kael stayed in real-time.
It was a time-weave tactic—illegal, unstable, brilliant.
They hit Kaelen from every second.
He broke apart, pieces of his armor flying in all directions—one shard embedded in Ghost Ronin's shoulder, bleeding blue light.
Kael faced his variant, both panting.
Kaelen smirked. "You think this is over? I already killed you. I just… haven't told you when."
Then he activated a failsafe—a chrono-flux bomb—and vanished into a red slipstream.
---
Anchor 1V1.A – Stabilizing
Entity: Kaelen (Kael Variant) – Escaped
Injury Report: Ghost Ronin – Time Fracture Detected
---
Back at the Sanctuary, Ronin slumped onto a med-station, the shard still pulsing.
Kael looked at the team. "He's me. Or could be. That makes him the most dangerous thing we've faced."
Myra examined the shard. "This is a marker. He's tracking us. Hunting us across outcomes."
Aren exhaled. "And he thinks he's the only Kael who deserves to live."
Kael stared out at the Anchor Map, blinking red with interference.
> "Then we show him why he's wrong."