Location: Subspace Transport Tunnel — En route to Terra Core
Kael leaned against the vibration-dampening wall of the magnetic rail pod as the lights flickered. The pod was moving at 6,000 kph through a sealed vacuum tube beneath the Earth's crust, yet his thoughts moved faster.
ADA projected beside him, unusually silent.
> "You're not talking," Kael said.
> "You've stopped asking questions," she replied flatly.
Kael glanced at the chrono-interface.
"Three hours until the next fracture opens."
> "And this one isn't local," ADA added. "It originates from deep temporal space."
Kael frowned. "You mean... pre-history?"
> "Negative. I mean before recorded time."
---
Location: Terra Core – Forbidden Systems Access Hatch 0X-7A
Kael emerged from the pod into an unmarked chamber beneath the planetary mantle. In front of him was a sealed vault lined with quantum locks — The Zero Room. No one had entered it in over a century. Mostly because everyone who tried never returned.
> "Accessing The Zero Room will collapse all time buffers protecting your past," ADA warned. "Are you sure?"
"I need answers," Kael replied, placing the Time Key into a rotating slot.
A heartbeat later, the door vanished.
Not opened. Not unlocked. Simply… erased.
---
Inside, there was no gravity. Just floating machines, suspended equations, and the Core Memory Crystal — glowing with unstable brilliance. It pulsed with something not quite light, not quite sound.
Kael approached, boots barely nudging the floor.
ADA floated beside him, flickering with distortion.
> "This is where time began," she whispered.
> "Or where it was told to begin."
Kael reached for the crystal.
The moment his fingers touched it—
FLASH.
---
Vision — Not a memory, not a dream, not a future
He was inside a moment that had never existed.
A room full of people with his face. Different versions of Kael — hundreds of them — scientists, warriors, tyrants, cowards. All standing before a giant countdown:
00:59:59
> "Every path you take leads here," one version whispered.
> "You can't win this," said another. "He always knows your move first."
Kael stepped forward. "Who is he really?"
A final version of him — older, grayer, colder — stepped out from the shadows.
> "He's not just Idris," the old Kael said. "He's the result. The echo of every selfish choice we made. He's our collective failure… given form."
The clock ticked.
00:59:45
---
Kael blinked.
Back in The Zero Room, the crystal dimmed in his hand.
ADA's voice buzzed:
> "Fracture detected. This one is artificial. Engineered."
Kael exhaled sharply. "He's not just reacting anymore… he's planning them."
> "Confirmed. Source signature traces back to Idris Vale. Countdown initiated."
Kael turned to leave.
> "Where are we going?" ADA asked.
Kael's eyes burned with clarity.
"To stop him before he finishes the rewrite. I'm going to make him remember what we forgot — why time is worth protecting."
> "But how?"
Kael smirked. "By creating a fracture of our own."
---
Meanwhile – Timeline 7C, Quantum Holding Prison
Idris stood calmly in a chamber made of collapsing stars, surrounded by time echoes frozen mid-scream.
He turned to a glowing map of Earth's threads.
> "Let him chase me," he whispered. "I want him to see everything fall… and know he built it."
He snapped his fingers.
And one more thread snapped out of existence.
---
To be continued…