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The room trembled as time stuttered. Clocks blinked wildly. Elias and Celeste ducked behind a collapsing shelf while the Chronovores shrieked through the breach.
Future-Elias yanked open a service hatch and barked, "This way—now!"
They dove in.
The passage was narrow and unstable, built for ventilation bots, not people. Sparks danced around them as the temporal collapse tore at the edges of reality. Behind them, the cube on Bellamy's desk ticked closer to zero.
As they crawled, Elias couldn't hold back. "You still haven't told me—how did you come back?"
The older version of himself paused in the crawlspace. "The long answer will kill us. Here's the short one: Bellamy succeeded."
"In what?"
"In creating a tether. A one-time jump between futures. Ten years from now, the Chronovores consume Mars-Vega. They burn through colony cities, looping seconds until entire districts disappear."
Celeste froze. "The Time-Eater Event… it was real?"
Future-Elias nodded grimly. "Worse. It starts here. Bellamy predicted it. And he built a failsafe—a device keyed to my genetic signature. I used it to leap back, but..." He held up his left hand. Three fingers were missing. "I didn't come through clean."
Elias swallowed hard. "Why me? Why not warn someone bigger—UE Command, the Watch?"
"Because they're compromised. Time's not linear anymore. You're the only version of me that still has a chance to stop it before it starts. Everyone else… they were too late."
A massive crash echoed behind them—something had torn through the hatch. Time flickered.
Celeste pulled a spherical grenade from her belt. "No more talking."
She lobbed it down the crawlspace.
BOOM.
A flash of white stilled everything. Time paused—for exactly one second.
They burst from the vent and into a tram tunnel beneath the city. The rails were long dead, but Future-Elias pointed. "Emergency evac car—left side!"
They ran.
The Chronovores poured into the space behind them, hissing static, reshaping their limbs like liquid metal and TV snow. One lunged. Celeste spun and slashed—her chrono-blade slicing through it, sending pieces scattering into spark and dust.
Elias fired blind behind him.
Future-Elias slammed the tram door shut and jammed a power cell into the console.
The vehicle roared to life—barely—and rocketed into the dark.
As they pulled away, Elias slumped into a seat, heart pounding.
"I still don't understand," he said. "If we fail—what happens?"
Future-Elias stared out the rear window, watching the breach vanish in the distance.
"Then this world becomes a loop," he said. "A dying second that plays forever."
Celeste looked between them. "So what's the plan?"
Future-Elias reached into his coat and tossed a glowing chip to Elias.
"Step one: find Bellamy's last prototype. The one he never documented. The one that erases you from time… before they do it first."
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