The door loomed over them like the maw of a giant beast, its glowing symbols rotating in slow, deliberate spirals. Each symbol pulsed in rhythm with a heartbeat but not theirs. It was as though the labyrinth itself was alive, watching them, waiting for their next move.
Reiss knelt before the door, his console flickering with streams of code. "This isn't just a lock," he murmured. "It's… a clock. The symbols represent cycles of time. If we open it the wrong way, we'll get stuck in a time loop. Maybe forever."
Kai's fingers tightened around the hilt of his blade. "Then open it the right way. We don't have time for games."
Juno crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. "You realise the irony of saying that while standing in front of a giant clock-door in a labyrinth that messes with time, right?"
Mira ignored the realisation and crouched next to Reiss. "What do you need?"
"Focus," Reiss said. "Every time I get close, the symbols shift. It's like the door is aware of me aware of us."
As if responding to his words, the glowing symbols accelerated their rotation. A low rumble vibrated beneath their feet.
Suddenly, the door's centre cracked open like the face of a shattered watch. Gears made of golden light whirred, spinning out of sync. The entire corridor warped a centre, the walls stretching and contracting as though reality itself was being pulled apart.
A deep voice boomed from the door:
"To enter, you must align your time with mine. Fail, and you will live the same second for eternity."
Before they could react, the gears exploded into a whirlwind of light, engulfing them.
Kai blinked and found himself standing in front of the door again. Reiss was kneeling with his console, Mira crouched beside him, and Juno was leaning on the wall.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
"Uh… did we just… do this?" Juno asked, looking around.
Reiss froze. "No… no, no, no. This isn't good. We're stuck in a temporal loop. The door has already triggered its trial."
Mira frowned. "Trial?"
The door boomed again:
"Time cannot be conquered by force. To pass, you must face what time has stolen from you."
The corridor twisted violently, and the four of them were ripped away from each other.
Kai found himself standing on a familiar street. The old, cracked pavement, the rusted streetlights it was his hometown.
He knew this memory. He wished he didn't.
A smooth voice called out. "Kai?"
He turned and saw her. His sister, Lyra.
She looked exactly as she had the last time he saw her: dark hair tied into a messy braid, wearing the faded hoodie she loved. She smiled at him, oblivious to the storm raging in his mind.
"You're late," she said. "You promised we'd go to the arcade today."
Kai's heart clenched. "Lyra…" He stepped forward but froze. Something was wrong. Her eyes glowed faintly, and her shadow moved independently of her body.
"Is this what you wanted?" her voice distorted. "You couldn't save me. You never will. You can't stop time."
The world around them darkened, and Lyra's form twisted, becoming a shadowy figure with glowing eyes.
Mira opened her eyes to find herself back in the ruins of her village. The sky was red, and ash fell like snow. She knew what was coming she had lived this moment over and over in her nightmares.
The invaders were coming. The fire was spreading.
And in the centre of the village square, her younger self knelt over her parents' lifeless bodies.
The younger Mira looked up at her, eyes filled with tears "Why didn't you save them?"
Mira swallowed hard. "I was too weak."
The younger Mira stood, her eyes cold now. "Then you'll always be too weak."
The illusion raised a blade and charged at her.
Juno was back in the hospital room. The smell of antiseptic filled her nose, and the steady beep of the heart monitor rang in her ears.
Her brother lay on the bed, pale and frail, his eyes barely open.
"Juno…" he whispered. "You weren't there when I needed you."
She clenched her fists. "That's not fair. I tried. I"
"You ran away," he said. His form flickered, becoming shadowy. "You left me to die. And now you're just pretending to be strong."
The heart monitor flatlined. The shadows swallowed the room.
Reiss was back in the lab, the day everything went wrong. He stood over the server terminal, typing furiously. Alarms blared.
His mentor stood beside him, face twisted with fury. "You thought you could play god? You built this machine, Reiss. You broke the cycle. Now you'll watch as it consumes everyone."
Reiss shook his head. "I can fix this. I will fix this."
"Liar," the shadow of his mentor hissed. "You'll always be the man who doomed them."
Kai fought the shadowy figure of Lyra, but every swing of his blade felt heavier. "You're not real!" he shouted. "You're just a memory!"
"I am the time you lost," the shadow whispered. "You want me back, don't you? If you take the power, you can save me. You can change everything."
The dark aura surged around him again, tempting him with the promise of rewriting history.
But Kai's mind flashed with Mira's voice, Juno's sarcasm, and Reiss's determination. His team.
"No," he said, gripping his blade tightly. "I can't change the past. But I can protect the present."
With oand ne final strike, he cut through the shadow and the world dissolved.
Mira faced her younger self, blocking strike after strike. "I'm not weak anymore," she said, pushing the blade aside. "I'm not perfect, but I'll keep fighting. For them. For me."
The illusion shattered.
Juno stood over the hospital bed, tears streaming down her face. "I couldn't save you," she said. "But I'm done running. I'll fight for the people I can save."
The shadows vanished.
Reiss stood in the burning lab, staring down the shadow of his mentor. "Maybe I broke the cycle. But I'll be the one to rebuild it. I don't need your approval."
The lab exploded in white light and he was free.
The four of them awoke together, lying on the cold floor before the sealed door. The glowing symbols had stopped rotating. Instead, they aligned perfectly, forming a pattern of intersecting circles.
The door creaked open with a deafening sound.
The voice of the labyrinth spoke again:
"Time bends for those who accept it, not those who fight it. You may pass."
Kai stood, breathing hard. His hands were shaking. "Let's go," he said, his voice low.
Mira put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"No," Kai admitted. "But I will be."
Beyond the door was a staircase made of fractured glass. Every step reflected a different moment in time some from their past, others from possible futures.
One reflection showed Kai with glowing eyes, standing atop a mountain of corpses. Another showed Mira, alone, kneeling in the ruins of everything.
"Don't look at them," Reiss said. "They're not real."
But as they descended, one reflection caught Kai's attention. It wasn't a nightmare it was Lyra, smiling and waving.
Kai hesitated for a moment… then turned away.
At the bottom of the staircase, a massive chamber opened before them. In the centre, suspended by threads of light, was a gigantic clock, its hands spinning backwards and forward erratically.
Reiss's face went pale. "Thicentres is the Fractured Clock. It's the heart of the time, anomaly. And if we go back to it, this whole system will collapse."
"Then we smash it," Juno suggested.
Reiss shook his head violently. "No! If we destroy it without stabilising it, we'll rip a hole in reality. We have to sync it."
"How long will that take?" Mira asked.
"Too long," Reiss muttered. "And I'm stabilising, we're not alone."
The air grew cold.
From the shadows behind the clock, something moved. Something massive.
It stepped into the light a towering figure made of shattered clock faces and chains, its eyes glowing like molten gold. Every step it took caused the ground to crack and time itself to stutter.
"Let me guess," Juno said, loading her rifle. "This is the part where it tries to kill us?"
The creature roared, and the hands of the giant clock stopped spinning. Time around them froze except for the four of them and the monster.
Kai raised his blade. "Looks like we're fighting time itself."