The world snapped back into place. One moment, I was drowning in broken time. The next, I was on my knees, gasping on the cool, solid floor. The metal case was gone from my hand.
Leo's face appeared, his eyes wide. "Kaelen? You're in one piece?"
I nodded, my head spinning. My body felt tired but electric, humming with the memory of movements it had never made.
Instructor Valerius pushed Leo aside. Her sharp eyes scanned me. "Report. What happened? Where are the stabilizers?"
I looked past her. The anomaly was gone. On the walls, three stabilizer discs glowed blue in a perfect triangle.
"I don't know," I stammered. "It was all fuzzy. I just ran. I tripped. I must have slapped the charges on by accident."
She stared at me, then at the perfect placement. "You tripped. And accidentally performed a flawless containment."
Leo whistled. "The luckiest trip ever."
I shrugged, playing the fool. My stomach churned.
Her comm buzzed. She listened, her eyes locked on me. "The system log confirms a flawless containment." Her voice turned cold. "But the energy signature was chaotic. It looked like a crowd was in there."
My heart hammered. "I was falling everywhere. Maybe my Echo confused the sensors."
She didn't believe me. "Dismissed. Both of you to the med-bay. Now."
She walked away. Leo grabbed my shoulder, his fear gone. "You maniac! You just charged in!"
"I'm an idiot who tripped," I corrected.
"A lucky idiot who saved the day! Everyone's gonna hear about this!"
A cold dread filled me. Attention was the last thing I needed.
In the med-bay, a blue light scanned my body.
[SCANNING...]
[VITAL SIGNS: NOMINAL.]
[NEURAL ACTIVITY: HIGHLY ELEVATED.]
[ANOMALY: SIGNIFICANT DEJA VU DETECTED.]
"You are cleared," the android said. "The deja vu will pass."
I almost laughed. It wouldn't pass. It was just beginning.
A sharp ping came from my data-pad.
[NEW ORDERS: CADET KAELEN]
[ASSIGNMENT: VANGUARD UNIT 7 - SCOUT TEAM]
[DEPLOYMENT: 0800 TOMORROW]
[LOCATION: ECHO ZONE 734 - "THE FROZEN MARKET" ]
It was real. My first Echo Zone.
Leo read the message. "The Frozen Market? Creepy place. Everyone there just... stopped. Frozen in time." He forced a smile. "With your luck, you'll trip over something amazing."
He meant it as a joke. But that night, in my bunk, I thought about it. My power wasn't just for survival. It was a tool. I could fail a thousand times in my head to succeed once in reality.
The system thought I was lucky. Leo thought I was a hero. The instructor was suspicious.
I was the only one who knew the truth. I had seen all my deaths and chosen to live.
I closed my eyes. The fear was still there. But underneath it, a new feeling sparked.
Curiosity.
The next morning, a shadow fell over my breakfast table. Instructor Valerius stood there, her posture rigid.
"Cadet Kaelen. A word." It wasn't a request.
I followed her to a quiet corner. "The data from yesterday is... anomalous," she said, her voice low. "The temporal echoes formed a pattern. A decision tree. The system suggests someone was testing futures." She leaned closer. "Your file says nothing about testing futures."
I forced myself to meet her gaze. "I don't know what that means, Instructor. It was just a mess in my head."
She held my stare. "The Frozen Market is unstable. Many scouts don't come back. Their timelines... unravel." A cold smile touched her lips. "It will be interesting to see what your luck looks like out there."
She walked away, leaving me frozen. She knew. Or she suspected enough.
An hour later, I stood with Vanguard Unit 7. We were ten E-Ranks, all disposable. Our gear was patched and old.
Our squad leader, Rostov, glared at us. "The Frozen Market is a Class-2 Echo Zone. Time is stuck. Do not touch the phantoms. Do not stray from the path. We are cannon fodder. Remember that. Move out!"
The transport was a rattling metal box. I sat on a hard bench, my rifle between my knees. No one spoke.
I closed my eyes. I thought about the Frozen Market.
My mind split.
It was faster this time. A stream of information.
I saw myself stepping on a cracked tile. A phantom turned. I died.
I saw another path. I survived, but found nothing.
I saw a third path. A safe route to a small shop.
I opened my eyes. The ghost-path was clear.
We piled out at the edge of the zone. The air was still and silent. Colors were washed out like an old photograph.
Before us, dozens of people were frozen. A woman handing coins to a vendor. A child chasing a ball hanging in air. A man sipping coffee forever. Grey, translucent phantoms.
"Eyes sharp!" Rostov barked. "Kaelen, you're on point."
A test. I swallowed hard.
I took a step forward, following my invisible map. Left at the flower cart. Pause. Right at the fountain.
We moved deeper. The silence pressed on my eardrums.
Then I saw it. The shop from my vision. "Relics & Oddities."
Rostov saw it too. "There. Our target. Kaelen, check the door."
In my mind, I saw myself opening it. A bell jingled. A phantom turned. I died.
I saw another way. The back window. Unlocked.
I turned to Rostov. "Sir, the front might be trapped. I... have a bad feeling. There's a window around back."
He stared at me. "A bad feeling? You're not paid to have feelings, cadet."
"I know, sir. But my Echo... it's like a headache when I look at that door."
A gamble.
Rostov scowled. "Fine. Your way. Waste my time, and you'll regret it."
We moved around back. The window was there. Unlocked. Just as I'd seen.
I climbed through first, the squad following. The shop was dark, dusty. Shelves lined with strange artifacts. A phantom shopkeeper stood frozen behind a counter.
"Spread out," Rostov whispered. "Find anything stable. Quickly."
I moved toward the back, drawn to a glass case. Inside, on faded velvet, lay a simple pocket watch. Its brass case was tarnished, but its hands were ticking. Ticking. In a place where time stood still.
My breath caught. This was impossible.
As I reached for the case, the phantom shopkeeper's head twitched. Its grey, translucent face began to turn toward me. Slowly. Against the frozen flow of time.
A cold dread seized my chest. This wasn't in any of my visions.
The pocket watch's ticking grew louder, filling the dead silence. Each tick was a hammer strike against the frozen world.
And the phantom's eyes, empty and vast, finally locked onto mine.
I had changed our fate. But I had awakened something else. Something that shouldn't have been able to move.
And it was looking right at me.