Rain blurred the world into streaks of gray as I sprinted down the narrow alley behind Lyra's shop. My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but the alarms behind me screamed louder.
MSD drones swept overhead, beams slicing the night like knives searching for a throat.
I ducked under a broken fire escape, pressed my back to the wall, and tried to catch my breath. Adrenaline made my hands shake.
In my pocket, the data chip felt heavier than metal should.
Left by V-0.
Left for me.
I forced myself to breathe slow, controlled.
Focus.
Think.
Survive.
I tapped the side of the divergence generator – still charging, still unstable. I couldn't jump yet. I needed time.
Which meant...
I needed to disappear in a world where, technically, I didn't exist.
Great.
I slipped out of the alley and into a side street lit only by flickering holographic ads. The city here felt older than my timeline, worn-down but busy – voices echoing from distant markets, neon bleeding through smog.
A heavy thought pressed at me.
This world mourned me.
Lyra mourned me.
That realization stuck in my throat like a shard of glass.
I shook it off and made my way to a boarded-up transit station – dark, abandoned, perfect for hiding. Rusted panels screeched as I pushed inside. Dust swirled in the faint light.
Safe enough for now.
I knelt behind a collapsed vending machine and finally pulled out the data chip. The casing was scorched at the edges.
"Okay," I muttered. "Let's see what you left me."
I slotted it into my wrist console. The screen flickered. Glitched. Then stabilized.
A single file appeared:
FOR AREN-PRIME — DO NOT IGNORE
My stomach tightened.
No one in the multiverse should know that designation.
Aren-Prime meant me.
My timeline was the closest remaining descendant of Timeline Zero.
A technical detail unless someone wanted to single me out.
I opened the file.
A video loaded.
Dark. Grainy.
A man stepped into frame...
My breath froze.
It was me.
But not the broken version I met earlier.
Not the cold figure in the massacre footage.
This one looked… calm. Focused. Almost gentle.
Like a version who had lived a life I never got to.
"Hello, Aren," he said.
Hearing my own voice from another mouth still felt wrong.
"If you're watching this, then the others failed."
"Others?" I whispered.
He continued:
"I'm leaving this because the man hunting you – the one wearing our face has reached a point where he cannot be stopped by anyone but you."
My pulse raced.
"This isn't random. You were chosen for a reason. Not because you're the strongest version. Or the smartest."
He leaned in slightly.
"But because you're the one who lived."
Cold crept up my spine.
"What does that even mean…" I murmured.
He answered as if hearing me:
"You're the last stable divergential anchor. Your existence keeps dozens of timelines from collapsing. V-0 wants to break that anchor. If you fall, the multiverse destabilizes."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
But even as I said it, I remembered the collapsing timelines I'd glimpsed.
The anomalies.
The instability.
"V-0 will come for you," the recorded Aren said softly.
"And he won't stop. Because he knows what you are."
"What am I?" I breathed.
But the recording glitched, lines distorting across the screen.
He raised a hand, urgency in his eyes.
"Go to the place where I died. The truth starts there. You'll find..."
Static consumed the rest.
I cursed under my breath and slammed my fist lightly against the broken floor.
The place where he died.
Where I died in this timeline.
The lab.
My next destination.
I pocketed the chip just as a faint humming filled the air. My blood froze.
No…
Not here.
Not now.
I peeked over the edge of the vending machine.
A silhouette stepped into the abandoned station.
Not Riven.
Not a drone.
A person.
Tall, cloaked, face hidden in the shadows.
They moved slowly, deliberately, as if they knew exactly where I was.
My heart hammered.
They stopped ten feet in front of my hiding spot.
"Hello, Aren," the figure said.
My breath turned to ice.
I knew that voice.
My voice.
But colder.
Sharper.
Wrong.
V-0.
I didn't think...
I just grabbed the divergence generator, slammed my hand on the activation plate, and sprinted.
The device whined, light bending around me!
V-0 walked forward calmly.
"You can run," he said softly, "but the path always leads back to me."
The generator flared...
And the world ripped away.