Maya's POV
"You sent us back?" I stared at the phone like it had grown teeth. "How is that even possible?"
"Long story. Short version: I'm not from this timeline either." Dr. Sarah's voice crackled through the speaker. "I've been through this apocalypse forty-seven times, Maya. Forty-seven failed attempts to stop it. You and Jae-hyun are my forty-eighth try."
Jae-hyun leaned forward. "Why us? Why not send yourself back?"
"Because I can't." Frustration bled through her words. "My system is different. I can send others back, but I'm stuck riding the loop forward. Every time the Administrator resets the timeline, I remember everything while everyone else forgets." A bitter laugh. "Do you know what it's like watching the same people die forty-seven times? Watching the world end over and over?"
"Then why—" I started.
"Why keep trying? Because giving up means they win. The Administrator, the system, whatever cosmic joke is running this nightmare." Sarah's voice hardened. "Now listen carefully. The warehouse is a trap, but not the kind you think. The Administrator doesn't want to kill you—she wants to separate you."
"Separate us?" Jae-hyun asked.
"Soul Resonance makes you stronger together. She knows that. So she'll try to take one of you while leaving the other alive but powerless." A pause. "In timeline thirty-two, she succeeded. Took Maya, erased her memories, turned her into a weapon. Jae-hyun spent six months trying to save her before—"
"Before what?" I whispered.
"Before he had to kill you himself. Because you'd become the Zombie Queen she's been warning everyone about."
Ice flooded my veins. "I became the villain?"
"You became what she made you. A puppet." Sarah's voice softened. "But that's not happening this time. Because this time, you know the truth. And this time, you have a plan."
"We don't have a plan," Jae-hyun said.
"Then make one. Fast. You have—" keys clicked through the phone "—fifty-four minutes before she starts cutting off fingers."
I looked at Jae-hyun. His jaw was clenched so tight I could see the muscle jumping. The brother he thought he'd lost was up there, terrified, waiting for rescue or death.
"What's your plan?" I asked Sarah.
"I get you inside through the maintenance tunnels. The warehouse has an old sewer connection—the Administrator doesn't know about it because it was sealed in timeline forty-three, but it's still open now." More typing. "You go in quiet. Jae-hyun uses his void powers to create a distraction while Maya rescues the hostages. I'll handle the Administrator."
"You can't handle her alone," Jae-hyun said. "She's too powerful."
"I know. That's why I'm not fighting her." Sarah's smile was audible. "I'm hacking her system. While she's focused on you two, I'll be uploading a virus I've spent thirty timelines perfecting. It'll lock her administrative privileges for exactly ten minutes." A pause. "Ten minutes to save your family and escape. Then her powers come back, and we run like hell."
"That's a terrible plan," I said.
"It's the only plan we have." Sarah sent a file through. Jae-hyun's laptop pinged. "Those are the tunnel maps and the virus code. Memorize them. We leave in twenty minutes."
"Wait," I said. "Why are you really helping us? What do you get out of this?"
Silence stretched. Then: "In timeline forty-three, you saved my daughter. A little girl I haven't even had yet in this timeline. You died doing it, but you saved her." Sarah's voice cracked. "Nobody has ever chosen my future child over their own life. So yeah, I'm helping you. Because you earned it."
My throat tightened. "I don't remember that."
"You will. When the time comes." The call ended.
Jae-hyun and I stared at each other.
"She's lying," he said. "Has to be. Nobody loops through forty-seven timelines and stays sane."
"But what if she's not lying?" I pulled up the tunnel maps on his laptop. "What if this is our only chance?"
"Then we're walking into a trap set by someone who might be crazier than the Administrator." He ran his hands through his hair. "But Min-seok is up there. And I can't—I can't just leave him."
"I know." I grabbed my jacket. "So we do this smart. We go in with a backup plan. And if anything feels wrong, we run."
"What's the backup plan?"
I pulled up my system interface. "I use my zombie powers. The apocalypse starts in forty-eight hours, but there are already infected people—the ones who got bitten in timeline experiments. The Administrator's been using them as test subjects." I showed him a map. "There's a government facility three blocks from the warehouse. They have seventeen zombies contained there."
"You want to release zombies in downtown Seoul?" Jae-hyun's eyes widened.
"I want to have a zombie army waiting nearby. If things go bad, I call them. They create chaos, we escape in the confusion." I met his eyes. "Unless you have a better idea?"
"I have a worse idea." He pulled up something on his phone. "I stored some of my void power in energy crystals last week. Kept them as emergency weapons." He showed me three purple crystals. "If I activate all three at once, they'll create a void bomb. It'll erase everything in a fifty-meter radius."
"Including us?"
"Including us. But also including the Administrator." His smile was grim. "Mutually assured destruction. If we can't win, we take her with us."
"That's insane."
"So is this entire situation." He pocketed the crystals. "But I'm not watching my brother die again. Even if it means taking everyone down with me."
I understood that desperation. That willingness to burn the world to save one person who mattered.
"Okay." I stood up. "We do this together. We save them together. And if it goes wrong—"
"We destroy everything together." He offered his hand.
I took it. Our Soul Resonance pulsed, stronger now. I could feel his fear, his determination, his absolute refusal to lose anyone else.
And he could feel mine.
[SOUL RESONANCE INCREASED: 35% → 48%][NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: POWER SHARING][You can now lend abilities to your Fated Pair temporarily]
"Did you see that?" Jae-hyun asked.
"Power sharing. We can use each other's abilities." I felt a smile tug at my lips. "She really doesn't want us working together, does she?"
"Because together, we're unstoppable." He pulled on his jacket. "Let's prove her right."
We gathered our weapons—knives, the void crystals, and my phone with the government facility's security codes. Twenty minutes later, we met Dr. Sarah Oh at the tunnel entrance.
She looked exactly like I remembered from my first timeline—sharp eyes, confident stance, the air of someone who'd seen too much death to fear it anymore.
"You came," she said, studying us both. "Good. That means you trust your gut more than your paranoia."
"Or we're just desperate," I replied.
"Desperation works too." She opened the tunnel gate. "Stay close. Stay quiet. And whatever you do, don't trust anything the Administrator says. She lies like she breathes."
We descended into darkness, following her through twisting passages. Water dripped. Rats scattered. And above us, a timer ticked down on my system:
[37:42 REMAINING]
We were halfway through the tunnel when Sarah stopped suddenly.
"What?" Jae-hyun whispered.
"She knows." Sarah's voice was tight. "The Administrator knows we're coming."
"How?"
"Because—" Sarah turned, and I saw it. The golden glow in her eyes. The system mark on her forehead. "—because I told her."
Before we could react, Sarah's hand shot out, pressing against my chest. Power flooded through me—burning, corrupting, changing.
My system screamed warnings:
[EMERGENCY: FOREIGN SYSTEM ACCESS DETECTED][DEATH'S ARCHITECT BEING OVERWRITTEN][ADMINISTRATOR TAKING CONTROL][RESISTING... FAILING... 73%... 84%... 91%...]
"I'm sorry, Maya," Sarah whispered, tears streaming down her face even as her hand killed me. "But in forty-seven timelines, this was the only way to save everyone. You have to become the Zombie Queen. You have to be the villain. It's the only way the story ends right."
Jae-hyun roared, void power exploding around him. But Sarah was ready. Her other hand touched him, and his power flickered out like a snuffed candle.
"Sleep now, Void King. When you wake up, your Fated Pair will be the enemy you have to destroy. And that tragedy?" She smiled sadly. "That's the only thing powerful enough to kill the Administrator. Grief makes gods."
My vision darkened. The last thing I saw was Jae-hyun reaching for me, screaming my name.
Then nothing.