[Location: High Command Office, Sector 4.] [Time: 2 Days after the Handshake.]
Vesper looked like shit.
Usually, the High Marshall was a statue carved from ice and arrogance. But today, sitting behind her obsidian desk, she looked human. There were dark bags under her eyes. Her uniform collar was unbuttoned at the top—a violation of protocol she would have executed someone for last week.
She was staring at a tablet. On the screen was a freeze-frame of my face from the Black Spire mission.
"Sit down, Specialist," she said. Her voice lacked its usual bite. It sounded hollow.
I sat. The chair was uncomfortable by design.
"Two days ago," she started, not looking up, "our skin made contact. My Laplace system recorded a massive data transfer. 4.5 Petabytes of memory data flooded my neural implant in a nanosecond."
She finally looked up. Her violet eyes were bloodshot.
"I saw myself, Caelum. I saw myself dying in the rain. I saw myself laughing with you in a café that doesn't exist. I saw myself screaming your name while a nuclear fire swallowed us whole."
She slammed her hand on the desk.
"What the fuck are you?"
I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest. My metal arm—the Ouroboros—hummed softly.
"I'm the guy cleaning up your mess, Vesper," I said coldly. "Those weren't hallucinations. They were history."
"Impossible. Time is linear. Thermodynamics forbids—"
"Fuck thermodynamics," I snapped. "You want to know the truth? You're smart, Marshall. Figure it out."
Vesper stared at me for a long time. The gears in her head were turning, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Then, the cold mask slid back into place. She adjusted her glasses.
"I cannot verify your claims," she said, her voice turning icy again. "But I can test your parameters."
She flicked a digital file toward me.
[Transfer Order: Unit 404 - "The Mongrels".] [Rank: Squad Leader.]
"I am promoting you," she said.
"Unit 404?" I laughed. A dry, humorless sound. "That's a suicide squad. You send them into the meat grinder to clear minefields."
"Exactly," Vesper said. "If you really have lived a thousand lives, then you should be able to keep four idiots alive in a war zone. Consider this your field test."
I stood up, grabbing the datapad. I wanted to punch her. She was using human lives as lab rats to test my powers.
"You're a bitch, you know that?" I said.
Vesper didn't flinch.
"I'm a scientist, Caelum. Prove me wrong, and I'll apologize. Fail, and I'll dissect your corpse."