Elara's POV - Warehouse 7, Industrial District
"You kidnapped my sister?"
The words come out as a growl. Temporal energy crackles around my fists—I don't even know how I'm doing it, but suddenly my hands are glowing white-hot with power.
The woman who looks like my mother doesn't flinch. She just smiles wider, showing those impossible fangs made of crystallized time.
"Easy, cousin. We borrowed her. There's a difference."
"WHERE IS SHE?"
"Safe. Safer than she'd be with you stumbling around the city with the Bureau on your tail." The woman steps into the light. She's wearing combat gear, has scars across her face, and moves like a predator. "My name is Vera. Vera Chen. Your mother's younger sister."
I stare. "My mother didn't have a sister."
"Your mother thought I was dead. The Bureau told her I died when I was twelve. But really?" Vera's eyes flash. "They made me into a weapon. Trained me. Used me. Until I escaped fifteen years ago and have been hiding ever since."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because I have this." Vera pulls out a photo. Old. Faded. Two little girls holding hands—one is clearly my mother as a child. The other looks exactly like Vera. "We were born different, Elara. Our bloodline carries temporal sensitivity. It skips generations sometimes. Your grandmother had it. Your mother had it. I have it. And now you have it."
My head spins. "This is insane."
"Insane is what the Bureau does to people like us." Vera's voice goes hard. "They hunt us. Capture us. Turn us into batteries to power their temporal technology. Or they experiment on us, trying to figure out how to give normal humans our abilities. Your mother? Chen-04? She was their favorite subject. They tortured her for years before Victor Kane 'accidentally' killed her."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Ask yourself: how did Victor get access to temporal research? How did he know exactly how to trap your mother? How did he build an empire on stolen time?" Vera leans closer. "The Bureau gave him everything. They wanted your mother contained but accessible. A living battery they could drain without officially having her in custody."
Every word feels like a punch.
"Why didn't you save her?"
"I tried!" Vera's composure cracks. "I tried for ten years! But they had her locked in layers of temporal barriers I couldn't break. Then you destroyed the facility, and by the time I got there, she was already merging with you. Dying. Again."
Tears burn my eyes. "If you're really my aunt, if you really wanted to help, why kidnap Mira? Why terrorize me?"
"Because you need to understand what you're up against." Vera pulls out a tablet. Shows me a video. "The Bureau doesn't just hunt temporal anomalies. They manufacture them. Watch."
The video shows a laboratory. Children in cells. Scientists injecting them with glowing liquid. Most of the children die screaming. A few survive and develop powers—flickering, teleporting, aging things with a touch.
Then the Bureau agents arrive. They drain the successful subjects dry and dispose of the failures.
"This is what they do," Vera says quietly. "They've been doing it for fifty years. Creating temporal weapons. Your mother wasn't born with her power at full strength—the Bureau enhanced her. Made her more powerful. Then trapped her when she became too dangerous."
I feel sick. "And the other Chens? 01, 02, and 03?"
"01 was your grandmother. Dead. 02 was your great-aunt. Also dead. 03 was your mother. Dead. You're 04. I'm 05, but they lost track of me." Vera's expression darkens. "And there are more. 06 through 11. All kids. All in Bureau custody. All being experimented on right now."
"No."
"Yes. Your little cousins. Your family. Being tortured so the Bureau can perfect their temporal weapons program." Vera grabs my shoulders. "That's why I took Mira. Not to hurt her. To motivate you. You need to learn control fast, Elara. Tonight. Because at midnight, we're breaking into Bureau headquarters and freeing those kids. And you're going to help me."
I pull away. "That's suicide. I barely understand these powers—"
"Then you better learn quick." Vera snaps her fingers. Reality ripples. Suddenly we're not in the warehouse anymore. We're in a white void. Endless. Empty. "Welcome to my temporal pocket. Time doesn't flow here. We could train for days and only seconds would pass outside."
"You can create pocket dimensions?"
"So can you. You just don't know it yet." Vera cracks her knuckles. Those temporal fangs gleam. "Lesson one: your power responds to emotion. Fear makes you teleport. Rage makes you burn. But control? Control comes from understanding exactly what you are."
"A temporal anomaly."
"No." Vera's eyes glow brighter. "You're a Chronos. The Bureau's name for us. We're humans who evolved the ability to perceive and manipulate time. We're not anomalies. We're the next step in human evolution. And the Bureau wants us extinct because they can't control us."
She raises her hand. Time freezes around it—I can see the air molecules stop moving.
"You have my mother's power inside you. That makes you stronger than any Chronos in three generations. Strong enough to fight the Bureau. Strong enough to save those kids." Vera extends her hand. "So what's it going to be, cousin? You going to keep running? Or you going to become the weapon we need?"
I look at her hand. At the temporal energy swirling around it. At the offer she's making.
"If I help you break into Bureau headquarters, and we somehow survive, you'll give me Mira back? Unharmed?"
"You have my word."
"The word of someone who kidnapped my sister and lied to me from the start?"
Vera actually laughs. "Fair point. How about this: I'll let you talk to her. Right now. Prove she's safe."
She waves her hand. A window opens in the void—showing Mira in a comfortable room, reading a book, completely unharmed.
"Mira!" I shout.
She looks up. Sees me through the window. "Elara? Where are you? What's happening?"
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"No, I'm fine. Confused, but fine. This woman—Vera—she said you were in danger. That she needed to keep me safe until you learned to control your powers." Mira stands up. "Is it true? Are you really part of some temporal bloodline?"
Before I can answer, the window ripples. Vera's control flickers.
Her face goes pale. "No. They found us."
"Who?"
"The Bureau. They tracked your temporal signature." Vera closes the window. "We're out of time. The pocket dimension is collapsing."
The white void cracks like glass. Reality bleeds through—I see the warehouse, but also Bureau agents materializing, dozens of them, surrounding the building.
"Take my hand!" Vera grabs me. "We need to jump together!"
"What about Mira?"
"She's in a different location. They can't find her. But you—" Vera's eyes widen. She's looking at something behind me. "Oh no."
I turn.
Standing in the collapsing void is Agent-17. But he's not alone.
With him is a man I've never seen before. Tall. Silver hair. Eyes that swirl with every color and no color at once.
"Vera Chen," the silver-haired man says. His voice sounds like it's coming from everywhere and nowhere. "Bureau designation: Chen-05. Wanted for treason, temporal terrorism, and murder of seventeen agents. Your escape ends tonight."
"Director Cross," Vera hisses. "I should've known they'd send you."
Director Cross? The head of the Bureau?
"And the newest addition to our collection," Director Cross continues, looking at me. "Chen-04-B. The daughter. Untrained. Unstable. Perfect for our purposes."
"04-B?" I whisper. "What does that mean?"
Vera's grip on my arm tightens. "It means they've known about you since you were born, Elara. It means everything—your mother's death, your career destruction, Mira's illness—all of it was the Bureau's plan to activate your powers. You were never free. You were always theirs."
"No."
"They've been grooming you your entire life. Waiting for you to inherit your mother's power. And now that you have—" Vera's voice cracks. "Now they can finally complete their Ultimate Weapon project."
Director Cross smiles. It's the most terrifying expression I've ever seen.
"Twenty-six years of careful manipulation," he says. "And finally, Chen-04-B is ready for harvest. Your mother's temporal consciousness combined with your young, adaptable body? You'll make the perfect vessel for Project Chronos."
"What's Project Chronos?"
"The creation of a god," Director Cross says simply. "A being with complete control over all timelines. Past. Present. Future. All at once. We've been trying for fifty years. Failed every time. But you?" He steps closer. The void shatters around him. "You're different. You were born for this."
"Run!" Vera shoves me hard.
I fall backward through breaking reality.
The warehouse materializes around me. I'm back in normal space. But Vera—
Agent-17 has her. His hand is on her throat. She's aging rapidly. Twenty years in five seconds. Thirty. Forty.
"NO!" I scream.
Vera looks at me. Mouths two words: "Save them."
Then she's dust. Gone. My aunt. My family. Dead.
Agent-17 steps over her remains. "Your turn, Chen-04-B."
I run.
Out of the warehouse. Into the street. Agents everywhere. At least twenty.
I think about teleporting but my power won't respond. Too much fear. Too much grief. Too much everything.
A hand grabs my ankle. I trip. Hit the ground hard.
An agent injects something into my neck. Ice floods my veins.
"Temporal suppressor administered," the agent reports. "Target is neutralized."
My vision blurs. I can't feel my power anymore. Can't feel anything.
Director Cross walks up slowly. Crouches next to me.
"Welcome to the Bureau, Elara. Your orientation begins now. And don't worry about your sister—we'll collect her after we've processed you. Maybe we'll make her Chen-04-C. Wouldn't that be poetic? Both sisters, forever in our care."
He signals to the agents. They lift me. Start carrying me toward a black vehicle that looks like it shouldn't exist—made of solid shadow.
This is it. Game over. I failed.
Failed Vera. Failed my mother. Failed Mira. Failed myself.
The agents open the vehicle door.
Then something impossible happens.
A motorcycle explodes through the circle of agents. The rider is dressed in black tactical gear, face hidden by a helmet.
They throw something—a device that pulses with temporal energy. It explodes. All the agents freeze mid-motion, trapped in stopped time.
Except Director Cross. He's immune.
"You," he snarls at the rider. "I should have killed you when I had the chance."
The rider removes their helmet.
Cold gray eyes. Rough voice. Very much alive.
Kade Ashford.
"Get on," he tells me. "Now."
"You—but Vera said—"
"Vera lied about a lot of things. I'll explain later. Right now, we need to go before Cross breaks free."
Director Cross is already moving. Pushing through the stopped time like water.
I don't have time to think. Don't have time to question.
I grab Kade's hand. He pulls me onto the motorcycle.
We're moving before I'm even fully on, racing through frozen agents, through stopped traffic, through a city locked in time.
Behind us, Director Cross breaks free of the temporal freeze and screams with rage.
"FIND THEM! I WANT CHEN-04-B ALIVE AND ASHFORD DEAD!"
The world blurs. Kade drives like he's done this a thousand times.
After what feels like hours but is probably minutes, we stop. An abandoned subway station.
I fall off the bike, shaking. "Who are you? Really?"
Kade removes his helmet fully. His face is scarred, exhausted, but his eyes are sharp. Alive.
"I'm the agent who was supposed to bring you in eight years ago when the Bureau first identified you. The agent who refused." He looks away. "The agent who's been protecting you from the shadows your entire life. Because—" His voice cracks slightly. "Because your mother asked me to. With her dying breath. Before the Bureau erased her mind."
My world tilts. "You knew my mother?"
"I loved her," Kade says quietly. "And she loved me. You're not Chen-04-B, Elara."
"Then what am I?"
He meets my eyes. And what I see there changes everything.
"You're my daughter."
Author's Note:
EXCUSE ME WHAT.
So Kade is Elara's FATHER?! Her mother had a relationship with a Bureau agent?! Everything the Bureau told her was a lie?!
Yes. Yes to all of it.
Here's the truth: Elara's mother (Chen-04) fell in love with Kade when he was assigned to monitor her. He was supposed to report her activities but instead helped her hide. When Elara was born, they made a plan to keep her safe—fake death certificates, false identities, placing her with relatives.
But the Bureau discovered the relationship. Tortured Elara's mother for information. Eventually handed her to Victor Kane as punishment. Kade has been living with that guilt for 26 years while secretly protecting Elara from the shadows.
Vera wasn't completely lying—she IS Elara's aunt. But she had her own agenda: using Elara as bait to attack the Bureau. She didn't care if Elara survived.
And Project Chronos? That's real. The Bureau wants to create a god-level temporal being. And Elara—with her mother's power and her father's immunity to timeline changes—is the perfect candidate.
Also: Kade has immunity to timeline changes. That's important. Remember that.
closing in...
Next: Kade reveals the full truth about Project Chronos and why Elara's the only one who can stop it...