Elara's POV - Abandoned Subway Station
"You're lying."
Kade's face doesn't change. "I'm not."
"My father died before I was born. Car accident. My mother told me—"
"Your mother lied to protect you from the Bureau. From me." Kade pulls out a small device from his jacket. "We don't have time for a long explanation. Director Cross is tracking us. We have maybe ten minutes before he finds this location. So here's the truth, fast: I loved your mother. She loved me. You were born. The Bureau found out. They tortured her and gave her to Victor Kane. I've spent twenty-six years keeping you safe while hating myself for not saving her."
My head spins. "If you're my father, why didn't you ever—"
"Because the Bureau told me you died," Kade says, and his voice cracks. "When you were six months old, they showed me a body. A baby. They said it was you. Said your mother killed you during one of Victor's experiments. I believed them for years. Until—" He stops. Swallows hard. "Until I saw you on surveillance three years ago during Victor's trial. Alive. Grown. And I realized they'd lied about everything."
"Three years ago? You've known about me for three years and never—"
"I was protecting you! The Bureau thinks I'm loyal. If they knew I'd found you, known I was helping you, they would've killed us both." Kade grabs my shoulders. "Elara, listen. We need to get Mira and run. Right now. The Bureau isn't just after you. They're after her too."
"Vera said Mira was safe—"
"Vera was using you. She wanted to attack the Bureau and didn't care if you survived. But Mira?" Kade's face goes grim. "Mira is actually in danger. Real danger. Because she's not your sister."
The subway station tilts. "What?"
"Mira isn't related to you by blood. Your mother adopted her when you were seven. After your real sister died."
"I don't have a real sister—I only have Mira—"
"You had a twin," Kade says. "Chen-04-A. The Bureau took her when you were six months old. Experimented on her. She didn't survive. That's the body they showed me. Your twin's body. They let me think it was you."
I can't breathe. Can't think. A twin sister. Dead. Experimented on by the Bureau.
"Mira was a child your mother rescued from one of the Bureau's facilities. She took her in, raised her as yours, hoping you'd both stay off the Bureau's radar." Kade checks his device. "Seven minutes. We need to move."
"Where is Mira right now? Actually?"
"St. Catherine's Hospital. Room 347. Where you left her six hours ago."
"But the blood—the message—Vera showed me—"
"Faked. All of it. Temporal manipulation can create convincing illusions." Kade pulls me toward his motorcycle. "Mira has been safe this whole time. Confused, scared, but safe. And we need to get her before the Bureau does. Because if they can't have you, they'll take her and use her as leverage."
We climb onto the bike. Kade drives fast through abandoned subway tunnels, then up a maintenance shaft, then onto the street.
The city at night. Neon and darkness.
My mind races. Father. Twin sister. Fake sister who's real sister. Bureau experiments. Project Chronos. Everything is too much.
"Why does the Bureau want me so badly?" I ask against the wind. "What's so special about my mother's power?"
"Your mother could see every timeline simultaneously," Kade shouts back. "Past, present, future, alternate realities—all at once. The Bureau spent decades trying to replicate that ability. Failed every time. But you?" He takes a sharp turn. "You inherited her sight. You just don't know how to access it yet."
"I can't see other timelines—"
"Because it hasn't activated. Usually triggers during extreme trauma. The Bureau was hoping that destroying your life, killing people you love, forcing you to steal time—all that trauma would unlock your full potential. Make you into their perfect weapon."
Everything clicks into horrible place. "They planned everything. My career destruction. Mira's illness. All of it."
"All of it," Kade confirms. "And it worked. You activated your temporal powers. Merged with your mother's consciousness. Became exactly what they wanted. Now they just need to capture you and finish the programming."
We screech to a stop outside St. Catherine's Hospital.
Kade pulls out a gun. "Stay behind me. If anything happens, you teleport away. Don't try to save me. Just run."
"I'm not leaving you—"
"You're my daughter," Kade says, and his voice is fierce. "I already lost you once. I won't watch you die. Understood?"
I nod, throat tight.
We enter through a side door. Take the stairs—elevators are too easy to trap. Fourth floor. Down the hallway.
Room 347.
The door is open.
Kade signals me to wait. He enters first, gun raised.
Then he lowers it. "She's here."
I rush past him.
Mira is sitting up in bed, reading a magazine. She looks up and her face lights up. "Elara! Finally! I've been going crazy waiting for you. The doctors won't tell me anything and I—" She stops. Sees my face. "What's wrong?"
She looks fine. Completely fine. Better than fine. Her skin is solid, no transparency. Her eyes are bright. Her smile is real.
"Mira," I breathe. Relief crashes through me so hard my knees almost give out. "You're okay. You're really okay."
"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be—" She sees Kade. Her expression changes. Scared. "Who's that?"
"It's okay. He's... helping us." I sit on the bed and grab her hands. They're warm. Solid. Real. "How do you feel? Any pain? Any fading?"
"I feel great. Amazing, actually. Whatever treatment they gave me, it worked. The doctors say I'm cured." Mira squeezes my hands back. "Elara, what's happening? Why do you look like you've been through a war?"
"Because she has," Kade says from the doorway. He's watching the hallway. Tense. "We need to move. Now. Pack whatever you need, we're leaving."
"I'm not going anywhere until someone explains—" Mira starts.
The lights go out.
All of them. The entire hospital plunges into darkness.
"Too late," Kade mutters. "They're here."
Emergency lights flicker on. Red. Flashing.
And in the hallway, I see them. Bureau agents. Dozens. Moving silently toward our room like sharks.
"Window," Kade snaps. "Now."
"We're on the fourth floor!" Mira protests.
"I'll teleport us down," I say. "Both of you grab my hands."
Mira looks at me like I'm crazy. "Teleport? What are you talking about—"
The door explodes inward.
Agent-17 steps through, flanked by six more agents. His empty eyes lock onto me.
"Chen-04-B. You are under arrest. Come peacefully and your sister lives. Resist and—"
Kade shoots him.
The bullet passes through Agent-17 like he's made of smoke.
"Temporal phase shifting," Agent-17 says. "You know bullets don't work on us, Ashford. Why do you even try?"
"Habit," Kade growls. Then to me: "Take Mira and go!"
"I'm not leaving you—"
"GO!"
Agent-17 moves. Fast. His hand reaches for Kade's throat.
I don't think. Just react.
Temporal energy explodes from my body. The same way it did on the hospital roof. A wave of pure time that throws everyone backward.
Agents fly through the air. The walls crack. The window shatters.
But when the light fades, Agent-17 is still standing. Unharmed.
"Impressive," he says. "Your power is growing faster than projected. Director Cross will be pleased."
More agents pour into the room. Too many. At least twenty now.
Kade fights three at once. He's fast, skilled, but they're not human anymore. They're something else. Something the Bureau made.
"Elara!" Mira screams. An agent has grabbed her, is dragging her toward the door.
I reach for my power. Try to teleport to her.
Nothing happens.
The temporal suppressor. It's still in my system. My power is flickering, unstable.
"Mira!" I try to run to her but Agent-17 blocks me.
"Your sister is now Bureau property," he says. "Chen-04-C. She'll make an excellent test subject for our genetic enhancement program. Thank you for bringing her to us."
"She's not even a Chronos! She's not part of the bloodline!"
"Not yet," Agent-17 says. "But she will be. We've perfected the injection serum. Ninety percent success rate. She'll either become like you—" He smiles that terrible smile. "—or she'll die screaming. Either way, we win."
"NO!"
I lunge at him. He catches my throat with one hand. Lifts me off the ground.
My vision sparkles. The suppressor is wearing off. I can feel my power coming back. Just a little more. Just a few more seconds—
Kade appears behind Agent-17. Stabs something into his neck. Not a knife. A syringe.
Agent-17 drops me. Staggers. "What did you—"
"Concentrated temporal destabilizer," Kade says. "You're phasing out of sync with reality. In about ten seconds, you'll cease to exist in this timeline completely."
Agent-17's body flickers. Glitches. He screams—a sound of pure rage and terror.
Then he's gone. Erased.
"RUN!" Kade shouts.
He grabs my arm. I grab Mira. We sprint for the broken window.
"Are you insane?" Mira shrieks. "We're jumping?"
"Trust me!" I close my eyes. Feel for my power. It's there. Weak but there.
We jump.
Four stories. Wind rushing. Mira screaming.
I think: Ground. Safe. Now.
We blink.
Reality shifts.
We land in the parking lot. Hard but alive.
Kade is already pulling us toward his motorcycle. "Move! More agents coming!"
We run. The hospital behind us erupts with Bureau agents pouring out every exit.
Kade's bike roars to life. Three of us on one motorcycle. Impossible but necessary.
We peel out of the parking lot just as the agents reach us.
Behind us, I hear Director Cross's voice, amplified somehow, echoing across the city: "ATTENTION ALL BUREAU UNITS. CHEN-04-B IS IN THE WIND WITH ASHFORD AND CHEN-04-C. DEPLOY ALL ASSETS. I WANT THEM ALIVE. REPEAT: ALIVE. PROJECT CHRONOS CANNOT PROCEED WITHOUT THEM."
The motorcycle screams through empty streets. Kade drives like he's done this a thousand times.
Mira clings to my waist, crying. "What's happening? What are you? What am I?"
"I'll explain later," I promise. "Right now we just need to—"
My words die.
Because ahead of us, blocking the entire street, is an army. Bureau agents. Fifty at least. All armed. All ready.
And in the center, standing calm while his army surrounds him, is Director Cross.
He raises one hand.
Reality freezes. The motorcycle stops mid-drive. Kade is frozen. Mira is frozen.
Only I can move. Because of my mother's power protecting me.
Director Cross walks up to me slowly. "Impressive chase, Chen-04-B. You've exceeded all projections. But this ends now."
"Let them go," I beg. "Please. Take me. Just let them go."
"Let them go?" Director Cross tilts his head. "Why would I do that? Kade Ashford is a traitor. He deserves execution. And your sister—" He looks at frozen Mira with cold interest. "She's the perfect control subject. We'll inject her with the serum. See if non-Chronos humans can be converted. If she survives, she joins you in Project Chronos. If she dies, we learn valuable data for the next attempt."
"She's innocent! She's not part of this!"
"Everyone is part of this," Director Cross says. "The entire human race is part of Project Chronos. We're trying to save the species, Elara. Don't you understand? Humanity is dying. Slowly. Temporally. Our timeline is collapsing. In fifty years, we'll cease to exist. But if we can create a being with complete temporal control—" He gestures at me. "—we can rewrite our fate. Save billions of lives."
"By murdering people like my mother? By experimenting on children?"
"Acceptable losses for the greater good." He steps closer. "You can end this. Right now. Surrender. Let us complete Project Chronos. Let us use your power to save the world. Or resist—and watch everyone you love die while humanity collapses into temporal entropy."
I look at Kade. Frozen mid-breath. At Mira. Frozen mid-sob.
At the army of agents ready to kill or capture us.
At Director Cross offering me an impossible choice.
"What happens if I surrender?" I ask.
"We extract your temporal consciousness. Merge it with our quantum processors. You become the heart of Project Chronos. Your body dies, but your mind—your power—lives forever. Controlling time. Saving humanity."
"I die."
"Your body dies. But you transcend. Become something greater than human. Become a god."
I look at him. At this man who's been manipulating my entire life.
And I make my choice.
"Okay," I say. "I surrender."
Director Cross smiles. "Wise decision."
I take a step toward him. Then another.
He extends his hand.
I take it.
And the moment our skin touches, I do what my mother's power has been screaming at me to do since I woke up with it.
I see.
Not just this timeline. All of them. Every possible future. Every past. Every alternate reality.
And what I see makes me understand everything.
Director Cross isn't trying to save humanity.
He's trying to erase it.
Project Chronos isn't about saving our timeline. It's about giving him the power to delete every timeline except one—the one where he's immortal. Unstoppable. God.
He's been collapsing timelines deliberately. Creating the crisis. So humanity would be desperate enough to let him build his weapon.
And I'm the final piece.
"You lying piece of—"
I channel every bit of temporal energy I have. Through our connected hands. Into him.
Director Cross's eyes widen. "What are you—"
Time reverses. Just for him. His body goes backward through his life. Middle-aged. Young adult. Teenager. Child.
"NO!" he screams in a child's voice. "IMPOSSIBLE! YOU CAN'T CONTROL—"
Baby. Infant.
Gone.
Director Cross—head of the Bureau, architect of Project Chronos, monster—ceases to exist.
The frozen reality shatters.
Time resumes.
Kade and Mira gasp as the freeze breaks. The agents collapse—their connection to Cross's power severed.
And I stand in the middle of the street, glowing so bright I'm almost blinding, with my hands still tingling from erasing a man from existence.
"What did you do?" Kade whispers.
"I killed him," I say. My voice sounds strange. Distant. "I erased him from the timeline."
"That's impossible. You can't just—"
"I can," I say. And I look at my hands. They're not flickering anymore. They're solid. But wrong. The light underneath is brighter. Stronger. "I can do anything now. See anything. Change anything. I just—" My voice breaks. "I just killed someone. Erased him like he never existed."
Mira stumbles toward me. "Elara?"
I look at her. And through her. I see every moment of her life. Every timeline. Every possibility.
Including the ones where she dies from the injection. Where she becomes a Bureau weapon. Where she turns into something worse than me.
"We need to run," I say. "Right now. Because I just killed the Director of the Temporal Integrity Bureau. And when they realize what I did—when they see I can erase people from timelines—"
"They'll hunt you forever," Kade finishes.
"Not just me." I look at both of them. "All of us. We're fugitives now. For the rest of our lives. If we live that long."
The Bureau agents start waking up. Groaning. Confused.
"Motorcycle," Kade says. "Now."
We run.
As we speed away from the chaos, I feel it. The Bureau's systems rebooting. New leadership taking over. Orders being issued.
And above it all, a message broadcasting on every Bureau channel:
"PRIORITY ONE DIRECTIVE: CHEN-04-B HAS ACHIEVED OMEGA-LEVEL TEMPORAL CONTROL. SHE HAS KILLED DIRECTOR CROSS. SHE IS NOW CLASSIFIED AS AN EXTINCTION-LEVEL THREAT. ALL AGENTS: KILL ON SIGHT. REPEAT: KILL ON SIGHT. THE CHRONOS PROJECT IS CANCELLED. THE GIRL MUST DIE."
I close my eyes and see it. Every possible future.
In most of them, we die within the week.
In a few, we survive years on the run.
In one—just one—we win.
But that future is so impossible, so unlikely, so painful that I can barely look at it.
"Elara," Mira says against my back. "What do we do now?"
I open my eyes. Look at the city speeding past. At Kade driving. At Mira holding me.
At the life we just lost forever.
"We run," I say. "We hide. We fight. And we hope that one impossible future is enough."