Theo hit the bottom hard, the impact jarring through his legs and into his spine. Dust and ancient debris exploded around him as he rolled onto his side, coughing. His ribs protested, but nothing felt broken. That was the best he could hope for.
"Rell?" he rasped, blinking through the murk.
"I'm here," came the groan, muffled. "And alive, surprisingly."
Ayen landed moments later, knees bent, hand already on her weapon. She rose quickly, scanning the cavernous loading bay they'd dropped into. Old tram lines split across the floor like veins, and the ceiling above gaped wide where the elevator shaft yawned. Sparks flickered where metal had sheared off during their descent.
Then a fourth shape fell like a shadow.
Nova hit the ground lighter than the rest of them. She landed in a crouch, eyes sharp, already moving toward Theo.
"You alright?" she asked, her voice lower now, the adrenaline folding into caution.
"I'm fine," Theo said, pushing himself upright. "But we've lost time. The Wardens are close."
As if summoned by his words, a low tremor rippled through the floor. Then another—heavier. Measured. Like boots falling in perfect synchrony.
"They're above us," Rell said, standing now with his wrist tool glowing dimly. "Four signals, no—five. One just split from the others. They're scanning the node."
Ayen grimaced. "If they touch it, they'll know exactly what we did."
"They already know," Nova said. "They just haven't decided how to kill us yet."
Theo turned to the far end of the terminal. A rusted maintenance tunnel yawned in the dark, half-collapsed but still passable.
"There," he pointed. "We move fast and silent. Rell, block the entrance behind us—trigger a static field or something that'll blind their scanners for a few minutes."
Rell hesitated. "That'll burn this entire relay."
"Then burn it."
No more hesitation.
They moved.
The tunnel was narrow, coiled in dust and memory. Rusted signs peeled from the walls, and along the edges, the faint glimmer of threadline residue shimmered in Theo's peripheral vision—like veins of light trying to remember the shape of the past.
Nova fell into step beside him, her cloak still damp.
"You're changing," she said quietly, not as accusation, but observation.
Theo didn't look at her. "You saw it too?"
"In the Core. When the override hit—you glowed. Not like light. Like... story. Like something old remembering itself through you."
He swallowed hard. "The thread recognized me. Not just as a user, but something else. A piece of it."
Nova didn't respond right away. Then: "You're not just fixing broken fate. You're becoming part of it."
Rell's voice crackled behind them. "Static field's up. It won't hold long. If they've got a proper Seer on their squad, they'll pierce it."
Theo turned a corner, ducking under a collapsed pipe. "How far to the surface?"
"Through these tunnels? Maybe a kilometer. If the old exits haven't caved in."
Ayen checked her weapon's charge. "And if they have?"
"Then we dig or die," Theo said flatly.
Suddenly, Nova froze.
She pressed a hand against the wall, eyes fluttering shut.
"The threads," she whispered. "Something just shifted."
Theo grabbed her shoulder. "Nova?"
She looked at him—and in her gaze, there was fear.
"They're not chasing us anymore."
"Why not?" Ayen asked.
"Because they're rerouting. I can see it—splitting their paths. Two are looping ahead. They're waiting at the surface."
A trap.
Theo's jaw tightened. "They expected we'd run. Now they want us boxed in."
A tremor shook the tunnel, followed by a sound like steel screaming under heat. Theo could almost feel the timeline bending again—thin, stretched taut by invisible hands.
Then a voice echoed through the space.
"The anchor walks the threads. But anchors drown, too."
The voice wasn't human. It vibrated in the marrow.
Theo's heart pounded. "Run."
They broke into a sprint.
Behind them, a fire lit the tunnel—not natural flame, but a burning cascade of red threads, unraveling time itself in a storm of radiant entropy. A Warden Seer had pierced the field.
And she wasn't tracking them.
She was rewriting the path they'd just taken.
Chunks of the tunnel peeled away behind them, collapsing into fragmented echoes—stone turned to ash, steel into memory.
Theo felt it before he saw it: the line of fate he'd just run, being eaten by the void. A paradox chain.
"Left!" Nova shouted, pulling him into a side shaft. They tumbled together, barely clearing the unraveling breach.
The side tunnel collapsed behind them, cutting them off from Ayen and Rell.
"No!" Theo slammed a fist into the stone.
Nova pulled him back. "They'll find another way. Ayen's smart—she won't go down easy."
"But we're split," Theo growled. "And they know what I am now."
Nova's eyes were gentle but firm. "Then it's time you start accepting what you are. You carry the memory of every timeline that's broken. But you also carry the chance to make this one whole."
Theo stared at her.
In the distance, echoes of the Seer's hunt still burned.
But deep beneath the Crown District, buried in a forgotten passage with one person who still believed in him, Theo made a quiet decision.
No more running.
Next time… he would fight.