Location: Earth, 2097 — New Eden Colony
---
"Tell me again," Elara said softly, her voice barely audible over the hum of the greenhouse. "What was the first thing you noticed about me?"
Kai smirked, wiping sweat off his brow as he glanced over at her from across the hydroponic bed.
"Your boots," he said.
Elara raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"They were untied. And I thought—who shows up to a terraforming colony with combat boots flopping around like they're walking into a poetry slam?"
Elara laughed, sitting cross-legged on the metal floor. "Well, I wasn't exactly planning to fall in love with the head engineer of Sector 9."
Kai dropped the wrench, crossed the space between them, and kissed her forehead gently. "Lucky me, huh?"
The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was full—like the space between heartbeats.
They didn't say "I love you" anymore. It was past that. Love was built into everything—every stolen kiss during shift change, every cracked joke over nutrition cubes, every scar they didn't ask about but silently accepted.
But something had changed.
Two weeks ago, the sky tore open. A shimmer—not a storm, not quite lightning. More like a wound in the world.
And ever since then, Elara had been… different.
---
Two Days Earlier
Kai stood over the motionless drone, its charred hull sparking. "This isn't from our system. This is old—really old tech."
"Then why did it come through the Rift?" Elara asked, kneeling beside him. "This symbol—"
Her fingers brushed the half-burned insignia.
A spiral with a star in the center.
Kai's face went pale. "That's the Project Echo logo."
She looked up. "Echo? As in the deep-scan temporal project that got shut down?"
"No. As in the one that got erased from every known database."
They both stood, staring at the Rift, a thin shimmer hanging in the sky like a mirror turned sideways.
"Maybe it's not a tear," Elara whispered. "Maybe it's a door."
---
Present Day
Elara had been waking up in cold sweats. Talking in her sleep. Scribbling strange symbols in her notebook, only to forget them minutes later. Kai tried not to let it scare him.
But it did.
That morning, she looked at him like she was seeing through him. Like her eyes didn't just see him—but something after him.
"Kai," she said over breakfast, poking at the synth-eggs, "what if we've met before?"
"We have met before. Two years ago. You almost electrocuted yourself trying to fix a stabilizer you didn't understand."
"I don't mean here. I mean… before this version. Like, in another timeline."
Kai frowned. "You believe in that?"
"I didn't," she whispered. "But now… I'm starting to remember things I've never done. Places I've never been."
He leaned forward. "Like what?"
She stared into her coffee mug.
"You. Dying."
---
Later that night, she stood at the edge of the Rift again. Alone.
"Kai," she whispered into the wind, "if you ever see another version of me come through this thing… don't trust her."
She didn't know he was standing behind her.
"I wouldn't trust anyone but you," he said gently.
She turned, startled.
"I had to check on you," he said. "You've been quiet since yesterday."
"I just needed air," she replied, brushing past him. "Come on. Let's go back."
As they walked, the Rift pulsed—softly, like a heartbeat.
---
One Week Earlier, in another timeline
"Kill me," Elara whispered.
Kai stared in horror at the woman in the capsule. She looked like Elara—same face, same voice—but her eyes were sunken. Her skin cracked like porcelain.
"You don't understand," she croaked. "I came back to warn you. To stop her—the version of me that made it through. She's not me. She's the thing that became me."
"You're not making sense."
"She's not just living your life. She's trying to change the outcome. You can't let her open the Rift again."
Kai's hand trembled on the stasis lever. "This is insane."
"Please," she said, her eyes pleading. "If she succeeds, there won't be another reset."
---
Present
Kai sat in the observation dome, staring at Elara as she slept. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically. Calm. Beautiful. But his thoughts were chaos.
That night, he'd gone back to the damaged drone.
And he found a hidden drive.
Encrypted, but still intact.
Inside it was a video.
> > Subject: ECHO_PROT_37 - Time Loop 17 — Initiating Kill Switch Sequence
> > Target: Elara Voss (Variant ID: 22-B)
The rest was corrupted.
He looked at her again.
Who are you?
---
The next day, Elara led Kai into the forest beyond the compound.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
They reached a clearing where the trees bent unnaturally—toward the sky, like they were pulled by gravity in reverse. In the center was a floating shard of light.
"A fixed point," Elara whispered.
Kai instinctively stepped back. "Is that what the Rift leads to?"
She nodded. "I've been feeling it in my head. Like a magnet. Calling me."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because I don't know what's real anymore, Kai. Half of me remembers our first kiss at the observatory. The other half remembers watching you burn on a collapsing planet while I screamed your name."
Kai looked at her, really looked at her.
And saw someone he loved.
And someone he feared.
"Elara, if you walk into that thing, I don't think you're coming back."
She turned to him, tearful.
"I don't think I ever came back the first time."
---
That Night
The alarm blared across the colony.
Kai stumbled out of bed, grabbing his comm.
"Unauthorized access at Core Control Room."
He bolted.
By the time he reached it, Elara was already inside, her hands flying over the interface.
"Elara!"
She turned, wild-eyed. "It's collapsing. The timelines are overlapping. If I don't stabilize the Rift now, it'll trigger a Cascade."
"What the hell is a Cascade?!"
"Every version of reality… bleeding into each other. Colliding. Consuming."
He grabbed her wrist. "You're not making sense!"
But then the screen flickered. Footage showed hundreds—thousands—of versions of her. Standing. Dying. Kissing him. Killing him.
"I've done this before," she whispered. "So many times. I always fail."
"Then let me help this time!"
She stared at him.
"You can't," she said softly. "Because in this version… you're already dead."
---
The Rift tore open.
Brighter than before. Wider.
A figure stepped through.
It looked like Elara.
But she wore a cracked visor. Her skin shimmered like refracted glass.
And her eyes?
Empty.
Soulless.
Kai froze. "What the hell…"
The real Elara—his Elara—stood in front of him protectively.
"She followed me through," she whispered. "She's the one who kept surviving."
The version from the Rift spoke, her voice cold and layered with static.
"I'm not here to fight. I'm here to finish what you couldn't."
And then, without warning—
She raised her hand.
The colony power grid died.
Lights off. Systems down.
And in the silent dark, a hundred drones—rusted, ancient, impossible—rose from the forest.
Marching.
"Kai," Elara said, backing toward him, "if we die here… promise me something."
"What?"
"Next time… don't love me."