The jump hit harder than any before it.
My vision snapped into place with a violent jolt as I crashed onto familiar concrete, familiar enough that it stopped me mid-groan.
The smell of ozone.
The warmth of street lamps.
The hum of hover-rails above.
I knew this place.
My timeline.
Prime.
Home.
For a moment, I just lay there, staring up at the sky...my sky...and let the relief crack through me like a fissure. But the feeling didn't last long. Reality rarely gives me good things without a price.
Pain radiated through my ribs, my head ached from the memory fragments I wasn't supposed to have, and my fingers instinctively clenched around the capsule in my pocket.
A piece of me.
A stolen memory.
I pushed myself upright.
My city buzzed with life...cars humming, people talking, lights flickering in restaurant windows. Normal. Completely normal.
I hadn't realized how much I missed normal.
But normal wouldn't last.
Not with V-0 moving across timelines.
Not with collapsing worlds behind me.
Not with MSD probably tracking the instability of my arrival.
I had maybe an hour before they swarmed this timeline too.
I needed to get to someone who could help me… someone who might actually believe me.
Lyra.
I took off down the street, weaving through evening crowds until I reached her apartment building. My chest tightened as I climbed the stairs.
I hadn't seen her since the night before the massacre accusations.
She had no idea what was happening to me.
No idea I had died in other worlds.
No idea versions of me were hunting each other.
No idea I held a fragment of lost memory that could reshape the multiverse.
I reached her door.
My hand hovered over the panel.
My pulse thudded.
I knocked.
For a long moment, silence.
Then her voice – tired, slightly annoyed:
"Who is it?"
My throat tightened. "Lyra… it's me."
The door didn't open immediately.
In fact, several seconds passed...
too many before the panel clicked and slid aside.
Lyra stood there in sweatpants and a loose hoodie, hair tied up in a messy bun, eyes red-rimmed as if she hadn't slept well. But when she saw me!
Her breath caught.
"Aren…?"
I nodded, unable to say anything.
Her eyes flicked over me, taking in the dirt, the scrapes, the exhaustion, the thousand-yard stare I hadn't meant to bring back.
"Aren," she whispered again, this time shakier. "Where the hell have you been? MSD has been looking for you everywhere. There was an alert – your apartment was torn apart , then nothing. You just disappeared."
I opened my mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"Lyra… I need your help."
She stepped aside immediately. "Come in."
When the door shut behind me, the weight of the last few days finally hit me. I sank onto her couch, elbows on my knees, hands shaking.
Lyra sat across from me, studying me with that scientific precision she always had.
"You look like you've been gone for weeks," she said softly. "What happened?"
I reached into my pocket and placed the capsule on the table between us.
It pulsed faintly.
Lyra leaned forward, brow furrowing. "What is that? It looks like… quantum particulate suspension."
"It's a piece of my memory," I said quietly.
Lyra froze.
"…your what?"
I told her everything.
The massacre I never committed.
The breach.
The older Aren who warned me.
Timeline 14-B.
Lyra-14.
Riven's pursuit.
V-0.
The collapsing worlds.
The dying Aren who gave me the capsule.
The Multi-Memory Engine.
Lyra didn't interrupt.
Didn't breathe wrong.
Didn't doubt me.
She just listened – eyes gradually widening with each horrifying detail.
When I finished, silence hung heavy between us.
Lyra stared at the capsule again.
"So…" she began slowly. "A version of you is stealing memories across timelines."
"Yes."
"And killing other versions of you."
"Yes."
"And you were told you're some kind of… stabilizing anchor for the multiverse?"
I hesitated.
But nodded.
Lyra exhaled shakily.
"Okay," she whispered. "Two questions."
I braced myself.
She pointed at the capsule.
"One: Why would a piece of your memory be removed at all?"
"I don't know yet."
"And two…" Her eyes lifted to mine. "…what exactly did you forget?"
A cold weight settled in my stomach.
I didn't know.
Not fully.
But flashes haunted me...
the white room,
the screaming,
the machine I'd never seen,
my own voice shouting "Shut it down!"
And V-0 whispering:
"You were never meant to remember this."
Lyra leaned closer.
"Aren… whatever you forgot… it might be the key to stopping him."
I swallowed hard.
"I need to restore the capsule. But I don't know how."
Lyra stood abruptly, determination sharpening her features.
"Then we figure it out. Together. Same as always."
Something inside me cracked, something I'd been holding together out of necessity.
"Lyra…" My voice broke. "You don't understand how dangerous this is."
She lifted her chin.
"And I don't care."
Before I could respond, her apartment lights flickered.
We both froze.
A low hum rippled through the air...
thin, electric...
too familiar.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no..."
Lyra grabbed my arm. "Aren? What's happening?"
The hum grew louder.
A breach forming.
Here.
In my timeline.
In Lyra's home.
My chest tightened with panic.
"HIDE," I snapped, pushing her behind the kitchen island.
"Aren"
"Do it!"
She ducked down just as reality tore open above her dining table in a swirl of red and black light.
A dark silhouette stepped through.
Not V-0.
Someone worse in this moment.
An MSD strike officer.
He raised his weapon immediately.
"ARE...N VALE! DO NOT MOVE"
I grabbed the capsule and the generator—
But the silhouette behind the officer moved.
Tall.
Still.
Watching.
No…
V-0.
He was here too.
Lyra's voice trembled from her hiding spot.
"Aren...who is that?"
My blood turned to ice.
"Stay down," Iwhispered. "Please."
Because this time…
I wasn't sure I could save either of us.