Elara's POV - Three Years Ago, 24 Hours Later
I don't sign the papers.
Instead, I spend twenty-four hours making copies of everything. Every file. Every transaction record. Every piece of evidence showing what Victor is really doing with my Engine. I hide copies in three different locations. One with my lawyer. One in a safety deposit box. One buried in encrypted cloud storage that would take years to crack.
Then I go to the board of directors.
Big mistake.
The boardroom is full of powerful people in expensive suits. I stand at the head of the table with my flash drive, my evidence, my truth.
"Dr. Kane has been using my research to commit murder," I tell them. My voice shakes but I push through. "He's stealing time from poor people without consent and selling it to rich clients. I have proof. Transaction records, medical files, everything."
I plug in the flash drive.
Nothing happens.
I try again. Still nothing.
"Is there a problem, Dr. Chen?" Victor asks. He's sitting at the far end of the table, looking calm and concerned, like he's dealing with a confused child.
"The files—they were here—"
"Perhaps you're confused," Victor says gently. "You've been under a lot of stress lately. Working too hard. Not sleeping enough. Your colleagues have expressed concern about your mental state."
"What? No. I'm not confused. The files are right here—"
But they're not. The flash drive is empty. Completely wiped.
How? I made the copies myself. I encrypted them. I—
Then I see Sienna in the corner of the room. She gives me the smallest smile. And I understand.
She's a better hacker than I ever was. She must have broken into my systems and deleted everything. All three copies. Gone.
"Dr. Chen," the board chairman says, "these are very serious accusations. Do you have any actual evidence?"
"I—the files—"
"Because if you're making false accusations against a senior director, that's grounds for immediate termination and legal action."
My mouth opens but nothing comes out.
Victor stands up. "Gentlemen, if I may. Dr. Chen has been struggling recently. Her mother's death anniversary is coming up. Her sister is ill. She's been working eighty-hour weeks trying to prove herself. I think she's having a breakdown."
"I'm not having a breakdown!"
"She's even been conducting unauthorized experiments," Marcus adds. He's here too, sitting next to Sienna. They're holding hands under the table. "I've documented several instances where Dr. Chen used the lab equipment without proper safety protocols."
"That's a lie—"
"I have the reports right here," Marcus says, sliding papers across the table. "Signed and witnessed."
I grab the papers. They look real. Official. Detailed accounts of me supposedly breaking safety rules, using unauthorized test subjects, falsifying data.
All lies. But they look true.
"Dr. Chen also stole research from my project," Marcus continues. "The Chronos Engine was based on my theoretical framework. She took my notes and claimed the work as her own."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" I'm shouting now. "I invented the Engine! It's my research! My theory! Marcus barely understands temporal physics—"
"This is exactly the kind of unstable behavior we've been observing," Victor says sadly. "Dr. Chen has become delusional. She can't accept that her colleagues contributed to the project. She wants all the credit for herself."
The board members are nodding. Believing him.
"I have witnesses who will testify that Dr. Chen stole my work," Marcus says. "Including Dr. Sienna Cross, who worked closely with both of us."
Sienna stands up. "I hate to say this, but Marcus is telling the truth. Elara has been... difficult lately. Possessive of the research. Angry when anyone else contributed ideas. I tried to help her, as her friend, but she pushed me away."
"You're lying," I whisper. "You know you're lying."
"I'm sorry, Elara," Sienna says, and she actually sounds sad. "I wanted to support you. But I can't lie to protect you anymore."
The room spins. This isn't happening. This can't be happening.
"We also have evidence," Victor says, "that Dr. Chen has been conducting illegal experiments on human subjects. Test subjects from the Borrowed Quarters who didn't provide proper consent."
"Show me the evidence!"
Victor nods to his assistant. A video plays on the screen.
It's me. In the lab. At night. Hooking up test subjects to the Engine.
Except I never did that. That video is fake. It has to be fake.
But it looks real. The timestamp. The angle. Everything.
"How did you—you faked that video—"
"This is very concerning," the board chairman says. "Dr. Chen, do you have anything to say in your defense? Any evidence that contradicts what we're seeing?"
I have nothing. They took everything.
"I..." My voice breaks. "Please. I invented the Engine. It's my work. They're lying. All of them. Please, you have to believe me—"
But I can see it in their faces. They don't believe me.
They believe Victor. Respected. Credible. Senior Director for twenty years.
They believe Marcus. Young, charming, with a perfect record.
They believe Sienna. Sweet, helpful, the perfect colleague.
They don't believe me. The emotional, unstable, desperate girl who's clearly having a breakdown.
"Dr. Elara Chen," the chairman says formally, "you are hereby terminated from Chronos Corporation effective immediately. Security will escort you from the building. Any attempt to contact current employees or access company property will result in legal action. Furthermore, we will be filing a report with the Scientific Ethics Board regarding your illegal experimentation."
"No. No, please—"
"You have ten minutes to clear your personal belongings from your office."
Security guards appear at my elbows. Strong hands grip my arms.
"This isn't over," I say, looking straight at Victor. "I'll expose you. I'll tell everyone what you're doing—"
"Who will believe you?" Victor asks quietly. "You're a disgraced scientist with no evidence and no credibility. I'm the man who invented the Chronos Engine. That's what the history books will say."
They drag me out of the boardroom.
Ten minutes later, I'm standing on the sidewalk with a cardboard box of my belongings. My ID badge is deactivated. My access revoked. My life's work stolen.
I watch through the glass doors as Marcus and Sienna kiss in the lobby. Celebrating.
My phone rings. It's my lawyer.
"Elara, what did you do? Chronos just filed a lawsuit against you for theft of intellectual property, corporate espionage, and scientific fraud. They're asking for fifty million dollars in damages."
"Fifty million? I don't have fifty million—"
"They know that. They're trying to bury you. Make sure you can never recover. I'll do what I can, but... this looks bad. Really bad."
The call ends.
Three months later, I'm convicted in civil court. Not criminal—Victor was smart enough to avoid that—but civil. Guilty of theft, fraud, falsifying research. My scientific licenses are revoked. My reputation destroyed. My career over at twenty-six years old.
Marcus and Sienna get engaged publicly. Victor is promoted to CEO. The Chronos Engine goes into production—under Victor's name.
And I get a job as a data clerk at Chronos Memorial Hospital for minimum wage.
Six months after that, Mira gets sick.
PRESENT DAY
I snap back to the present, standing outside Chronos Corporation at midnight.
Three years. Three years of watching them win while I lost everything.
But tonight, that changes.
I pull out the old ID badge I kept—the one they forgot to collect. I modified it myself, spent months cracking their security system. It should work. Should get me past the first checkpoint.
My hands shake as I swipe the badge.
Green light. The door unlocks.
I'm in.
The lobby is dark and empty. I move fast, keeping to the shadows. Security cameras are everywhere but I know their blind spots. I helped install them, back when this was my workplace.
Elevator to the sub-basement. Down, down, down.
The doors open to the research levels.
It smells like antiseptic and ozone. Like science. Like my old life.
I follow the path from memory. Left corridor. Right turn. Through the decontamination chamber. Down the stairs marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."
And there it is.
The door to the harvesting facility.
My heart pounds so hard I think I might die right here.
I override the lock with my modified badge. The door hisses open.
Inside, the room is massive. And filled with horror.
Tanks. Dozens of them. Maybe a hundred. Each one contains a person—floating in blue liquid, hooked up to machines that glow with temporal energy. Young people. Old people. Children.
All from the Borrowed Quarters.
All being drained of their lives.
"Oh God," I whisper.
In the center of the room, glowing like a dark angel, is my Engine. The Chronos Engine. But it's bigger now. More powerful. Modified in ways I never intended.
It's not just stealing hours anymore.
It's stealing years.
I approach it slowly, reading the display screens. Transfer rates. Extraction percentages. Client lists.
Victor has been selling decades to rich people for millions per year. He's murdered hundreds. Maybe thousands.
All with my invention.
I'm going to be sick.
Then I hear it.
A voice. Behind me.
"Took you long enough."
I spin around.
A man steps out of the shadows. Tall. Cold gray eyes. Black tactical gear.
The same man who found me at the hospital. Agent Kade Ashford.
But he's not alone.
Standing next to him, very much alive, very much NOT in a hospital bed, is Mira.
My sister.
Who should be dying.
Who should be faded and see-through.
But she's solid. Real. Healthy.
"Hello, Elara," Mira says. And her voice is wrong. Cold. Nothing like my sister.
My brain can't process this. "Mira? What—how—"
"Did you really think the texts were random?" Not-Mira asks. "Did you really think we'd leave anything to chance?"
Kade steps forward. "Dr. Chen, you're under arrest for temporal theft, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit scientific terrorism."
"What? No—I came here to stop Victor—"
"Victor is already dead," Kade says flatly. "Has been for three hours. Murdered by temporal extraction. And you're the only person who knew how to operate this machine."
The world tilts.
"I didn't—I just got here—"
"Security footage says otherwise," the woman who looks like Mira says. She holds up a tablet. On the screen, I watch myself—or someone who looks exactly like me—entering the facility four hours ago. Activating the Engine. Hooking Victor up to it. Draining him dry.
"That's not me! That's fake! Like the video from three years ago—"
"Oh, Elara," Not-Mira says, smiling. "It's much worse than that."
She reaches up and peels off her face.
Not a mask. Not makeup.
Her actual face ripples and changes, like water, until I'm looking at someone completely different.
Someone I've never seen before.
"Temporal camouflage," she explains. "Very expensive. Very illegal. But very effective for making desperate scientists do exactly what we want."
"Who are you?" I whisper.
"Someone who's been waiting three years for you to finally break." She—it—whatever—looks at Kade. "We good?"
Kade nods. "She activated the Engine. Stole time. Committed her first crime. She's officially ours now."
"Ours?" I back away. "What are you talking about?"
"Welcome to the game, Dr. Chen," the shape-shifter says. "Your sister was never sick. Victor didn't betray you by accident. And nothing—absolutely nothing—that's happened to you in the last three years was real."
My legs give out. I fall to my knees.
"Everything was a test," Kade says. "To see if you'd break. If you'd use the Engine for personal gain. If you'd become the monster we needed."
"Why?" It's all I can ask.
The shape-shifter kneels in front of me. "Because there's something worse than Victor Kane out there. Something that's been manipulating time itself for decades. And the only person who can stop it is someone desperate enough, angry enough, and broken enough to do whatever it takes."
She tilts my chin up. "Congratulations, Dr. Chen. You passed."
"And if I refuse to help you?"
Kade's gun points at my head.
"Then we kill you," he says simply. "And find someone else."
Behind us, the real Mira—the one I left in the hospital—appears on every screen in the room. She's in a white room. Strapped to a chair. With a device around her head that glows with temporal energy.
"Help us," Mira says on the screen, crying, "or they'll erase me from existence. Like I never lived at all."
"No," I whisper.
"You have ten seconds to decide," Kade says. "Your sister's life, or your freedom."
The room spins. The world breaks.
"Five seconds."
This was all a setup. All of it. Every betrayal. Every loss. Every moment of pain.
"Three seconds."
They turned me into this. Into someone who would steal time to save her sister.
"One second."
I look up at Kade. At the shape-shifter. At my sister screaming on the screens.
And I make my choice.
Next: Elara's impossible choice and the revelation of what's REALLY been manipulating time...