Rico called for an emergency meeting before sunrise.
That alone was enough to tell me something had already gone wrong.
We gathered at the top of the old communications tower, overlooking the entire district. The city stretched beneath us in unnatural silence,no movement, no sound,as if everything below had agreed to wait.
Ryan leaned against the railing, scanning the skyline with sharp focus. Lian stood beside me, quieter than usual, watching more than speaking. Rico stood at the edge, facing the city, completely still,like he already knew what was coming.
"You've collected three anomalies," he said at last, his voice low but heavy. "A symbol. A reaction. A time message."
He turned toward me, and for the first time, there was no doubt in his expression.
"That's enough," he continued quietly, "to trigger something we've spent years trying to avoid."
The words settled into the silence. No one responded,because none of us needed clarification.
We felt it.
Something had already started.
The wind moved across the tower slowly, carrying the faint hum of the sleeping city below.
Then…
Something broke.
Not sound. Not air.
The sky.
A thin blue fracture appeared high above us, glowing like a wound opening in reality itself. It didn't explode or tear,it unfolded, slowly and deliberately, as if something on the other side had chosen this exact moment.
Ryan stepped back instantly. "That's not atmospheric."
Rico didn't move.
Lian whispered something under his breath,too low to catch, but not fear. Recognition.
I couldn't look away.
The fracture widened, just enough.
And from within..
Something stepped through.
Not falling. Not emerging.
Arriving.
He landed on the rooftop in front of us.
Silence followed.
Complete. Heavy.
No one moved. No one breathed.
Because the person standing there..
was me.
Same face. Same posture. Same presence.
Even the way he stood felt familiar.
Too familiar.
But his eyes..
were wrong.
Not empty. Not broken.
Worse.
They looked like something inside them had already ended… and continued anyway.
He stared directly at me.
Only me.
"Don't open the tower gate," he said.
My throat tightened. "What… are you?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he took one slow step forward.
The air shifted with him,not from movement, but from presence.
"Open the gate above," he said quietly.
Rico stepped back. For the first time.
"That's impossible," he muttered.
Ryan lowered his weapon slightly,not out of trust, but uncertainty.
Lian stopped moving completely.
And I..
I understood.
Not logically. Not completely.
But clearly enough.
The man in front of me was not a copy. Not an illusion. Not a trick.
He was me.
From somewhere I hadn't reached yet.
Or something I hadn't become.
He held my gaze, and for a moment, something passed between us,not words, but fragments. Memory without context. A future I wasn't meant to see.
"You don't have much time left," he said.
There was no urgency in his voice.
Only certainty.
Then..
The fracture reacted.
Not pulling him.
Reclaiming him.
The light folded inward. Space collapsed.
And in a single silent motion..
he was gone.
For a moment..
I felt it.
Not outside.
Inside me.
Like something had just been removed…
or returned.
The sky sealed.
No trace. No echo.
Nothing.
Silence fell over the tower.
Heavy.
Unavoidable.
No one spoke,because no one could explain what we had just seen.
I stood there, staring at the place he had been.
And for the first time since I woke in this city…
I knew something for certain.
The path ahead wasn't opening slowly anymore.
It had already begun.
And whatever was waiting..
wasn't waiting for me to be ready.
Because somewhere ahead…
I had already made a choice.
And it was coming back for me.
Because whatever I become…
had already started.