The air tasted different.
Not in the way that cities usually reek of damp pavement or hot plastic. This air—this moment—carried the weight of a world that hadn't collapsed yet. Kade stood at the edge of his window, watching the sun rise over Neo-Lyra City like it had no idea what was coming.
He clenched the window frame, eyes scanning the horizon.
Hover-trams drifted through the skyline like silent sharks. Giant billboards flashed with digital ads. People bustled on the street below, chasing routines that would mean nothing in a week. Somewhere beneath their feet, the blueprint of catastrophe had already been drawn.
The Fall would come like a knife.
But he had the blade now.
System boot complete.
User synchronization: 88% stabilized.
Current Rank: Level 1 — Initiate.
Next unlock: 1st Completed Mission Objective.
Kade let the system's voice roll through his thoughts. Cold. Precise. But something about it felt eerily… familiar. Not human. But not emotionless either.
"Why now?" he whispered.
Because you died.
Because they erased you.
Because no one else remembers.
He didn't respond.
The memories were still hazy—like looking through frosted glass. But the emotion beneath them was crystal clear. Rage. Guilt. Purpose. He had walked through the fire, and instead of ashes, he came back burning.
Kade turned toward his desk. It was cheap wood. Scratched. His name was still carved faintly in the corner—KF, marked there during a blackout when he was nineteen. His real life. Before the agency. Before the war. Before Catalyst.
And now, before it all again.
The holographic pad blinked to life with a flick of his finger. A face appeared—Marei Vexin. Pale eyes. Silver implants at the temples. She had been one of the lead developers of Catalyst before she vanished. Kade remembered tracking her trail for months in the old timeline. Too late.
Not this time.
Mission Objective: Locate and Extract Dr. Marei Vexin
Deadline: T-minus 3h 22m before Timeline Divergence Event.
Reward: "Cerebral Pulse" combat ability unlock + Data Fragment 001
"Sector 12," Kade muttered. "Rynhaven Institute."
He paused, mind flashing back.
In the old timeline, that location was bombed by an unknown faction. No survivors. It had been blamed on a rogue rebellion group—but now, he knew better. That wasn't terrorism. It was a cleanup.
Someone had wanted Vexin silenced before the Fall began.
He slipped on his jacket—black synth-leather, weathered but familiar. A pistol tucked into the back of his waistband. Illegal here, but what wasn't?
Outside, the streets of Neo-Lyra buzzed with ignorant life. Market drones zipped between vendors. Children screamed laughter across rusted rooftops. Soldiers stood on corners with rifles slung low, the Republic's peacekeepers always watching, always smiling.
But Kade had learned the truth behind those smiles.
And this time, he wasn't going to play nice.
He boarded a rail-car headed east. The vehicle was half-full, filled with office workers, students, a man mumbling to himself in a greasy coat. All of them trapped in a world on a timer.
As the train sped forward, the city changed. Neon became concrete. Towers gave way to slums. Rynhaven was on the edge of the map, a place the government only visited in shadows.
Kade's system pinged again.
Approaching Target Zone. Threat Assessment: Moderate.
Initiate combat HUD?
"No. Not yet."
He wanted to see this with his own eyes first. No filters. No targeting lines.
A part of him wanted to feel fear again. Not because he doubted himself—but because fear meant the mission mattered.
As the train hissed to a halt, Kade stepped into a world he hadn't seen in seven years. Not since it burned. And yet, it all looked the same.
Rynhaven Institute sat like a skeleton of its former glory—flickering gates, graffiti-laced walls, and a parking deck rotting with rust. But beneath it, Kade knew, was something that hadn't been uncovered in either timeline.
A lab.
A secret room built without permits, without records.
A door to the truth.
He moved fast, skipping security. There was none. This place had been long abandoned by anything resembling control. Good. He didn't need eyes on him yet.
He reached the old access stairwell. The door was chained, locked with an old code pad. Kade stared at it and let the system flood his vision.
Override sequence detected.
Access code: "ECHO-771" accepted.
Welcome back, King.
The chains fell.
Inside, the dark swallowed him.
But Kade wasn't afraid of the dark anymore.
He was born in it. Rebuilt by it. And now, he would use it to tear the truth into the light.
Objective proximity: 93 meters.
Prepare for contact.