Chapter 10: Past Lives

The air was thick with tension as the team gathered around their makeshift meeting table, a simple structure of folding chairs and laptops scattered with notes and empty coffee cups. They were all tired—physically, mentally, emotionally—but the question that had plagued them since FAOK remained unanswered: Where is Leslie?

Alec leaned against the wall, his mind racing through everything they’d learned. The cryptic messages, the deadly tribes, the Boomer device that had temporarily solved their immediate problem but left them with even more unanswered questions. But in the midst of this chaos, one thought kept nagging at him: What if Leslie was more than just a target?

Lina sat quietly beside him, her eyes scanning the open laptop in front of her, though it was clear she wasn’t really looking at it. Her thoughts were elsewhere, on their earlier conversation. She was still processing everything that had been said to her and Alec by the tribe—the talk of past lives, and the cryptic warnings they'd received about their intertwined fates.

"I don't know what to make of what they said," Lina finally spoke, breaking the silence. Her voice was soft, as if she was talking more to herself than to Alec. "The tribe... they said that in a past life, I was someone different. That I had a different name, a different purpose. But they also said that you and I—our souls, at least—have been connected for centuries."

Alec turned his gaze toward her. He didn’t fully understand what she was saying, but he felt the weight of her words. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard something about "past lives," but hearing it from Lina, someone who had been through the horrors of time manipulation, made him wonder if there was something deeper at play here.

"What did they say about me?" Alec asked, his curiosity piqued. "If we were somehow connected in a past life, what was I like? Was I some kind of hero, or... villain?"

Lina hesitated, unsure how to phrase it. "They didn’t go into detail, but they said that your soul had been in conflict for as long as they could remember. Like you were fighting between two sides of yourself. One side of you was a protector, and the other... well, the other was a force that tried to break the world." She looked at him, her expression mixed with empathy and confusion. "They said you were both a savior and a destroyer, Alec. That’s why they kept you alive. They needed you to choose a side."

Alec felt a strange sensation ripple through him—something between confusion and fear. He could never fully grasp the idea of past lives or soul connections, but hearing that from Lina... it felt real. There was a part of him that was afraid to believe it, but another part that felt an inexplicable pull. Was that the reason I’ve always felt out of place in this world?

“I don’t even know what side I’m on,” he muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the floor. “I’ve always been told to do the right thing, but sometimes it feels like I'm being pulled into something darker. Maybe that’s why I can’t trust myself.”

Lina placed a hand on his arm, her voice gentle but firm. “Maybe it’s not about picking one side or the other. Maybe it’s about finding balance. You don’t have to be defined by what you were in the past. You have the power to shape your future."

Alec looked up at her, her words offering a flicker of hope, but also a sense of responsibility. As they sat in silence, Ken walked into the room, his expression focused. He had been working on something for a while, scribbling notes on a notepad and typing furiously on his laptop. The police officer had a knack for piecing together puzzles, and Alec knew that whatever Ken had been investigating, it was bound to be important.

"Ken, what have you found?" Snow asked, leaning forward from across the table.

Ken paused, adjusting his glasses as he looked up from his screen. His face was grim. "I’ve been looking into something else. Something that might connect all these... past lives you're hearing about."

Alec and Lina both leaned in, intrigued.

“Over 172 cases,” Ken continued, “of people reporting memories of lives they don’t remember living. They all share similar traits—being called someone they aren’t, claiming to remember things that shouldn’t belong to them. Some of these cases go back decades, even centuries. And the thing that links them all together? They all experienced time anomalies. Temporal disturbances that they couldn't explain, things like déjà vu, and visions of past events that don’t belong in their timeline.”

Lina's eyes widened. “So... these past lives you’re talking about, they could be real? These people—could they have lived before, just like the tribes said?”

Ken nodded grimly. "It’s a theory. It’s like a ripple effect in time. A fracture that sends these people back to live someone else’s life. And maybe..." He trailed off, as if uncertain how to phrase the next part. "Maybe that’s what’s happening to you two. The tribe’s claims about ‘past lives’ could be a result of these anomalies. The past isn’t just… a memory. It’s bleeding into the present."

Alec’s mind raced. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly beginning to fall into place. "So, you’re saying that these anachronisms... these time disturbances... they aren’t just random? They could be affecting people, causing them to live these past lives?"

Ken looked up at him, his expression serious. "Exactly. And if these anomalies keep happening, more people could start experiencing the same thing. It’s not just a matter of fixing the timeline—it’s about making sure history doesn’t collapse in on itself."

Lina’s voice was a whisper. “And if the anachronisms keep coming, more people like us—people who are tied to past lives—will be caught in the crossfire."

The room fell silent for a moment as the gravity of the situation set in. They were all connected by more than just their fight against the anachronisms. They were part of something bigger—something that had been unfolding for longer than they realized. The tribes, the anachronisms, even the strange “past lives” they were all hearing about, it was all connected.

Alec rubbed his temples, feeling the weight of it all pressing down on him. He had always thought that his purpose was to fight the anachronisms, to stop them from destroying the world. But now, it seemed like he was part of something much more complicated—something that threatened not just the present, but the very fabric of time itself.

“We need to find Leslie,” Alec said, his voice firm. “She’s the key to all of this. Whatever’s going on, she knows more than we do.”

Ken looked up from his report, his eyes steely with determination. "And I’ll help you do that. We have to stop this before it gets any worse."

Together, they were no longer just a team. They were the last line of defense against a force that could unravel reality itself. And as they set out to find Leslie, they knew that the past was only the beginning of what they would have to face.