Chapter 30: Shattered Bonds

The air inside the small base was thick with tension as Alec sat on the edge of a concrete slab, staring at the floor. His hands trembled slightly as he clutched a photo of his parents—an image of a time long past. His grief had become a constant companion, never leaving him. And now, with Leslie gone, that grief had only grown heavier.

Leslie's death had hit the team hard. She was the one who had always been the most vocal, the one who kept them together when the mission seemed too overwhelming. She wasn’t just a teammate—she had been a friend. Losing her had exposed the fragile nature of their bond, and Alec couldn’t shake the feeling that something within the team had broken that day.

Lina sat across from him, her brow furrowed as she glanced over a set of notes on the table. She had stayed strong for the others, but Alec knew her well enough to see the cracks forming beneath the surface. The loss of Leslie had hit her deeply, but she wasn’t one to show weakness. Still, her eyes lingered on the empty seat that Leslie had once occupied, and Alec could see the quiet grief in her expression.

"I know it’s hard," Lina said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. "But we need to keep going. Leslie wouldn’t want us to stop."

Alec nodded, but the words felt hollow. They had all lost something that day—not just Leslie, but the trust between them, too. The loss of trust had been slow, creeping in over time, but now it was undeniable. There were doubts among the team, doubts about their leader—Yusen—and doubts about themselves. The mission had become more than just a fight to restore the timeline; it had become a fight for the team’s very survival.

Meanwhile, Ken was working in the shadows, unable to shake the unsettling feeling he had about Yusen. His son was caught up in something dangerous, and Ken could feel the walls closing in around him. Alec hadn’t returned his calls, hadn’t listened to his warnings, and Ken feared he was losing him.

But Ken wasn’t a man to sit idly by. He dug deeper into Yusen’s past, hoping to find some clue, some piece of evidence that would explain the man’s true motives. And it didn’t take long before he found it.

Yusen’s past was filled with gaps, but one name kept resurfacing—an associate who had worked with him before the explosion that ruined his career. The more Ken dug, the more he realized that Yusen might not be the mentor he appeared to be. The scientist’s reputation as a brilliant mind had clouded everyone’s judgment, including Alec’s. But now, as Ken unearthed more secrets, he felt the urgency to act.

Ken wasn’t just looking for answers for Alec anymore—he was looking for a way to expose Yusen for who he truly was.

Back with the team, things were falling apart.

“Trust,” Ulbert muttered, pacing back and forth as he stared at the map spread across the table. “We’ve lost it. We’ve lost it in each other.”

Snow nodded, her expression tight. “We’ve always worked well as a team. But now…” She let her words trail off, the weight of the unspoken truth heavy in the room.

It wasn’t just the failure of the last mission that had torn them apart—it was the fracture that had slowly formed between them all. The doubts had set in, and each of them had withdrawn into their own corner, afraid of relying on anyone else. No one had truly trusted each other, and the mission had failed because of it.

“We need to fix this,” Alec said, breaking the silence. “If we don’t trust each other, this whole thing falls apart.”

Lina’s voice was firm as she met his gaze. “And we need to focus. There’s another anomaly, and we can’t afford to waste any more time. We’re already behind.”

The new Anachronism had begun to destabilize time again. It was dangerous—too dangerous for them to ignore. But as they prepared to take action, Alec couldn’t shake the thought that they were standing on the edge of a precipice, ready to fall.

The mission went horribly wrong.

Their plan was simple—find the anomaly, neutralize it before it caused more damage—but trust had crumbled among them, and that’s all it took. The fight against the Anachronism was chaotic. They were out of sync, working against each other instead of as a unified team. Each failed strike, each misstep, each moment of hesitation pushed them further into disarray.

And then it happened.

A massive shockwave ripped through the area, sending the team flying. The explosion was deafening, and Alec’s world spun as he was thrown to the ground. The world around him collapsed, and as the dust settled, he found himself buried beneath rubble.

“Is everyone okay?” Alec’s voice was hoarse, but it was the only sound he could make. The others were trapped beneath chunks of concrete, and the silence that followed made his stomach twist. The Anachronism was still out there, but for now, survival was their only priority.

But the truth was, they weren’t just physically trapped under a pile of debris—they were trapped in their own broken trust.

Slowly, they began to dig themselves out, helping each other, despite the distance that had grown between them. Their hands were bloodied, their bodies bruised, but there was a glimmer of something else—a flicker of hope. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.

As Alec looked around at his teammates, he knew they had no choice but to rebuild. They had to find a way to trust each other again if they were going to survive—and if they were going to stop the Anachronism before it was too late.

And, despite the odds, he hoped that maybe—just maybe—they could.

The hours that followed were a blur of pain and silence. The rubble, which had once been a building standing strong against the elements, now felt like a tomb—its weight pressing down not just on their bodies, but on their spirits. The collapse of the structure had been sudden, and the team was lucky to be alive. But luck could only carry them so far.

Alec grunted as he pulled a heavy chunk of concrete off his leg, his muscles aching from the strain. His fingers were raw, but he kept pushing forward. They had no choice but to keep moving. The debris was heavy, but nothing was heavier than the burden of distrust between them. It felt as if the weight of their fractured relationships was an even greater obstacle to overcome than the physical destruction around them.

Lina was the first to speak after the silence that had settled in.

"Everyone okay?" Her voice cracked with exhaustion, but her concern was evident. She was a rock, but even rocks wore down after enough pressure.

Alec nodded, though his words caught in his throat. "We need to get out of here. The Anachronism’s still out there. It’s not going to wait for us to figure this out."

Ulbert, his face covered in dirt and cuts, slowly stood up, holding his side where a large piece of debris had struck him. He winced but masked it with a grimace. "Getting out’s one thing. But we’re no good to anyone if we can’t work together. We’ve got to fix this first."

Snow, who had been eerily silent for most of the ordeal, took a deep breath. She was always the one to calculate every move, the strategist. But now, her mind was clouded with doubt. "You’re right," she said quietly, though it sounded like a confession. "We’re falling apart, and it’s because we don’t trust each other anymore."

There it was—the truth that none of them had wanted to admit. They were broken, and in that brokenness, the Anachronism was thriving.

"Do we even have a plan?" Ruson asked, his voice gruff, his hands smeared with dirt. He had always been the joker, the one who kept things light, but now there was no laughter in his eyes. "Because right now, it feels like we’re just stumbling around in the dark."

"We don’t have a plan because we’re not a team anymore," Alec said, his voice full of frustration. "We’ve been working alone, expecting the other to pick up the slack. But it’s not working. It never was."

Lina stepped forward, her usual confidence wavering. "I thought we could push through it, but I see now… we can’t do this alone. Not like this. Not without trusting each other again."

The words hung in the air like a heavy fog, and for a moment, no one moved. There was no magic moment of reconciliation, no sudden epiphany where everything clicked back into place. The team wasn’t healed in an instant. But in the silence that followed, each of them knew that something had to change.

Alec took a slow, steady breath, looking each of his teammates in the eyes. "We can’t undo what’s happened, but we have to start somewhere. Right here. Right now."

Snow nodded. "We need to rebuild. Trust isn’t just something that’s given; it’s something that’s earned. We’ve all made mistakes, but we have to own up to them if we want to move forward."

Ulbert gave a slow, tired nod, his hand still resting on his side. "I may have been hard on you all. I’ve always believed in playing it safe. But we don’t have time for that anymore. We’re in this together, or we’re all dead."

It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough. The foundations were there—an unspoken agreement to try again, to work together, to rebuild the bonds that had been fractured.

They dug themselves free from the rubble, one by one, until they stood together, bloodied and bruised, but alive. As they regrouped, Alec’s mind raced. The mission still had to be done, the Anachronism still needed to be stopped, but this… this was something bigger. They weren’t just fighting to fix time; they were fighting to fix themselves.

"Let’s get to work," Alec said, his voice more determined than it had been in days. "We have an Anachronism to stop."

The journey to track down the Anachronism was long, but they moved with purpose now. Their trust, still fragile but beginning to heal, gave them the strength they needed. Every step was a reminder that they had to work together—each of them bringing something essential to the table.

Ruson’s quick thinking helped them bypass several obstacles, his engineering skills proving invaluable in navigating the complex traps set by the anomaly. Snow’s strategies kept them one step ahead, her sharp mind calculating the safest routes. Ulbert’s knowledge of history gave them the edge they needed to understand the true scope of the anomaly, and Lina… Lina was the glue, her leadership keeping them grounded when the weight of their past failures threatened to pull them under.

The closer they got to the Anachronism, the stronger the pull of its chaos became. Time itself seemed to bend, as if the very fabric of reality was fighting against them. Alec could feel it—feel the pressure building as they neared the heart of the storm. The Anachronism wasn’t just an event—it was a force, a living, breathing thing that existed outside of their understanding.

As they neared the center of the disturbance, they saw it—the Anachronism, a swirling mass of distorted time. It twisted and writhed in the air, pulling everything around it into its chaos. The world around them seemed to blur, and Alec knew they had to stop it now.

"This is it," Alec said, taking a deep breath. "We have to end this."

The team stood together, their trust now solidifying into something unbreakable. They might not have been perfect, but they were together. And together, they would stop the Anachronism.

As they moved into position, ready to face the anomaly head-on, Alec realized something. It wasn’t just about saving the timeline. It was about saving each other. And in that moment, he knew that this team—this broken, battered team—was capable of anything.