Chapter 3: Someone’s Here

Time: 2048
Location: Berlin, Global Innovation Center

The low hum of servers blended with the tense energy in the room. Engineers worked quietly, their focus narrowing as new timelines unfolded on the projection boards. Despite the chaos of shifting events, Theo found himself oddly calm—his mind sharpened by the challenge at hand.

“We’ll isolate the fracture point soon,” Helena murmured, not looking up from her console. "If the system holds."

Theo’s eyes flickered to the energy core beneath the floor. Its soft violet glow was unsettling now, as though something was stirring beneath its surface—something they had only begun to disturb. The timeline was unraveling, and they were running out of options.

Suddenly, the lights flickered. A collective gasp rippled through the room as the holographic displays stuttered. Systems that should have been airtight faltered. Theo’s pulse quickened. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Then the lights died entirely.

For a moment, the room was plunged into darkness. Theo’s breath caught in his throat, and his mind raced. A power surge? Sabotage? Another anomaly? He reached instinctively for his console, but before he could activate it, the emergency lights blinked on, casting eerie shadows across the room.

A voice broke the silence. “Someone’s here.”

Theo whipped around. One of the engineers—a young woman with wide, frightened eyes—was pointing toward the sealed glass doors at the far end of the room.

Theo’s blood ran cold.

The door, which required biometric clearance, was sliding open.

Before anyone could react, a figure slipped inside—a tall, lean man dressed in a sleek, black coat that seemed to absorb the light around him. His sharp, angular features were obscured by a mask covering the lower half of his face, but his eyes—cold and calculating—shone with unnerving clarity.

Helena took a step forward, her voice sharp and commanding. “Who the hell are you?”

The man’s lips curled into a faint smirk beneath the mask. “That’s a complicated question.”

Theo stepped forward, positioning himself between the man and the core controls. “How did you get in here? This is a secured facility.”

The stranger ignored the question, his gaze sweeping over the control room with unsettling familiarity. “You’ve made quite a mess of things, Theo.”

Theo stiffened. “How do you know my name?”

The man’s smirk deepened. “I know more than your name. I know what you’re trying to do—and I know it won’t work.”

Helena’s hand hovered near the security panel. “I’ll give you one chance to explain yourself before I lock this place down.”

The stranger didn’t seem fazed. In fact, he seemed amused by the threat. “Locking the doors won’t stop what’s coming.”

Theo felt a chill creep down his spine. “What do you want?”

The man’s gaze settled on Theo, his expression unreadable. “To fix your mistake—before it’s too late.”

Helena exchanged a quick glance with Theo. “You know something about the temporal interference,” she said slowly.

The man gave a slight nod. “More than you do.”

Theo clenched his fists. “Who are you?”

The stranger tilted his head, as if considering the question. Then, without warning, he reached into his coat and pulled out a small, sleek device. It was a cylindrical object, about the size of a pen, with a pulsing blue light at its center.

Theo recognized it instantly. His stomach dropped. “Where did you get that?”

The man’s smile was chilling. “Let’s just say... I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you.”

Before Theo could react, the man pressed the device against the glass wall separating them from the core controls. The glass shimmered, distorted—and then vanished, leaving a gaping hole in the barrier.

Helena’s hand flew to the security panel. “Lockdown initiated!”

The alarms blared, and steel shutters began to descend over the doors. But the stranger moved with uncanny speed, slipping through the gap and reaching the core before the shutters could seal him inside.

“Stop!” Theo shouted, lunging toward the core. But it was too late.

The stranger pressed the device against the core’s surface, and a pulse of energy rippled outward, disrupting every system in the room. The holographic displays flickered, then dissolved into static. The core’s soft violet glow turned an ominous shade of crimson.

Theo felt the floor shift beneath his feet as the timeline trembled—an aftershock of the stranger’s actions.

“What did you do?” Helena demanded, her voice filled with rage.

The stranger turned to face them, his expression calm. “I reset the timeline lock. You have one last chance to correct your mistake.”

Theo stared at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “What do you mean, ‘reset the lock’?”

The man slipped the device back into his coat. “Your first signal failed because you weren’t the only ones sending transmissions. There are others—many others—trying to rewrite history. And every time you send a signal, you’re just adding to the chaos.”

Theo’s mind raced, struggling to process the implications. “So what are you saying? We should stop trying?”

The stranger shook his head. “I’m saying you need to be smarter about it. If you keep pushing forward blindly, you’ll break the timeline beyond repair.”

Helena glared at him. “And what makes you the expert?”

The man’s smirk returned. “Because I’ve already seen how this ends.”

Theo felt a knot tighten in his chest. “What do you mean?”

The stranger’s expression darkened. “It ends with the collapse of everything. Every timeline, every reality—gone. And it’ll be your fault if you don’t listen to me.”

Theo’s breath hitched. He glanced at Helena, whose expression was unreadable, then back at the stranger.

“Why should we trust you?” Theo asked quietly.

The man’s eyes gleamed. “Because I’m your only chance at fixing this.”

The room fell into an uneasy silence, broken only by the distant hum of malfunctioning systems.

Finally, Theo spoke. “What’s your name?”

The stranger smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “Call me Kalen.”

Theo’s stomach twisted. He didn’t know who this man was or where he came from—but he knew one thing for certain.

Kalen was dangerous.