Time.
It's a complex yet simple concept.
Paradoxical.
Like time itself.
Its something we experience every day, every moment.
But when you dive deeper into how time works,
Who knows how it works…
[Error: Multiple Timelines deleted]
...…..
For the first time in a while I had proper sleep.
And for me that's rare.
I checked the clock. "Wow it's uh, 2pm…no one woke me up?"
The glow of the clock is almost blinding like the sun.
Afterall its a digital clock.
Apparently if you miss an alarm it glows brighter each time.
That's one way to wake someone up.
That being said, I still have not seen the sun in a while.
I get up and start my usual routine.
Teeth. Face. Water splashed cold, a reminder that I'm still somewhat here.
The basin mirror shows a face that's not like before.
Slightly red eyes. Messy hair.
I try to fix my hair with my hand while I dress up.
This era is so technologically advanced, yet not a single comb.
I pass by the lab. The doors are open, consoles whirring, projections flickering with data that doesn't mean anything to me.
Seren spoke "Ah, you're finally here,"
She looked up from the holographic interface, her eyes scanning me intently.
"We've been analyzing your temporal energy fluctuations," she began, her voice steady but carrying an urgency underneath. "These recurring bleeds...they're a big problem."
At least let me step inside first.
"I just woke up so…maybe slow down."
She flicked an annoyed glance at me but complied. "Fine, I'll keep it short." She continued. "To find the cause of whatever is happening to you."
"we need access to some classified files—the Nexus Empire's deepest secrets." She gestured to the screens filled with encrypted data.
I walked further inside, sitting down in a chair. "So what... exactly are we looking for? Some kind of Answer? A Solution?"
"Maybe both. If my hunch is correct, all of these disappearances, anomalies or even the temporal bleeds can be tied back to you."
I swallowed hard, struggling to digest the words. "And these classified documents?" I asked, "They have information about what is happening?"
"Exactly. Unlocking them may lead us to an explanation for your condition, and a way to stop the energy from destabilizing reality itself."
"Sounds like we're barging into dangerous territory,"
I muttered.
After a long pause, Arlie appeared at the doorway, smirking. "Ready to see the outside world? You've been cooped up for far too long."
I blinked, surprised. "Wait, I am leaving this lab? Going with you guys?"
Arlie nodded. "Thought it was about time you stepped outside and saw the world."
Taking a shaky breath, I followed them out of the lab.
The sterile corridors turned into a wider hallway, dimly lit but felt dry, the air soon felt cooler, but a little suffocating—almost depressing.
The weight of the unknown pressed on me, but for the first time in days, I am not trapped between four walls.
We finally stepped outside, the air hitting me hard.
The city was a bombardment of light exposure and terrible odors, but it was the people that made my breath catch. I'd never seen a crowd so beaten down. clothes patched with old advertisements. Kids sifted through piles of rusted metal, frequent gunfire but people didn't seem bothered by that, advertisements that glowed more than the city.
The poor here looked… tortured by the world.
Even in the future…nothing has changed, only worse.
Arlie without missing a beat said
"Dictatorship… and also capitalism."
I tried to lighten the mood "But hey… at least we have more cool neon lights, right?"
For a moment, nobody said anything. The joke just hung there in the polluted air, awkward as my life.
We kept walking, silent, as the glow of advertisement panels flickered over scenes nobody in the past would've believed, selling things unfathomable in my time.
Building structures which seemed impossible in modern architecture, flying drones which replaced the need for police, cameras in every corner where light shines.
However the sun looked weird, dimmer, almost covered by something.
"Hey, what are those rings around the sun?" I asked
Seren replied "Oh those? Those are the Dyson Rings, It covers the sun, generating solar energy for us and effectively removing the need for solar panels."
I spoke back with concern "Wait so…isn't that also bad for the environment?"
She continued "Quite the opposite, those things helped us reverse global warming"
Well that's a positive thing…
Not to mention it looks cool too.
The three of us came to a stop in a narrow, crumbling residential alley, its flickering neon sign so faded it barely cast any color on the wet pavement.
Debris was scattered everywhere, and the only thing that stood out was a rusted metal door.
I looked up, baffled, glancing at the building and back at Arlie and Seren.
"Wait… this can't be the headquarters," I said, half-expecting some sort of grand entrance to slide open.
At the exact same moment, both Arlie and Seren gave me a flat look, and replied in perfect sync: "It isn't."
Before I could say anything else, Arlie stepped forward and knocked rapidly in a code-like rhythm.
After a few seconds, the rusty metal slot slid open and a suspicious pair of eyes peered out.
The slot slid shut, locks turned, and the heavy door opened with a grinding screech.
Inside, it was cramped and cluttered—a single-room unit lit by an old broken LED light and the glow of battered screens and displays.
There, a thin man with sharp cheekbones and an elaborate set of scars on his face waited. He smirked as we entered, his posture almost too casual.
Without greeting any of us, he threw a small device which looked like a USB drive across the table. "On time, as always," he said, eyes landing on Seren with a mischievous grin. "Still dragging the young into trouble, Astris?"
Seren only rolled her eyes and took the device, but I did notice the hint of familiarity in the way they exchanged glances.
"Don't worry, kid. She's been moody like this ever since she left her military post" the man muttered to me.
Arlie remained by the door, eyes alert, while Seren carefully tucked the drive into her pocket. "Let's move," she said quietly. "We've got what we came for. And we shouldn't be here any longer."
As we retreated into the shadows, I found myself glancing back at the stranger—and sensing just how deep Seren's connections ran.
But what if we get caught with this drive?
Also…what does it even hold?
All these thoughts kept circling in my mind as we started to return to the lab.
I quickened my pace to close the gap with Arlie and Seren, lowering my voice.
"Do we even know what's on that drive? What kind of secrets are we carrying?"
Arlie didn't look back. "If what Seren thinks is true, it could explain all the things that have been happening to you. Maybe more. Nexus blacklists,Temporal energy algorithms,Heck, even the equation that allows Time-Travel which has been a mystery even to us."
Seren's steps stayed steady but her jaw was tight. "We'll examine it in the lab. Nowhere else. Too risky."
She was right, I also felt something was off, like someone was following us…
But I shouldn't tell them that, then the stalker gets alerted too.
I forced myself to keep my head down, glancing only in reflections—shattered window glass, water puddles.
We ducked through the crowded market, then slipped into a crumbling back alley that led towards the road which we originally came from.
My heart thudded harder the closer we got.
Did we lose them?
Arlie and Seren kept walking normally, I guess they are trying to not seem suspicious…
I felt like I was the odd one out of them.
I wanna go home already…Not the lab, Home.
Finally, the dull glow of the lab came into view.
Arlie muttered the code, and the reinforced door slid open with a hiss, swallowing us back into sterile white and cold hum of machines.
Inside, at last,
Seren wasted no time. She scanned the corridors for any changes, her eyes scanning everything, then she whispered "We made it."
Only when the doors sealed shut did I let myself breathe.
"Am I the only one worried about the guy following us back there? Why are you all acting so nonchalant?"
I snapped accidentally. Didn't mean to.
Arlie shouted back at me "oh yeah what are we supposed to do? RUN? Make them more suspicious of us??"
"Stop it, both of you!" Seren exclaimed.
She then turned toward her console, voice low. "No one speaks of this outside this room," she said. "We got what we wanted. Now sit down."
Arlie brought a cable connector which looked like a hexagon? Weird.
And proceeded to connect the drive to the console.
All of us gathered around the console, waiting for the secrets inside to surface…knowing that whatever this revealed, there'd be no turning back.
The system blinked as the cable connected, and after a brief pause, the interface sprang to life.
Lines of code scrolled across the screen, then froze—requesting confirmation.
Seren entered an authentication key which was written on the drive cover, hands steady despite the tension, and the drive finally decrypted.
Four folders appeared, each labeled in the Nexus Empire's cold and brutalist font.
>SYS FOLDERS:
>1. PROJECT: ENLIGHTENMENT
>2. DISAPPEARANCE INCIDENTS LOG
>3. SUBJECT: KA106B89M609339K
>4. THE ORIGINAL PARADOX
Seren's fingers hovered over the console.
"We start with Project: Enlightenment. It's the root of the Nexus Empire's secret initiative tied to absolute control." Her voice was steady but carried an edge, like she was bracing herself….
I leaned in as the folder opened, revealing layers of guarded files. Blueprints for time-manipulation devices, energy conversion models, experimental reports—all littered with warnings and coded language which meant nothing to me.
"I knew it…" Seren replied "They are trying to achieve 100% Temporal Energy
Her voice grew deeper "But they failed, many times. That's not good, not good at all."
We moved next to "Disappearance Incidents Log." The files cataloged odd vanishings, electronic objects flickering out of existence, people erased like they never existed. Some reports bore notes linking these events directly to fluctuations detected around… me.
"Looks like I'm really a walking paradox," I muttered darkly.
"More like the reason for all this," Seren corrected.
I can't blame her…I would hate myself too if I was in her position.
The next folder "Subject: KA106B89M609339K" held records, bio-metrics, psychological evaluations, and temporal energy readings.
It mentions my name and the GD in the same file.
The more I scanned, the deeper the unease felt.
This was no ordinary case file…it was a timeline dossier, tracking versions of me across fractured realities.
To me this felt like the most important file.
But this feeling of unease isn't going away…
"Alright moving to the last folder. Kiran, you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, No, Im feeling okay"
Seren's words snapped my doubtful self back to reality.
But still, something feels very off…very off.
No…Lets not be pessimistic.
"This is it, The truth" I muttered.
As Seren's fingers hovered over the last folder, "THE ORIGINAL PARADOX," a heavy silence fell over the room.
The glow from the screen flickered ominously as if warning us to stop.
…
Suddenly, without warning—BOOM!
A deafening explosion rocked the lab, shaking the walls and sending shards of glass and debris flying through the air.
The lights went out, plunging us into darkness. The smell of smoke and burning circuitry filled my nostrils. I felt the force slam me into the cold shattered floor.
My ears rang fiercely as I struggled to stay conscious.
My head was losing blood quickly and covered my eyes with red.
"Argh!" I gasped, clutching my head, my vision blurring.
Arlie groaned beside me, coughing. With tiny glass fragments on her body. "What the hell was that?"
Seren crawled with her hands towards us, dragging herself, her face twisted in pain but her eyes had fierce determination.
"Everyone, stay down!" she ordered
Pain radiated from my ribs, a burning scrape along my arm. I blinked hard, trying to clear the dust and blood.
For a moment, I thought everything was over.
[Updated: Temporal Energy Level: 99.5%]
Maybe it is over.
I couldn't form a coherent thought as the steady loss of blood dulled every sensation, every flicker of awareness slipping slowly away.
My limbs grew heavy, my body sinking into the cold, unforgiving floor.
I fought desperately to keep my eyes open, but they closed—without my permission.
And then, darkness.
I wake up sometimes, blurred and disoriented. The air doesn't smell like burnt circuit, but still thick and suffocating. Through the haze, I catch fragments of voices—snatches of arguments.
"Why would you blow that place up?"
"Who gave you the approval? My decision is final, I am the Great Dictator, not you."
"Get the medics, RIGHT NOW—IMMEDIATELY!"
After that, I lost consciousness again.
"Leave. Only I'll talk to him."
The words were sharp, cold, and cutting. They belonged to him…The Great Dictator. My future.
I finally wake up…finding myself on a comfortable hospital bed, but in a private room.
I blinked slowly, trying to latch onto reality.
Was I dreaming? Or was this a nightmare bleeding through?
The room was bathed in sterile white light, the hum of medical machines was the only thing breaking the silence.
I struggled to push myself up, muscles weak and trembling. But fully patched up.
He was colder in person. The same face, older and worsened eyes. He didn't smile. Just closed the door with a soft, final click.
He was in front of me.
The Great Dictator. Or what I could become.
He stood there for a moment, then finally taking a seat.
"Awake, at last," he said, his tone flat and absolute.
"Great. We have quite a lot to discuss."
Fear didn't arrive. Just a dull shock, like seeing your own reflection. This time not in a dream.
I narrowed my eyes, keeping my voice steady.
Trying to be confident.
"Where's Arlie? And Seren? Are they alive?"
He then said "They are alive. Yes."
Thats a relief…
"You blew up the lab," I said, searching for anger or understanding, anything to fill the emptiness. "Was that really necessary?"
He didn't blink. "What were you doing with my files?"
I met his gaze without flinching. "Why? What was in that last folder, the one you stopped us from opening?"
"What was so important that you had to—BLOW THE PLACE UP!!" I demanded, voice sharp, trembling with anger.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"Trust me, you do not want to know….You'll hate yourself. Just like I did."
I refuse to go through all this, without knowing anything.
I gritted my teeth, heat rising. "Why? Tell me. What is in it?"
He shot a fierce look. "Why are you so eager to dig up truths that will only hurt you?"
Something in me snapped. "Because I need to know what's been happening to me! with my life. my mind. Everything!"
A beat of silence stretched out. Then finally, the Dictator exhaled, eyes colder than before.
"Fine. I warned you. But whatever you learn next...I don't think you can ever go back."
He sat back, folding his arms—the conversation about to shift.
For a moment, I almost braced for fear. But all I felt was exhaustion, and the relentless need to know the truth, no matter how ugly.
I finally get to know all the answers.
I finally get to know,
What the hell 'The Original Paradox' is.