The moment Juno cracked open Seth Vire's journal, the air in the room seemed to shift. Time itself held its breath, and the Divider's faint pulse grew stronger—like a heartbeat waking from a long sleep.
The pages smelled of old paper and something else—something electric, like the charge before a storm.
"If you're reading this, then the Council's lies have failed. The loop hasn't been fixed—it's been rewritten."
Her fingers trembled, but she kept reading.
Seth's words spilled out like a confession and a warning, unraveling the history of the Forgotten Runners those who came before her team, the original rebels against the looping cycle of destruction.
They were powerful. They were dangerous. And they were erased, wiped from every record, every timeline.
Juno's gaze flicked to Milo and Idris across the table. They were silent, watching, waiting.
"We were hunted. Betrayed by those who claimed to protect time itself.
But time doesn't forget the broken.
It buries them deep… and waits for the right moment to remember."
Suddenly, the Divider glowed fiercely—bright gold, then blinding white.
The room blurred. The edges of reality seemed to fray.
A voice whispered from nowhere, distant yet urgent:
"Juno… the loop is broken, but the war has just begun."
She looked up.
The past was calling.
And this time, she couldn't ignore it.