Chapter 2 – Seven Years Earlier
Warmth.
That was the first thing Liora felt.
Not the searing heat of firestorms or the electric sting of alien lightning, but gentle warmth—a soft, golden glow against her eyelids.
It wrapped around her like the memory of a mother's embrace, so tender it hurt.
Her lungs filled with air.
Clean air.
No smoke. No ash. No metallic taste of blood.
Just the faint sweetness of rain on stone.
Her eyes snapped open.
A ceiling.
White. Smooth. Unbroken.
For a heartbeat, confusion strangled her.
The last thing she remembered was dying—Kai's blade piercing her chest, the sky splitting open, a voice whispering of beginnings.
But here she was, staring at a perfectly ordinary plaster ceiling.
Her heart hammered.
She bolted upright.
The room was small, familiar in a way that made her stomach twist.
The posters on the wall—the old holo-display of the Saturn Rings, the faded photograph of her mother at graduation.
The wooden desk piled with books and broken tech parts.
The cracked mirror in the corner, its edges taped with glittering stars.
Her bedroom.
Her bedroom in the Orion Residential Block.
But that tower had collapsed seven years ago.
Liora's breath caught.
Hands trembling, she reached for the nightstand.
The digital clock blinked in soft blue letters:
May 3rd, 2127 – 06:02 A.M.
Her mind froze.
May 3rd, 2127.
Seven years before the apocalypse.
"No," she whispered. "No, this isn't… this isn't possible."
The mark.
Her hand flew to her chest, desperate, searching for the wound Kai had given her.
Instead of a gaping slash, she found smooth skin and a faint warmth—
a circle of faintly glowing runes pulsing just beneath her flesh, visible only when the morning light caught it.
It was real.
The voice. The light.
The second chance.
A shuddering breath escaped her.
I came back.
The realization hit like a tidal wave.
The monsters. The virus. The betrayal.
All of it lay ahead of her like a road she had already walked.
Liora swung her legs off the bed and stood.
Her knees wobbled, but she forced herself to stay upright.
The scent of fresh rain drifted in through the open window.
Down below, the city stirred awake: hover-bikes humming, merchants calling, children laughing.
None of them knew what waited beyond the horizon.
She did.
And she would not make the same mistakes.
---
The door banged open.
"Liora! You're awake?"
A girl with messy auburn hair peeked in—bright eyes, freckled cheeks, a crooked grin.
Her younger sister, Mina.
Alive. Whole.
Liora's chest constricted.
"Mina…" Her voice cracked.
Mina frowned. "What's with the horror-movie stare? Did you pull another all-nighter?"
Liora crossed the room in two strides and crushed her sister into a hug.
Mina squeaked, laughing as she squirmed. "Okay, okay! What's gotten into you?"
Liora buried her face in Mina's hair and inhaled the scent of shampoo and youth.
In the other timeline, Mina had died during the second outbreak—screaming as the mutants tore through the evacuation shelters.
But here she was, warm and alive in her arms.
A promise formed in Liora's chest, hard and unyielding.
Never again.
She released her sister with a shaky smile. "Just… missed you, that's all."
"It's six in the morning," Mina said, suspicious but amused. "You're acting weird."
Weird didn't begin to cover it.
---
The morning passed in a blur.
Liora dressed in her old academy uniform—blue jacket, black leggings, boots she hadn't worn in years.
The fabric felt almost alien, like stepping into a ghost of her past self.
Every hallway of the Orion Academy burned with memories: teachers who would soon die, classmates who would turn into killers or corpses.
Her reflection in the window startled her.
She looked twenty-three, but the mirror showed the nineteen-year-old girl she used to be—smooth skin, wide eyes, no scars.
Only the faint glow beneath her collarbone betrayed the truth.
As she walked through the corridors, fragments of the future unfolded in her mind like shattered glass.
She remembered the day the first Rift opened above the city.
The night the sky turned red.
The face of Kai, smiling even as he drove a blade through her chest.
Kai.
The name was a knife all its own.
Even now, the memory of his touch stirred a dangerous ache.
She would see him again.
He was a student here too.
In this time, he hadn't yet become the silver-eyed soldier who betrayed her.
The thought made her heart twist with equal parts longing and rage.
---
Classes dragged like a nightmare she couldn't escape.
Equations, lectures on interstellar politics, simulations of Rift containment—none of it mattered.
Her mind churned with plans.
The first outbreak would begin in thirteen months, triggered by a failed experiment in the North Sector labs.
The government would hide it until it was too late.
The Rifts would open, monsters pouring through like a living storm.
She couldn't stop everything alone.
But she could prepare.
Weapons. Safe zones. Technology.
And information—knowledge of every betrayal that had once cost her everything.
Her fingers brushed the mark on her chest, feeling its faint thrum.
It wasn't just a scar.
It pulsed like a heartbeat, each rhythm whispering of untapped power.
If she learned to control it, maybe she could do more than survive.
Maybe she could change the apocalypse itself.
---
The final bell rang.
Students spilled into the courtyard, laughing and complaining about homework.
Liora moved through them like a shadow, heart pounding.
Every familiar face was a ghost of tomorrow.
And then she saw him.
Kai.
He stood beneath the old sycamore, hands in his pockets, sunlight catching in his dark hair.
Younger. Softer.
No blood on his clothes.
No silver in his eyes.
Her breath caught.
Seven years from now, he would kill her.
Today, he smiled at her like she was the only girl in the universe.
"Hey," he called, waving. "You disappeared after class. Thought you'd ditch me already."
The warmth of his voice slid over her skin, carrying the sweetness of a memory she wished she could forget.
Liora's fingers curled into fists.
Every instinct screamed to run into his arms, to pretend none of it had happened.
But she had lived this story once.
And this time, she would not be the naive girl who trusted too easily.
She forced a smile and stepped forward, every breath a silent vow.
This time, Kai… I'll be the one holding the blade.