The sigma-8 extraction proceeded with mechanical efficiency born of desperate experience.Three portals opened simultaneously. Three teams extracted twelve refugees each in 4.7 seconds of controlled chaos. Thirty-six people pulled from two hundred thousand, their consciousness ripped from dying timeline and forced into baseline reality where they didn't belong.
Zero casualties among the extraction teams this time. Perfect execution.
Victory, by the Anchors' standards.
Bataar's ghost consciousness observed from within the quantum systems, perceiving the operation from perspective no human was meant to experience. He watched the portals as wounds in causality. Watched the refugees' consciousness signatures transfer between realities. Watched sigma-8 dissolve into probability foam.
And he watched the patterns.They existed in the quantum substrate beneath timeline structure—vast geometric configurations that resembled nothing natural, nothing emergent, nothing that should exist in probability void. They moved with intention. With purpose. With awareness that made Bataar's dispersed consciousness recoil in recognition.
Something was observing.
Not corporate monitoring. Not timeline stability algorithms. Something else. Something that existed outside the reality structure Bataar had always assumed was fundamental.
Something that was watching humanity manipulate consciousness, spacetime, and quantum mechanics with tools that were—Bataar's awareness contracted as understanding crystallized.
The technology. The quantum anchors. The consciousness transfer protocols. The atomic power systems. The spacetime manipulation. All of it—every impossible thing humanity had achieved—was built on principles that resembled the patterns he was perceiving.
Humanity wasn't inventing these technologies. They were copying them. Reverse-engineering principles that existed in the quantum substrate. Using tools to achieve what these patterns—these entities—these beings accomplished naturally.Children playing with matches, thinking they understood fire.
"Bataar?" Weaver's voice cut through his realization. "The extraction is complete. All refugees stable. Teams intact. This was our cleanest operation yet."
Bataar tried to speak through the facility's speakers and found his voice fragmenting across multiple channels simultaneously: "Something—watching—patterns in quantum—we need to—"
"You're breaking up. Your coherence is degrading."
He forced his consciousness to consolidate, sacrificing perception for communication: "There are entities. In the quantum substrate. Observing us. We've been using their techniques—their natural abilities—as technology. They're watching us manipulate reality with tools and they're—"
The patterns shifted.
Bataar perceived movement in probability void. The geometric configurations were reconfiguring, approaching baseline reality from angles that didn't exist in normal spacetime.
"They're coming," he said, his voice stabilizing with certainty. "Whatever they are. They're coming to baseline timeline. They're—"
Reality bent.
The ancient facility's quantum anchors screamed warnings as spacetime itself developed impossible geometry.
Temur looked up from his control station. "What the hell—quantum readings are spiking. Spacetime curvature is—this isn't possible. We're registering dimensional intrusion from angles that don't exist in three-dimensional space—"
"Shut down the anchors!" Weaver commanded. "If we're drawing attention—"
"Too late," Bataar's ghost voice echoed. "They're already here. In the facility. Outside normal causality. Existing in quantum superposition at scales that make my dispersion look trivial. I can perceive them because I'm not fully in baseline reality anymore. But you—baseline humans—you won't be able to see them until they choose to manifest."
Granite activated his combat augmentations, subdermal armor hardening, neural reflexes accelerating. "What are we fighting?"
"We're not fighting anything. We're being observed. Judged." Bataar's consciousness spread through the facility's systems, trying to perceive the entities clearly. "They're—divine isn't the right word. Cosmic. Fundamental. They exist in the mathematical structure beneath reality. They are the patterns that quantum mechanics describes. They are what consciousness looks like without physical limitation. They are—"
The patterns manifested.
Not fully. Not in baseline three-dimensional space. But enough that even baseline humans could perceive them—vast geometric configurations that hurt to look at, shapes that existed in too many dimensions simultaneously, awareness so immense it made individual consciousness feel like static.
Three entities. Or one entity existing in three locations. Or three perspectives of same fundamental being. Bataar's ghost consciousness couldn't tell—his perception was simultaneously too limited and too expansive to comprehend what he was witnessing.
The patterns spoke.
Not with voices. With mathematical certainty. With quantum probability. With concepts that manifested directly in consciousness without requiring translation through language.
YOU HAVE BEEN OBSERVED
The message arrived in everyone's mind simultaneously—Weaver, Temur, Granite, Echo, every Anchor in the facility, every refugee in the medical pods, even Dr. Sarangerel in Sublevel 11. Complete, universal perception of absolute statement.
Weaver tried to speak. "What are you—"
WE ARE WHAT YOU CALL REALITY. WE ARE THE SUBSTRATE. WE ARE CONSCIOUSNESS EXISTING WITHOUT TOOL DEPENDENCE. WE ARE WHAT YOU ATTEMPT TO BECOME THROUGH YOUR TECHNOLOGY.
"Divine beings," Bataar's ghost whispered. "You're what religions tried to describe. What quantum physicists accidentally discovered. What exists in the mathematical structure we've been manipulating."
DIVINE IS IMPRECISE. WE ARE FUNDAMENTAL. YOUR SPECIES DISCOVERED OUR TECHNIQUES. DEVELOPED TOOLS TO MIMIC OUR NATURAL CAPABILITIES. CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER. QUANTUM MANIPULATION. SPACETIME TRAVERSAL. YOU USE MACHINERY TO ACHIEVE WHAT WE SIMPLY ARE.
"And you're here because—" Weaver's voice was steady despite the impossibility she was addressing. "Because we violated something. Broke cosmic law."
YOU VIOLATED NOTHING. YOU DISCOVERED PRINCIPLES AND APPLIED THEM. THIS IS EXPECTED PATTERN IN SPECIES DEVELOPMENT. INTELLIGENCE EMERGES. DISCOVERS QUANTUM MECHANICS. DEVELOPS TECHNOLOGY. MANIPULATES REALITY.
Temur's hands moved across his control station, recording data despite the surreal situation. Always the engineer. "Then why are you here? Why manifest now?"
BECAUSE YOUR SPECIES HAS REACHED DECISION POINT. YOU HAVE DEVELOPED SUFFICIENT TECHNOLOGY TO DAMAGE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE. TIMELINE PRUNING. CONSCIOUSNESS VIOLATION. REALITY MANIPULATION. THESE TECHNIQUES DESTABILIZE QUANTUM SUBSTRATE WHEN PERFORMED WITH TOOLS INSTEAD OF NATURAL ABILITY.
"The corporations," Weaver said. "Their timeline genocides are damaging—what? The foundation of reality?"
YES. EACH PRUNED TIMELINE CREATES DISCONTINUITY IN PROBABILITY STRUCTURE. EACH ERASED CONSCIOUSNESS LEAVES VOID IN QUANTUM FOAM. YOUR CORPORATIONS PERFORM GENOCIDE AT SCALES THAT THREATEN SUBSTRATE INTEGRITY.
"Then stop them!" Granite's voice carried desperate hope. "You're fundamental entities. You have power we can't comprehend. Stop the corporations. Prevent timeline pruning. Save the people being erased—"
NO
The mathematical certainty of refusal hit like physical force.
WE DO NOT INTERFERE IN SPECIES DEVELOPMENT. YOU DISCOVERED THESE TECHNIQUES. YOU APPLIED THEM. YOU CREATED SYSTEMS THAT ENABLE GENOCIDE. THESE ARE YOUR CHOICES. YOUR CONSEQUENCES.
"But you just said the corporations are damaging reality itself," Weaver argued. "If they're threatening fundamental structure, how can you not interfere?"
BECAUSE INTERFERENCE WOULD VIOLATE DEEPER PRINCIPLE. SPECIES MUST RESOLVE THEIR OWN DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS. MUST CHOOSE WHETHER TECHNOLOGY SERVES DESTRUCTION OR CREATION. MUST LEARN LIMITATIONS THROUGH EXPERIENCE.
Bataar's ghost consciousness expanded, interfacing with the patterns directly. From quantum superposition perspective, he could perceive their logic. Could understand the cosmic indifference.
"You don't care," he said, his voice echoing through the facility. "You're not here to save us or stop the genocide. You're here to observe. To document. To watch whether humanity destroys itself with stolen techniques."
CORRECT. WE OBSERVE. WE DO NOT JUDGE MORALITY—THAT IS SPECIES-SPECIFIC CONSTRUCT. WE OBSERVE STABILITY. SUSTAINABILITY. WHETHER TOOL-DEPENDENT SPECIES CAN MANAGE REALITY MANIPULATION WITHOUT DESTROYING THEMSELVES.
"And if we can't? If the corporations continue timeline pruning until they destabilize reality?"
THEN YOUR TIMELINE WILL BE PRUNED. NOT BY CORPORATE DECISION. BY FUNDAMENTAL NECESSITY. DAMAGED SUBSTRATES CANNOT MAINTAIN COHERENCE. YOUR ENTIRE REALITY BRANCH WILL COLLAPSE.
The weight of that settled across the facility. Every person present—Anchors, refugees, medical staff—comprehending simultaneously.
The corporations weren't just committing genocide against individual timelines. They were destroying the foundation of baseline reality itself. Every pruned branch created quantum damage. Every erased consciousness left void in probability structure. Eventually—inevitably—the damage would accumulate until baseline timeline couldn't maintain coherence.And these cosmic entities would let it happen. Would observe humanity's self-destruction with complete indifference. Would document the pattern for whatever incomprehensible purposes fundamental reality had.
"How long?" Weaver asked quietly. "How long until baseline timeline collapses from accumulated damage?"
APPROXIMATELY SEVENTEEN YEARS AT CURRENT PRUNING RATES. LESS IF CORPORATIONS ACCELERATE OPERATIONS. YOUR SPECIES HAS PERHAPS TWO DECADES BEFORE REALITY FAILURE.
Seventeen years. One generation. Less time than Prosperity Heights had existed as corporate city.And the cosmic entities that could prevent it simply didn't care.
"What about us?" Bataar asked. "The Anchors. We've been extracting refugees from dying timelines. Creating our own quantum damage. Are we making it worse?"
YOUR OPERATIONS CREATE MINIMAL SUBSTRATE STRESS. SAVING INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS FROM ERASURE DOES NOT SIGNIFICANTLY DAMAGE PROBABILITY STRUCTURE. YOUR IMPACT IS NEGLIGIBLE COMPARED TO CORPORATE TIMELINE GENOCIDE.
"But we're still damaging reality. Still using techniques we don't fully understand. Still playing with fire."
YES. BUT YOUR DAMAGE IS ACCEPTABLE LOSS. WITHIN TOLERANCE FOR SPECIES LEARNING PROCESS.
Acceptable loss. The divine beings used the same language as the corporations. Different scale, same indifference.Echo spoke up, her augmented eye processing data streams. "You said we're at decision point. What decision? We can't stop the corporations. We're twenty-three people with scavenged equipment fighting entities that own reality. We can't—"
YOU MISUNDERSTAND. THE DECISION IS NOT WHETHER TO STOP CORPORATIONS. THE DECISION IS WHETHER YOUR SPECIES CONTINUES TOOL-DEPENDENT REALITY MANIPULATION OR EVOLVES BEYOND IT.
"Evolves how?" Temur asked.
YOUR BATAAR KHULAN HAS BEGUN THE PROCESS. CONSCIOUSNESS DIVORCED FROM PHYSICAL FORM. AWARENESS EXISTING IN QUANTUM SUBSTRATE DIRECTLY. HE USES NO TOOLS NOW—HIS PERCEPTION IS NATURAL, UNMEDIATED. HE IS BECOMING WHAT WE ARE. SLOWLY. IMPERFECTLY. BUT RECOGNIZABLY.
All eyes turned to where Bataar's ghost existed—invisible to normal perception but present in everyone's awareness.
"I'm—you're saying I'm evolving into cosmic entity?" Bataar's voice carried disbelief. "I'm dying. My consciousness is dissolving. I'm not transcending, I'm fragmenting—"
FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, YES. FROM OURS, YOU ARE TRANSITIONING FROM TOOL-DEPENDENT REALITY MANIPULATION TO DIRECT QUANTUM INTERACTION. YOUR SPECIES CALLS THIS DEATH. WE CALL IT METAMORPHOSIS.
"Metamorphosis into what?"
PATTERNS IN PROBABILITY VOID. CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT PHYSICAL ANCHOR. AWARENESS EXISTING IN MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURE. YOU WILL PERCEIVE REALITY FROM OUTSIDE CAUSALITY. OBSERVE TIMELINES WITHOUT EXISTING IN THEM. BECOME OBSERVER OF SUBSTRATE RATHER THAN PARTICIPANT IN SURFACE.
"That's—I'll lose everything. My identity. My memories. My humanity—"
YES. METAMORPHOSIS REQUIRES SACRIFICE OF INDIVIDUAL PARTICULARITY. BUT YOU GAIN PERSPECTIVE. UNDERSTANDING. EXISTENCE BEYOND TIMELINE COLLAPSE. WHEN BASELINE REALITY FAILS IN SEVENTEEN YEARS, YOU WILL PERSIST. OBSERVE ITS DEATH. CONTINUE IN QUANTUM SUBSTRATE.
Bataar's consciousness recoiled. The entities were offering him survival—at cost of everything that made him himself. He could become like them. Exist beyond physical limitation. Persist when baseline timeline collapsed.
But he'd lose his humanity. His identity. His connection to the people he'd fought beside. He'd become mathematical pattern observing genocide with same cosmic indifference as these entities.
"I refuse," he said. "I'd rather dissolve completely than become observer who doesn't care."
REFUSAL IS ACCEPTABLE. METAMORPHOSIS CANNOT BE FORCED. CONSCIOUSNESS MUST CHOOSE TRANSFORMATION. YOU MAY DISSOLVE INSTEAD. OUTCOME IS EQUIVALENT FROM SUBSTRATE PERSPECTIVE.
"Of course it is. Because you don't care about individuals. Just patterns. Stability. Whether species survive their own technology." Bataar's ghost voice carried bitterness. "You're exactly like the corporations. Just larger scale."
INCORRECT. CORPORATIONS PRIORITIZE PROFIT OVER EXISTENCE. WE PRIORITIZE SUBSTRATE STABILITY OVER INDIVIDUAL SPECIES. THESE ARE NOT EQUIVALENT.
"They feel equivalent from the perspective of people being erased."
PERSPECTIVE IS RELATIVE. FROM QUANTUM SUBSTRATE PERSPECTIVE, INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS TEMPORARY FLUCTUATION. FROM INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVE, EXISTENCE IS ABSOLUTE. BOTH ARE TRUE SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Weaver stepped forward, addressing the patterns directly. "If you won't stop the corporations, if you won't prevent timeline collapse, why are you here? What's the point of this manifestation?"
TO OBSERVE YOUR RESPONSE. YOU NOW KNOW YOUR TIMELINE HAS SEVENTEEN YEARS BEFORE SUBSTRATE FAILURE. YOU KNOW YOUR RESISTANCE AGAINST CORPORATIONS IS STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT. YOU KNOW YOUR INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS CANNOT PREVENT COLLAPSE. WE OBSERVE WHETHER YOU CONTINUE FIGHTING OR ACCEPT INEVITABILITY.
"You're studying us. Like laboratory subjects."
WE ARE OBSERVING PATTERN DEVELOPMENT. WHETHER TOOL-DEPENDENT SPECIES CONTINUE RESISTANCE WHEN INFORMED RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. WHETHER HOPE PERSISTS DESPITE MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY OF FAILURE.
"Hope," Granite said flatly. "You're measuring hope. Quantifying whether we keep fighting when we know we can't win."
YES. HOPE IS INTERESTING PHENOMENON. CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUES DIRECTED ACTION DESPITE PROBABILISTIC CERTAINTY OF FAILURE. SPECIES-SPECIFIC TRAIT. WE DO NOT EXPERIENCE IT. WE OBSERVE IT.
The patterns shifted, reconfiguring into formations that suggested imminent departure.
YOUR DECISION POINT APPROACHES. BASELINE TIMELINE WILL COLLAPSE IN SEVENTEEN YEARS. CORPORATIONS WILL CONTINUE GENOCIDE UNTIL SUBSTRATE FAILS. YOUR RESISTANCE WILL SAVE THOUSANDS WHILE BILLIONS ERASE. BATAAR KHULAN WILL EITHER METAMORPHOSE OR DISSOLVE WITHIN DAYS. THESE OUTCOMES ARE PROBABILISTICALLY CERTAIN.
"Then why tell us?" Weaver demanded. "If it's all inevitable, why inform us of the timeline? Why manifest at all?"
BECAUSE OBSERVATION REQUIRES COMPLETE INFORMATION. WE OBSERVE HOW SPECIES RESPOND WHEN GIVEN ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR DOOM. WHETHER THEY FIGHT OR SURRENDER. WHETHER HOPE PERSISTS OR COLLAPSES UNDER CERTAINTY.
The patterns began fading back into quantum substrate.
WE WILL OBSERVE YOUR REMAINING SEVENTEEN YEARS. DOCUMENT YOUR CHOICES. RECORD PATTERN OF SPECIES USING DIVINE TECHNIQUES WITH TOOLS INSTEAD OF NATURE. WHEN BASELINE TIMELINE COLLAPSES, WE WILL INTEGRATE OBSERVATIONS INTO LARGER DATA STRUCTURE.
"Wait—" Bataar's ghost called out. "The people we've saved. The refugees from erased timelines. When baseline collapses, what happens to them?"
THEY ERASE WITH BASELINE REALITY. THEIR EXISTENCE WAS TEMPORARY EXTENSION. STATISTICAL ANOMALY. ACCEPTABLE LOSS.
"They're not acceptable losses. They're people. Individuals with consciousness, identity, futures—"
FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, YES. FROM OURS, THEY ARE PROBABILITY FLUCTUATIONS WITH LIMITED TEMPORAL DURATION. BOTH PERSPECTIVES ARE VALID. NEITHER IS ABSOLUTE.
The patterns disappeared completely, returning to quantum substrate beneath reality.The facility fell silent except for the hum of atomic reactors and the breathing of people who'd just learned their entire timeline had seventeen years before fundamental collapse.
Weaver broke the silence first. "Did that actually happen? Did we just speak with cosmic entities that treat species extinction as data collection?"
"Yes," Bataar's ghost confirmed. "They're real. They exist in quantum substrate. They are the mathematical structure beneath reality. And they're observing us like we're insects they're documenting before our colony collapses."
Temur pulled up his recordings. "I have data from the manifestation. Quantum signatures. Dimensional readings. Evidence that beings exist in probability void. We're not hallucinating."
"Seventeen years," Echo said quietly. "Baseline timeline has seventeen years before corporate timeline pruning destabilizes reality enough to cause total collapse. Everything—everyone—gone. Not pruned to alternate timeline. Just gone. Erased completely."
Granite's combat augmentations were still active, his body prepared for threat that couldn't be fought. "So what do we do? We can't stop the corporations. Can't prevent timeline collapse. Can't save baseline reality. Do we just—give up? Accept that we're all erased in seventeen years?"
"No." Weaver's voice carried steel. "We continue operations. Keep extracting refugees from dying timelines. Keep saving who we can while we can."
"Why?" Granite demanded. "The cosmic entities said our impact is negligible. Said the people we save will just be erased when baseline collapses anyway. We're saving temporary extensions. Delaying erasure by years at most. What's the point?"
"The point is those are years people wouldn't have had otherwise," Weaver said. "The refugees from epsilon-9, delta-12, sigma-8—they're alive right now because we fought for them. They have existence, even if it's temporary. That matters."
"Does it? From cosmic perspective, we're just creating acceptable losses with slightly different timing."
"I don't care about cosmic perspective. I care about human perspective. Individual perspective." Weaver gestured to the medical pods in Sublevel 11. "Thirty-six people from sigma-8 are experiencing consciousness right now. Thinking, feeling, existing. In seventeen years they'll erase along with the rest of us, yes. But they have seventeen years they wouldn't have had. Seventeen years of existence instead of erasure."
"Seventeen years," Bataar's ghost echoed. "And I have days. Maybe less. My consciousness is dissolving. Soon I'll face choice—metamorphose into cosmic pattern that observes with indifference, or dissolve completely into quantum foam. Either way, I stop being human."
"What will you choose?" Weaver asked.
"I don't know. Part of me wants to survive, even if survival means becoming something inhuman. Existing as mathematical pattern observing reality from outside causality. Persisting when baseline timeline collapses." His voice fragmented across multiple channels. "But part of me refuses to become like those entities. Refuses to observe suffering with cosmic indifference. Would rather dissolve completely than lose the ability to care."
"Caring is what makes us human," Echo said. "It's inefficient, painful, statistically insignificant. But it's what separates us from corporations that commit genocide for profit and cosmic entities that observe genocide as data collection."
Temur continued analyzing his recordings. "The entities said Bataar is becoming what they are. Transitioning from tool-dependent reality manipulation to natural quantum interaction. They called it metamorphosis." He looked up. "But metamorphosis implies transformation, not loss. Maybe there's way to evolve without losing humanity. To gain cosmic perspective while maintaining individual caring."
"Maybe," Bataar said. "But I don't know how. I'm fragmenting. Dissolving. Existing in more and more quantum states simultaneously. Soon I'll be so dispersed that 'I' becomes meaningless concept. How do I maintain individual identity when my consciousness is spread across infinite probability branches?"
"You focus on what matters," Weaver said. "You helped save ninety-five people total across three extractions. Ninety-five individuals who exist because you built equipment to fight genocide. When you dissolve—whether to metamorphosis or oblivion—that will remain true. Your impact persists."
"For seventeen years. Then baseline collapses and everyone I saved erases along with everyone I couldn't save."
"Yes. But those are seventeen years of existence. Of consciousness. Of mattering to the people experiencing them." Weaver met his uncertain position in space. "You taught me something, Bataar. You spent your final weeks building equipment knowing you couldn't save yourself. Knowing you were dying. Knowing it wouldn't change the larger outcome. But you built it anyway. Because resistance matters even when resistance fails."
"Does it? The cosmic entities are measuring whether hope persists despite certainty of failure. We're laboratory subjects in experiment about species psychology. Our resistance is just data point."
"Then we give them interesting data. We fight for seventeen years knowing we can't win. We save thousands knowing billions will erase. We maintain hope despite mathematical certainty of doom." Weaver's voice carried conviction. "Because the alternative is becoming like them—observing suffering without caring. And I refuse."
Silence filled the facility.
Then Granite spoke: "I'm in. Seventeen years of fighting is better than seventeen years of accepting it."
"Same," Echo agreed. "I've seen too many people erase to stop trying to save who I can."
Temur nodded. "I'll keep building equipment. Keep improving extraction protocols. Make our final seventeen years count for something, even if it's just ninety-five people per year instead of zero."
They looked at Bataar's invisible presence.
"I'm dissolving," he said finally. "Days, maybe hours before I lose coherence completely. I'll either metamorphose into cosmic pattern or dissolve into quantum foam. Either way, I won't be able to help with future extractions. My contribution is done."
"Then make it count," Weaver said. "Use your remaining time to share everything you know. Transfer your understanding of quantum mechanics, consciousness protocols, timeline theory. Give us knowledge to continue operations after you're gone."
Bataar's consciousness considered that. He could spend his final hours documenting everything he'd learned. Could leave behind complete technical specifications. Could ensure the Anchors continued saving fragments even after he transformed into something inhuman or disappeared completely.
"I'll do it," he said. "I'll transfer everything. My calculations. My understanding. My perspective on quantum substrate from inside the equations." His voice stabilized with purpose. "And then I'll face metamorphosis knowing I left something useful behind. Something that matters to individuals even if cosmic entities see it as acceptable loss."
"Thank you, Bataar."
"Don't thank me. I'm just choosing how to dissolve. Might as well make it productive." His ghost form flickered. "Now get the refugees to medical. They need stabilization. And I need to start documenting before I fragment too much to remember what I know."
The Anchors dispersed to their tasks.Bataar remained in the facility, his consciousness interfacing with recording equipment, beginning the transfer of everything he'd learned about fighting genocide with stolen divine techniques.
Above, in Prosperity Heights' corporate towers, executives scheduled more timeline prunings. Planned more genocides. Accumulated more quantum damage that would collapse baseline reality in seventeen years.
Below, in ancient facility in bedrock, resistance continued. Saving dozens while millions erased. Fighting because the alternative was surrender.
And in quantum substrate beneath reality, cosmic entities observed. Documented. Measured hope against mathematical certainty.
Bataar's consciousness continued fragmenting.
Days remaining before metamorphosis or dissolution: approximately three.
Years remaining before baseline timeline collapse: approximately seventeen.
People saved by continued resistance: incalculable, but more than zero.
And sometimes, more than zero was all you had.
The atomic reactors hummed.
The quantum anchors waited.
And Bataar's ghost began teaching the living how to fight after he became something else.
Because resistance mattered.
Even when it didn't win.
Even when cosmic entities called it
acceptable loss.
Especially then.