The other me lunged.
Not toward me.
Toward him.
Her hand lit up with needle-sharp light, shaped like a blade made from broken stars.
Fast.
Precise.
Meant to kill.
The stranger didn't even have time to brace.
"NO!" I screamed, sprinting forward.
Tomorrow didn't move.
She watched like this was a test she already knew the answer to.
The blade sliced through the air—
so close I felt the shockwave of it.
The stranger shoved me back.
Hard.
The blade hit him instead of me.
Straight through the chest.
Time didn't slow.
It stopped.
A sick, bright flash burst from the wound.
He staggered backward, hand clutching his chest like trying to hold the light inside.
My scream tore out of me before I even felt it.
"NO— NO, NO, NO—!"
He fell to his knees.
Breathing in painful, broken gasps.
Light — not blood — spilled through his fingers, dripping like liquid future.
The other me smiled with trembling satisfaction.
"There," she whispered.
"I've taken him from you too."
The world vanished into a ringing silence.
I dropped at his side, grabbing his face with both hands.
His skin was too cold.
His breaths were too slow.
"Look at me," I whispered, panic blurring my vision.
"Please— look at me."
He tried.
His eyes barely focused.
"I… told you," he breathed weakly, "I'd take the hit… before I let you die."
A sob broke out of me.
"Why would you do that? You don't even REMEMBER ME!"
He gave the smallest, softest smile.
"I… didn't need to."
He reached up, trembling, brushing a tear off my cheek.
"My body remembered… that you mattered."
His hand dropped.
The light in his wound pulsed once more—
Tomorrow finally moved.
She stepped toward him, voice deathly calm.
"If he dies here, the balance shatters. Reality collapses."
The other me laughed.
"Good. Let everything collapse. Let her feel what I felt."
I jumped to my feet.
"You stay away from him."
She rolled her eyes.
"You already chose yourself. Now lose everything else that chose you."
Tomorrow raised her palm.
"I will not allow a full collapse. Not yet."
The other me snarled.
"You're too late. He's fading."
I looked back at him—
And my entire chest caved in.
He was fading.
Just like the child.
Turning translucent at the edges, like his identity was unraveling.
His voice barely existed anymore.
"Don't… cry… Anshu…"
"STOP SAYING THAT!" I screamed.
"You don't get to die calling my name! NOT AGAIN!"
He tried to smile.
"It feels like I've… done this before."
"You have!" I sobbed.
"You died in the other timeline. You died because of ME. And now you're dying AGAIN—"
His eyes softened.
"I'd die a thousand times… if it meant you lived once."
My throat broke.
Tomorrow lifted her hand, preparing to intervene—
But the other me grabbed her wrist.
"Don't save him."
Tomorrow blinked.
"You're interfering with balance."
"He is HER balance," the other me hissed.
"Erase him. Let her fall."
Tomorrow stared at her with an expression that was neither anger nor pity.
Just inevitability.
"You are not the one who chooses."
The other me growled, voice distorting.
"She chose wrong. Now let her suffer!"
Tomorrow's eyes glowed brighter.
"The choice is not finished."
She raised her other hand—
A timeline crack opened beneath the stranger.
No.
NO.
I lunged forward, grabbing his fading body.
"DON'T TAKE HIM FROM ME," I screamed.
"I WON'T LET YOU!"
Tomorrow stared into me.
"You chose yourself. You rejected the timeline where he remembers you. Therefore he cannot remain in your present."
"I take it back!"
I sobbed so hard my voice broke.
"I take it back, I take it back— PLEASE— JUST DON'T TAKE HIM!"
But choices in this universe didn't rewind.
Tomorrow lowered her palm.
"It is too late."
The stranger looked at me one last time.
Not with fear.
Not with confusion.
With something warm.
Almost peaceful.
"Don't… forget… me…" he whispered.
And then—
His body disintegrated into particles of glowing memory.
Gone.
Not dead.
Not alive.
Just… erased.
Like he never existed.
My scream ripped the entire alley.
Something inside me cracked—
loud, painful, cosmic.
The other me sighed, closing her eyes.
"Now she breaks," she whispered.
Tomorrow looked at me, expression unreadable.
"This is the consequence you chose."
I collapsed to the ground, shaking uncontrollably.
"I didn't mean this," I cried.
"I didn't mean HIM. I didn't mean—"
Tomorrow knelt in front of me.
"You chose yourself," she said softly.
"And he chose you. That is why he is gone."
I stared at her through tears.
"I hate you."
Tomorrow nodded.
"You will. For many chapters."
The other me smirked.
"You see? My pain wasn't special. Now she knows it too."
I lifted my head slowly.
No tears left.
No breath left.
Only one thing left.
Hatred.
Tomorrow stood.
"You have one connection left, Anshu."
I wiped my face with trembling hands.
"To who?"
Tomorrow glanced at the other me.
And the other me suddenly stepped back.
"What?" she whispered.
Tomorrow spoke quietly:
"Your last connection… is her."
Everything froze.
Even the air.
Tomorrow continued:
"You must decide whether she lives in your story… or dies by your hand."
My vision blurred into cold focus.
My voice came out softer than death:
"I choose neither."
Tomorrow stared at me.
"That is not an option."
I stood.
Broken.
Empty.
Alive.
"It's the only one I have," I whispered.
"Because I'm done choosing between pieces of myself."
The other me trembled.
"Don't say it…"
I took a deep breath.
Slow.
Final.
"I choose to destroy the timeline that created both of us."
Tomorrow blinked.
The other me gasped in horror.
"You wouldn't— YOU CAN'T—"
I stepped forward, eyes burning with a power I didn't know I had.
"I'm done letting fate, trauma, and broken timelines decide who I get to be."
Tomorrow exhaled.
"So it begins."
The alley rippled.
The ground cracked.
And the stranger's last glowing particles circled my body like a promise still alive.
Tomorrow whispered:
"Your next choice… will either save the universe—
or betray every version of yourself."
---