ARIA'S POV
Eleven demons rush at me like a black wave.
I do the only thing I can think of—I SING.
The sound that rips from my throat isn't pretty. It's raw, desperate, a scream wrapped in melody. But something HAPPENS.
The demons freeze mid-lunge, suspended in the air like someone hit pause on reality.
"Interesting," Dr. Chen Wei says from his control panel. "The nexus instinct activated immediately. Most candidates take hours to figure that out."
"What's happening?" I gasp, still singing that impossible note.
"Your voice is your weapon. Every timeline where you exist, every version of Aria that ever sang—you're channeling ALL of them simultaneously. The demons can't penetrate that kind of multiversal resonance."
The demons struggle against the invisible force holding them. One by one, their mouths open and they start singing TOO—but it's my songs coming out. "Shattered Crown." "Phoenix Rising." Songs they stole from other victims.
"They're using stolen voices to break free," Dr. Chen Wei explains like he's narrating a nature documentary. "Clever parasites. They've learned that fighting nexus power with nexus power is their only chance."
The demon-song crashes against mine. The pressure in my head builds until I think my skull will crack.
I can't hold this forever.
"What do I DO?" I scream between notes.
"You have two choices." Dr. Chen Wei stands, walking closer to the circle of frozen demons. "Option one: keep singing until you burn out your vocal cords and die. The demons will feast on your corpse and we'll start over with Candidate 43."
"What's option two?"
"You INVITE them in. Open yourself to all eleven simultaneously. If your nexus point is strong enough, you'll absorb their power and neutralize their threat. If not—" He shrugs. "They'll tear your consciousness apart from the inside and wear your body like a puppet."
"That's not a choice! That's suicide!"
"No, suicide would be continuing to sing. You have maybe thirty seconds of voice left before permanent damage occurs. After that, you'll never sing again. Is that really how you want your second chance to end?"
My throat is already raw, burning. The note I'm holding wavers.
The demons inch closer.
Twenty seconds.
I think about my first life—dying in that bar, full of regrets. I think about waking up young with a chance to fix everything. I think about Damien's mother, who fought possession for three months and lost herself piece by piece.
Ten seconds.
What would Future Aria do? The successful version of me who appeared in the alley?
She'd be BRAVE.
Five seconds.
I stop singing.
The demons surge forward.
And I open my arms wide.
"Come on then," I whisper. "Let's see which of us is stronger."
They hit me like a freight train.
Eleven consciousnesses slam into mine all at once—foreign, hungry, WRONG. I feel them clawing through my memories, looking for weaknesses, trying to find a place to anchor and take control.
One demon finds the memory of Kyle's betrayal and FEEDS on it, growing stronger.
Another discovers my father's rejection and latches on like a leech.
A third digs into the moment I died—the fear, the regret, the crushing loneliness—and begins to SPREAD.
I'm drowning. Losing myself. Becoming nothing—
NO.
I remember what Damien said: I'm not just one Aria. I'm ALL of them. Every timeline, every version, every choice I made or didn't make.
I reach into the space between timelines and PULL.
Suddenly I'm not alone in my head.
Future Aria—the successful one—appears beside me in the mental battlefield. "About time you called for help."
Then another Aria materializes. The one who sold her songs to Vivian. "I gave up once. Never again."
Then another. And another. And ANOTHER.
Hundreds of Arias from hundreds of timelines, all flooding into my consciousness. Some succeeded. Some failed. Some died young. Some grew old.
But they're all ME.
And together, we're STRONGER than eleven parasites.
We grab the demons one by one and instead of fighting them—we ABSORB them. We take their stolen power, their multiversal knowledge, their ability to move between timelines, and we make it OURS.
The demons scream as they dissolve into pure energy.
One by one, they disappear.
Until there's just me.
Just ARIA.
All versions, all timelines, all possibilities contained in one body.
I open my eyes.
Dr. Chen Wei is staring at me with something like awe. "Remarkable. You didn't just survive—you EVOLVED. You're not a nexus point anymore, Miss Chen."
"What am I then?"
"You're a singularity. A person who exists across all timelines simultaneously. Do you understand what that means?"
I look at my hands. They're glowing with soft light. And when I concentrate, I can SEE it—branching paths stretching into infinity. Every choice I could make, every future I could have, every past I've lived.
"It means I can see every possible outcome," I whisper.
"It means you can CHOOSE which timeline becomes real," Dr. Chen Wei corrects. "You're no longer bound by causality. You're no longer trapped by fate. You're FREE, Aria. Free to shape reality itself."
The implications make my head spin. "So I could... go back and save your mother, Damien? Prevent her death?"
"You could try. But changing the past creates paradoxes. New timelines. New problems." Dr. Chen Wei walks to his control panel and presses a button. "Which is why we need you contained."
Metal walls slam down around me—a cage appearing from the ceiling and floor.
"What are you DOING?" I pound against the bars.
"Securing our investment. You passed the test, which means you're ready for the next phase." He types something on his keyboard. "The organization has been searching for a perfect singularity for seventy years. Kings would kill for your power. Wars would be fought over you. We can't let you run free."
"You said you'd let me go if I passed!"
"I said you'd survive. I never said anything about freedom." His smile is cold. "Welcome to Project Encore, Aria. You're going to help us rewrite history."
Terror floods through me. I reach for my timeline-sight, looking for a way out—
And see something that makes my blood freeze.
In every possible future, I'm trapped in this cage.
Except ONE.
One timeline where someone breaks me out.
I focus on it, watching the scene unfold:
Damien bursts through the warehouse door. He's bleeding from a gunshot wound but still fighting. Behind him, Ethan and Vivian provide cover fire against organization guards.
"Hold on!" he shouts. "I'm coming for you!"
But I can see what he can't—ten steps behind him, a guard is taking aim. The bullet will hit Damien in the head. He'll die instantly.
Unless I warn him.
But I'm in a cage. He can't hear me.
"DAMIEN!" I scream anyway. "BEHIND YOU!"
He can't hear.
The guard's finger tightens on the trigger.
Time seems to slow.
And I realize—I'm not just seeing this future. I'm LIVING it. Right now. This is happening in real-time.
The tracker. He swallowed my tracker and came running into the trap, just like I feared.
"USE YOUR POWER!" Dr. Chen Wei shouts. "Collapse the timeline! Choose a different future!"
But I don't know HOW.
The bullet fires.
Damien turns—too late—
And I do the only thing I can think of. I reach across timelines, grab every version of myself that ever existed, and SCREAM his name with the force of infinite realities.
"DAMIEN CROSS, GET DOWN!"
The sound doesn't just fill the warehouse.
It fills EVERY warehouse in EVERY timeline.
Past, present, future—they all hear me at once.
And in this timeline, this moment, this single precious NOW—
Damien ducks.
The bullet misses by an inch.
He spins and shoots the guard.
Then he's running toward my cage, cutting through the bars with some kind of laser device.
"I heard you," he gasps. "I heard you across TIME. How—"
"I'll explain later! We have to GO!"
He grabs my hand and pulls me from the cage.
We run for the exit, Ethan and Vivian covering our retreat.
Behind us, Dr. Chen Wei's voice echoes: "You can run, but you can't hide! We'll find you again! You belong to us!"
We burst out of the warehouse into the night.
Damien's car is waiting, engine running.
We pile in and he floors it, tires screaming.
For five minutes, nobody speaks. We just breathe, alive and escaping.
Finally, Ethan says, "Someone want to explain what the HELL just happened back there?"
"I absorbed eleven demons and became a singularity," I say. "Now I can see all possible timelines and theoretically reshape reality. Oh, and there's a secret organization that wants to use me as a weapon to rewrite history."
Silence.
"So, Tuesday," Vivian deadpans.
Despite everything, I laugh.
Then Damien's phone rings.
He glances at the screen and his face goes pale. "It's the Star Maker producers."
"Answer it," I say.
He puts it on speaker.
"Mr. Cross? This is David Park, head of Star Maker production. We have a problem. One of our judges just died—Detective Morrison found her body an hour ago. And the security footage shows Aria Chen leaving her hotel room right before time of death."
My stomach drops. "That's impossible. I've been in that warehouse—"
"With no witnesses except people involved in supernatural events that nobody will believe." Ethan's voice is grim. "They're framing you for murder."
"Why?" I whisper.
Damien's jaw tightens. "To force you back into custody. Murder suspects can't compete in talent shows. You'll be arrested, processed, and—"
"Delivered right back to the organization," I finish.
"There's more," Producer Park says. "The judge who died? She left a note. It says: 'Tell Aria Chen—the demons weren't the real test. The HUMANS are. One of your allies is working for the organization. Trust no one.'"
We all stare at each other in the car.
One of us is a traitor.
Damien. Ethan. Vivian.
Someone I trust is betraying me.
And I have no idea who.