There should be a limit to how many times a person runs for their life in one afternoon.
A strict legal limit.
Preferably enforced by the Constitution.
But nope.
Apparently, my new cardio regimen was:
Run from time-hunters → Avoid death → Scream → Repeat.
Ruhan sprinted ahead, still holding me around the waist like he was carrying a particularly confused suitcase.
Ren bolted after him.
Kabir stumbled behind us, shrieking like a wet cat.
The doorway behind us exploded—
actual explosion—
and a Collector stepped through the dust with Terminator energy.
Kabir screamed louder.
I screamed louder than Kabir.
And I didn't even feel shame about it.
Ruhan didn't slow down.
We tore up a staircase, through a hallway that flickered between looking like a normal corridor and looking like a broken video game texture pack.
"That's timeline bleed!" Ren shouted mid-run.
"STOP DOING SCIENCE AT ME IN MY HOUR OF DEATH!" I wheezed.
Kabir tripped over air.
Again.
Ruhan skidded to a stop at the end of the hallway and kicked open a door that led—
OF COURSE—
to the rooftop.
The wind slapped my face.
We burst onto the terrace of a tall building, the city stretching out below us like a giant reminder that gravity exists.
Kabir staggered in behind us, gasping.
"ARYA—PLEASE—WHY—ARE—WE—UP—HERE—"
"Because," I panted, "death has a preference for enclosed spaces!"
Ren peeked over the edge.
"There!" He pointed at another rooftop across the alley gap. "We can jump!"
JUMP.
Over a five-story drop.
Into another building.
Like some discount Indian Spider-Man.
"I cannot jump," I said immediately. "I'm emotionally allergic to heights. I got dizzy in a mall once because the railing was glass."
Ruhan didn't reply.
He simply grabbed my hips and lifted me.
"WAIT—WAIT—NO—RUHAN—DON'T YOU DARE—"
He dared.
He hoisted me up bridal-style again, walked to the ledge like he owned gravity, and looked at Ren.
"Go on three."
Kabir made a strangled noise.
"I CAN'T JUMP! I'M WEARING LOAFERS!"
"No one asked you to be here!" I snapped.
"YOU DIDN'T SHUT THE DOOR!"
Fair point.
But still.
The rooftop door creaked.
A Collector stepped out.
Its eyes locked onto Ren.
Ruhan's jaw clenched.
"Three—"
"No—PLEASE—NO—"
"Two—"
"RUHAN, I SWEAR IF I DIE I WILL HAUNT YOU—"
"One."
Ruhan jumped.
We flew.
We were airborne.
I lost my religion, my sense of dignity, and possibly my bladder.
Ren hit the other rooftop first, rolling like a parkour-trained hamster.
Ruhan landed a second later—still holding me—like gravity personally respected his abs.
Kabir landed last.
Badly.
Very badly.
Like-a-man-who-was-not-built-for-athletics badly.
He hit the ground, bounced, and wheezed out some sound between a sob and a squeak.
I almost felt bad.
Almost.
But before I could say anything, Ren grabbed my hand.
"Mom—your eyes—"
"What about my eyes?" I asked, panicked.
Ruhan turned toward me sharply.
I blinked—
—and suddenly, for one split second—
I wasn't on a rooftop.
I was in a quiet kitchen.
Soft yellow light.
Warm hands.
A man behind me—Ruhan—hugging me from behind, chin on my shoulder.
Ren giggling somewhere behind us.
A pot of tea steaming.
Me laughing.
Ruhan kissing my temple like it was the most natural thing in the world—
I gasped.
The vision shattered.
The rooftop returned.
I staggered.
Ruhan caught me instantly.
"Arya." His voice was sharp, trying and failing to hide panic. "What did you see?"
I shook my head too fast.
"I—I don't know—something—someone—tea?—YOU?—ME?—WHAT IS HAPPENING—"
Kabir, now fully back online, screeched:
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SAW YOU AND HIM MAKING TEA—?? ARE YOU CHEATING ON ME WITH A TIMELINE VERSION OF YOURSELF???"
I turned to him very calmly.
"Kabir," I said gently, "I dumped you."
"STILL!"
Before I could glare him off the rooftop, Ren suddenly stiffened.
"They're here."
Ruhan spun.
Across the rooftop, three Collectors climbed out of the shadows.
Glitching.
Silent.
Fast.
My heart crawled into my throat.
"We can't keep running forever!" I hissed.
Ren's eyes filled with tears.
"Mom… you weren't supposed to die this early."
EVERY CELL IN MY BODY FROZE.
"What," I whispered, "did you just say?"
Ruhan stepped in front of me, shielding us like a wall.
"Enough. We're ending this chase."
"How?" I squeaked.
"How are we ending this? With WHAT? My grocery bag???"
He didn't answer.
He moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
He grabbed a broken pipe lying on the rooftop, spun it like he'd trained for years, and swung—
The first Collector crashed into the wall.
Kabir screamed again.
I dragged him behind a vent because I refused to watch him die stupidly.
Ren ducked beside us, shaking.
Ruhan fought the other two Collectors alone.
And he was terrifying.
Precise.
Focused.
Deadly.
Like the man I saw in the vision.
Like the man who had held me.
Loved me.
My chest twisted painfully.
What was happening to me?
Then one of the Collectors charged toward Ren.
"NO!" I screamed.
Something inside me snapped—
a sharp, burning pull inside my ribs—
I grabbed the nearest object (a brick??? why was there a brick???) and hurled it with Olympic-level rage.
It HIT the Collector.
Square in the face.
The thing stumbled.
I froze.
Kabir whispered, horrified,
"Arya… did you just assault a robot with a BRICK?"
Ruhan didn't look back but he yelled:
"That's exactly what she used to do!"
USED TO???
USED TO???
My pulse skyrocketed.
The last Collector lunged—
And Ruhan slammed his pipe down with enough force to crack concrete.
Silence.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the rooftop was still.
Ruhan stood panting, chest heaving, eyes scanning for more threats.
Ren ran to him and hugged him.
Ruhan knelt, pressing Ren's forehead to his.
I… watched.
Feeling something in my chest I couldn't name.
Too warm.
Too familiar.
Too dangerous.
Kabir crawled out from behind the vent.
"I," he declared, shaking like a diesel generator, "am filing a complaint with the police."
I stared at him.
"Tell them what?" I asked. "That time-traveling android men tried to kidnap my alternate-universe self while I, your ex-girlfriend, was being carried like a princess by another man?"
Kabir opened and closed his mouth like a fish.
I sighed and muttered under my breath,
"Sit down, sweetie. Before you hurt yourself again."
Ren tugged my shirt.
"Mom," he whispered, "we need to leave. More will come."
Ruhan stood up, wiping blood from his cheek.
Then he turned to me.
Not like I was a stranger.
But like I was someone he knew.
Someone he lost.
Someone he found again.
His voice was soft, hoarse, full of something I couldn't name.
"Arya… you're remembering."
I swallowed.
"I don't want to remember."
Ren took my hand.
"You have to," he whispered. "If you don't, the timeline won't heal."
I looked at them—
the man I didn't know,
the child who insisted he was mine,
my ex who was useless,
the city around us flickering with unstable reality—
and I knew one thing:
My life was never going back to normal.
Ruhan stepped closer.
"We need to move," he murmured. "Now."
The rooftop door creaked again.
Ren's eyes widened.
"They found us again."
OF COURSE THEY DID.
Because apparently the universe hated me.
Ruhan grabbed my hand.
"Stay with me."
Kabir screamed.
Ren pulled my other hand.
The wind howled.
The rooftop flickered like a glitching video.
And then—
We ran.
Again.