The beam moved.
Silent.
Unstoppable.
Where it passed—
The world simply ceased.
Stone vanished.
Metal disappeared.
Even the air distorted—
Like existence itself was being erased line by line.
The girl grabbed Cael's arm.
"Run!"
But there was nowhere left to run.
The street behind them had already been removed.
Not destroyed.
Removed.
Ahead—
Containment waited.
Above—
The weapon adjusted.
Tracking.
Calculating.
Ending.
His wrist burned.
03:12:35:02
Below it—
The second counter pulsed.
00:00:03
Three stolen seconds.
Three pieces of himself.
Gone.
The pull screamed.
Take another.
His breath trembled.
If he did—
He could move again.
Escape again.
Live again.
But what would disappear this time?
Her voice broke through his thoughts.
"Cael…"
He turned.
Her eyes searched his.
Hurt still there.
But something else too.
Trust.
Even now—
She trusted him.
And that hurt more than any loss.
"What's happening?" she whispered.
He couldn't answer.
Because the truth was—
He didn't know what remained of him anymore.
The beam shifted again.
Closer.
The ground beside her vanished.
She stumbled.
Instinct took over.
He caught her.
And in that brief contact—
A memory flickered.
Not clear.
Not whole.
But real.
Her laughing—
Covered in ash—
Pulling him through smoke—
Then—
Gone.
His chest tightened.
Borrow again…
And she might disappear from him forever.
The pull roared.
The world narrowed.
The watchers waited.
The Empire advanced.
And for the first time—
He understood the truth.
Borrowing wasn't survival.
It was sacrifice.
Not of time.
Of meaning.
The beam reached them.
Reality began to thin.
Her hand tightened on his sleeve.
"I'm scared."
Simple.
Honest.
Human.
And something inside him—
Refused.
"No more," he whispered.
The pull howled in protest.
Take it.
Live.
Run.
Forget.
But he didn't.
He stepped forward.
Between her—
And the beam.
The air around him warped.
The watchers stirred.
Not in approval.
Not in anger.
In recognition.
He had made a choice.
Not to steal.
But to lose.
The beam struck.
Pain exploded.
Not physical.
Existential.
Like parts of him were being peeled away.
Not memories.
Not time.
Possibility.
And as the world tried to erase him—
Something impossible happened.
The second counter flickered.
Not rising.
Breaking.
00:00:03
Cracked.
Because for the first time—
He had refused to borrow.
And time—
Didn't know how to respond.
Far above—
The man watching the timeline leaned forward.
Interest gone.
Now—
Concern.
Because the fracture—
Was no longer just expanding.
It was changing.
Back below—
The beam faltered.
Just slightly.
Enough—
For the future to hesitate.
And hesitation—
Was the one thing the Empire feared.