Paris – February 10, 2027 – 12:04 p.m.
The moment time resumed its flow, the air still carried the echo of its freezing.
Raien sat on the floor. Sweat soaked his neck, and a searing sensation pierced a scar that didn't yet exist—
at least, not yet.
He held his head in both hands.
"How many versions of me are there?"
Unknown Laboratory – Location Unknown – Time Undefined
The sound in the room wasn't human. It was an electric frequency translating itself into words:
"Version seven has rejected synchronization.
Collapse rate: accelerating."
The entity—half shadow, half machine—watched the screen looping Raien's reflection in the mirror, frame after frame, like a heartbeat skipping in static.
Then a sharper voice pierced through:
"When does the third hour begin?"
The entity answered, without blinking:
"When he chooses."
Paris – 12:06 p.m.
In the kitchen, the children had gone back to playing, but the air had changed.
Lima hadn't touched her food. She'd been holding her spoon for five minutes… unmoving.
Then she turned toward the door and said—
as if replying to a thought no one had spoken aloud:
"We won't make the same mistake this time… will we?"
She wasn't talking to anyone.
Inside Raien's Mind
Memories no longer held shape.
He recalled a beach… running after his children.
But the faces were no longer clear.
In that memory, there was no scar on his face.
And yet now, every memory bore its shadow—
as though someone had rewritten the past.
A Dark Passage – Beneath an Ancient Temple in Georgia
Niko moved through the shadows with caution.
In his hand, an old leather-bound book.
On its cover: a symbol—
an eye surrounded by numbers from 1 to 96.
He opened the first page.
A name, written in a trembling hand:
"Raien // Version 07 – Surveillance Parameters"
Beneath it, in red ink:
"If he begins to dream… stop him."
Paris – 12:09 p.m.
Raien opened the closet—
and found a notebook he'd never seen before.
It was thick with dust, yet bore his signature.
He opened it.
On the first page, a single sentence:
"When you begin to doubt… you begin to break free."
On the second… a drawing of his children.
Their eyes had been crossed out with heavy black ink.
In that instant, the scar no longer burned—
it pulsed.
From the Entity's Perspective – Internal Surveillance Site – Time Unknown
One of the monitors showed Raien closing the notebook.
The entity spoke—not with sound,
but with an internal tremor:
"He's beginning to doubt…
The third hour will begin from within, not without."
It turned to face another being—
a pale replica of Dany, shivering behind the glass.
It asked:
"Will you betray him?"
The child smiled—
but not like a child:
"If they betray him first."