The roar of the Fusion Core drowned every other sound.
White-violet energy spiraled like a cosmic hurricane at the center of the chamber, its light so intense it carved shadows into the walls of reality itself. The echoes of dead scientists flickered faster now, their looping movements tearing into blurred afterimages.
The storm was accelerating.
Orion stood at the edge of the chamber, every nerve in his body screaming as the pull of the core clawed at his bones. It wasn't gravity.
It was recognition.
The machine wanted him.
Lyra tightened her grip on his arm, her voice shaking.
"You're not going in there."
Orion didn't look at her.
"If I don't, everything burns."
The echo Orion took a slow step toward him, eyes hollow.
"This is where every version of us hesitated.""And then failed to find another way."
Rhea's voice cut like steel through the chaos.
"There is always another way."
Kessler snapped back, strained but precise.
"Not in a closed temporal feedback system. The math is brutal. The storm feeds on Orion's signature because his existence is the hinge point of the initial fracture."
Solven added quietly:
"In simpler terms… the universe is literally shaped around his choice."
The Fusion Core flared again.
A shockwave tore through the chamber.
The floor beneath them cracked—not physically, but temporally. For a terrifying moment, the chamber split open into overlapping realities:
In one, Archive Zero was pristine and silent.
In another, it was nothing but ruin drifting in space.
In a third, the chamber was filled with bodies frozen in blue temporal crystal.
All three flickered on top of one another.
The timelines were colliding.
Rowan's frantic voice burst through the comm:
"Commander! Astra-9 is losing cohesion! The Refracted Star is destabilizing the entire sector—if that storm peaks, the ship won't survive the backlash!"
Rhea clenched her jaw.
"We need minutes. Just minutes."
Vale moved closer to Orion, his calm now edged with something dangerous.
"You were never just an engineer," he said quietly. "You were always a contingency."
Orion turned sharply.
"You knew."
Vale didn't deny it.
"There are reasons you survived Astra-3 when everyone else died."
Lyra stared at Vale in disbelief.
"You're saying his whole life—was engineered?"
Vale lowered his eyes.
"Not engineered. Positioned."
The echo Orion laughed bitterly.
"Every timeline places him here eventually. The universe keeps trying to use him as a patch."
Orion felt sick.
"I never chose any of this."
The echo met his gaze.
"None of us did. That's what makes it cruel."
The Fusion Core's spiral began to collapse inward—faster, tighter, hotter.
Kessler's display screamed with warnings.
"We've crossed the threshold! The storm is entering irreversible amplification!"
Solven whispered:
"This is it. The broken point."
Lyra stepped directly in front of Orion, tears streaking down her face.
"You don't get to decide alone. Don't you dare turn yourself into a solution without at least trying to live."
Orion finally looked at her.
And in that moment—not as a chosen anomaly,not as a key,not as a temporal anchor—
But as a human being—
He almost broke.
"I saw a future where you die," he whispered. "And I saw a future where I lose myself. I don't know which is worse."
Lyra pressed her forehead to his.
"Then choose the one where we fight together."
The Core thundered again.
The echo Orion cried out:
"There is no together past this point!"
Rhea raised her weapon and aimed it—not at the core, but at the control pylons ringing the chamber.
"All units, target the stabilizer spines. If the machine wants Orion as an anchor…"
She pulled the trigger.
"…we take away the thing he's anchoring to."
Energy bolts slammed into the pylons.
The chamber erupted in explosions of fractured light.
The Fusion Core shrieked—a sound that tore straight through spacetime.
Kessler shouted over the chaos:
"You're destabilizing the containment field!"
Rhea shouted back:
"That's the point!"
The pylons shattered one by one.
The storm lost its smooth spiral and began stuttering, wobbling like a wounded star.
Orion felt the pull weaken for the first time.
The echo Orion stared in shock.
"You're breaking the cycle…"
Vale's eyes narrowed.
"But you're also tearing open the timeline itself."
The chamber split again—
Wider this time.
A full temporal rift yawned open behind the Core, showing the burning future Orion had seen in his vision—the ruined Earth, the shattered sky, the braided lightning of the Unmaking.
The storm screamed deeper, angrier than before.
Kessler's voice broke with panic.
"The timeline is collapsing early! This chamber is becoming the convergence point!"
Rhea didn't hesitate.
"All hands—fallback! Now!"
Lyra dragged Orion backward as the floor buckled beneath them. The echo Orion stumbled, torn between following them and being pulled toward the storm.
He looked at Orion one last time.
"You just changed the script.""I don't know whether that saves us… or damns us all."
The rift expanded violently.
Archive Zero began collapsing into itself—walls folding inward like melting mirrors.
Vale grabbed Orion's collar and hurled him toward the exit corridor.
"Move!"
They ran.
Behind them, the Fusion Core detonated into a blinding eruption of twisted light.
And somewhere deep inside the Refracted Star, something screamed.
The countdown flickered wildly:
09:19:10:03 → 09:19:09:59 → 09:19:30:12
Time itself staggered.
The timeline was officially broken.