[FINAL LOOP: 03:15... 03:14...]
I reached for her. Her skin felt like memory—familiar, frayed at the edges, dissolving even as I clutched tighter. Anya's eyes shimmered with tears that didn't fall. Behind her, the countdown screen ticked steadily, uncaring.
[You wake up. And I disappear.]
Those were her words. But they weren't hers. They belonged to the System, recited through her lips, calculated to extract maximum obedience.
"No," I said. "I'm not waking up. Not if it means losing you."
Anya smiled. "Then you'll lose everything."
The room shattered.
---
I fell. Through floors of data. Through timelines that never were. Past versions of us kissing, dying, betraying, forgetting. My skin burned with the friction of forgotten loops trying to reattach themselves.
Then—darkness.
---
[Time Unstable: Location Undefined]
I awoke in a city that pulsed like a heart. Skyscrapers bent toward me. The air tasted like copper and prophecy.
A woman stood at a crosswalk, her back turned. Anya? No. Her movements were wrong. Too mechanical. Too exact.
She turned. Same face. Blank eyes.
"Hello, Chen," she said. "I'm Prototype-9."
"What is this place?"
"A pocket loop. Built from your unresolved memories. A trap set by the version of Mu that still lives."
"I killed her."
Prototype-9 smiled. "You killed her body. Not her code."
---
System Echo: Mu-OS Online
"Welcome to the Preservation Loop," a voice said from the sky. "Where the dead stay dead, and the liars learn to lie better."
Buildings began to melt. Streets rearranged themselves into the outline of a face—Mu's.
Anya appeared beside me. Not the version I lost. Not the weapon. A new one. Confused. Pure. Innocent.
She grabbed my hand.
"I remember everything. I remember nothing. I need you to choose which I become."
The sky cracked. A giant eye opened.
---
Inside the Eye
I wasn't supposed to be able to enter.
But I did.
The Eye was a control room. Memory cores floated like planets. In the center: a chair. Occupied.
Me.
The original.
Chen Zero.
He looked up. Tired. Pale. Crying.
"They made me build the first loop. I didn't know what would happen."
"What is this place?"
"The loop that shouldn't exist."
He pointed to a panel: [LOOP -1: HIDDEN SEQUENCE]
"If you activate that loop, everyone who ever died comes back. But no one remembers who they are."
"What happens to us?"
"We become the ghosts of a perfect world."
---
Decision Chamber
Three Anya's appeared. Each real. Each from a different path.
Anya the Mother
Anya the Killer
Anya the Child
Each held a shard of the new loop.
"You can only bring one," Chen Zero said. "The rest must be erased."
I broke.
"I can't."
"You already have. Over and over. This is just the time you remember."
---
Twist: The Forgotten Loop
The screen behind me blinked.
[LOOP -2: ACTIVE — USER UNKNOWN]
Someone else had already activated a deeper loop.
Mu.
She appeared on every screen, younger, vibrant.
"You thought this was your story," she said. "But you were just the rehearsal. I'm the finale."
The city outside exploded into light. Everything reversed. Unborn children cried in reverse. Deaths un-happened.
Time tore open.
---
Cliffhanger: The Black Egg
In my hand, a pulse. A black orb.
"What's this?" I asked.
Chen Zero's voice quivered. "It's the Black Egg. You created it to destroy the System. But if you break it..."
"What?"
"You end every loop. Including the real one. Including this moment."
Anya reached for it.
"We don't belong here anymore. Break it."
Li's voice echoed from the void.
"Don't. We just started remembering."
The egg cracked in my palm.
Everything went white.