The camp's leader, a grizzled man named Elias, led them to a hidden bunker, its walls lined with scavenged tech. He showed them a grainy hologram of the Chronarch—a figure in a sleek, black suit, his face obscured, wielding a device that warped air like heat waves. "He hunts time trespassers," Elias said. "People like you, messing with the past."
Tylor's mind raced. The journal's coordinates had brought them here, but why? Amaira, studying the hologram, pointed at the Chronarch's device. "It's like our machine," she said, her voice steady despite the fear in her eyes. Kayla nodded, pulling out the journal. A diagram matched the device, labeled "Temporal Stabilizer." Tylor's mother had designed it to seal fractures, but in the Chronarch's hands, it controlled them.
A sudden explosion rocked the bunker. Enforcers, clad in metallic suits, stormed in, their weapons crackling with energy. Tylor grabbed Amaira, Kayla swinging a pipe at an enforcer's legs. They fled into the ruins, pursued through twisting alleys. In a shadowed plaza, the Chronarch appeared, his voice distorted but achingly familiar. "You can't outrun time, Tylor."
Tylor froze, his heart stopping as the Chronarch removed his mask. His own face stared back—older, hardened, eyes cold with loss. "I'm you," the Chronarch said, "saving the world you broke." Kayla gasped, and Amaira clung to Tylor, sobbing. The truth hit like a blade: his choices had birthed this future.