The night had spread like a blanket of peace, dancing with the city lights. There was only one hour left until January 21st ended. Kai and Alex, in silent agreement, had climbed to a high hill and were sitting side by side. Under the dazzling view of the city, they began to talk.
"I'm sorry about your father..." said Kai, his voice low and thoughtful. "If we could go back in time—"
Alex cut him off with a slight nod."Even if I could, it would be pointless," he said, eyes still fixed on the city. "The man Connor spoke of... It feels like he's the one responsible for all of this. If I can find him... only then can I save everyone."
As he finished, he lifted his head and gazed at the starry sky. The silence of the night seemed to echo the weight of the day. He took a deep breath and smiled faintly."Strange, isn't it? Tomorrow I'll come to 15th Street with Jessy, completely unaware of everything... and I'll meet you."
Kai looked at Alex for a moment. Despite the young man's fragility, his courage never ceased to amaze him."I've met you in many forms, Alex. And every time... you were the same. You never gave up. No matter what stood in your way, you never stopped, not even for a moment."
"You know..." he said, turning his gaze back to the city, "No matter what I did, I've never once been able to change time. All I've done is watch the consequences of my actions."
He picked up a stone from the ground and threw it with all his strength toward the stone bridge in the distance. The sound of the stone hitting the bridge echoed through the silence of the night."If time has taught me anything," he continued, "it's that it's like a bridge. No matter how far forward or backward I go, that bridge will always be there, waiting to be crossed in the same way. But if I want to save this planet, I have to find a way to break that bridge."
Kai turned his eyes to the water flowing under the bridge. As it ran with endless determination, it reminded him of time's inevitability."Time has been a good teacher for you. My faith may have weakened over the years, but I still believe in you, Alex."
Alex appreciated this side of Kai. No matter how reckless or harsh he might be, something deep inside always told him Kai was his most reliable guide. Silently, he hoped that when Jessy met him tomorrow, Kai's opinion of him wouldn't change. But he also knew that was impossible; time didn't listen to such prayers.
A faint smirk spread across his face."Did you just compliment me? Or did you hit your head somewhere?"
Kai glanced at him and chuckled lightly."I might've had too much to drink today. Hey, don't look at me like that! I've been trying to stay sober for years just to prepare for you and Connor arriving. You have no idea how hard that's been."
Alex laughed sincerely at Kai's reply. The cold of the night had seeped into their bones, but this small moment briefly lightened the weight of everything they had been through.
"Well, since you're a little drunk, maybe you'd like to tell me about your past." said Alex teasingly, though there was a hint of genuine curiosity in his voice. Especially about Sandra.
Kai paused for a moment. It was as if painful memories buried deep within him were rising to the surface. He stared at the horizon and sighed."I don't remember the beginning of my existence. Or how many cycles I've passed on Kaizen's transmitter to the next generation." he began."Logan says I've seen thousands of Change Days. If you don't know what that is, well, I barely do either. People usually call it Doomsday. In short, we pull a resource-rich meteor to the planet, pushing Earth into a new cycle. I don't know why such a mechanism exists. But the records in Kaizen say these cycles are necessary to protect the planet. When the time comes, a leader emerges and initiates this process. We call this the Change Process. In each cycle, a Transmitter is chosen. My role is to protect the Transmitter and the knowledge they carry. But the cost is heavy. In the last cycle, the power we used with the Transmitter turned us back into children. And I lost my memory. In the end, only the two of us remained: a magnificent wise being, and a strange child who looked the same age..."
Kai fell into silence, lost in his memories. Eventually, he added in a soft voice,"When humans emerged, Logan arrived as well. We didn't know where he came from, but he became the best teacher for both of us."
"Wow," said Alex with a faint smile, and then immediately regretted what slipped out of his mouth:"So you met Sandra when you were a kid..."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Alex froze. By saying Sandra's name, he had revealed he had read the Book of Secrets. He looked helplessly at Kai's face."Hey, don't look at me like that. I wasn't going to read it—Logan forced me!" he defended himself quickly.
Kai's gaze locked onto Alex. The cold expression in his eyes weighed heavily on Alex's shoulders. The silence grew more menacing as it blended with the wind blowing over the hilltop. Kai scooped some dirt from the slope with both hands and held it out in front of Alex. As the wind took the dirt away, a book was revealed beneath. The golden letters on the back cover caught Alex's eyes: Sandra.
It was the book Alex had seen before. His heart began to race.
Kai held the book for a while, then leaned toward Alex."Normally, I'd kill you for looking at this book," he said, his voice cold and threatening. But then a faint, icy smile appeared on his face."But I'm too drunk for that."
Kai gently ran his fingers over the golden letters on the book and took a deep breath before he began to speak."I made her a promise I couldn't keep." His voice trembled with depth. The writings on the cover seemed to glow, revealing pieces of Kai's past and making the story feel more real.
"When the Change Day came, I had just enough power to protect one Transmitter. That meant I had to choose between Sandra and Jessy." Kai's voice hesitated for a moment, as if the words carried unbearable pain."Sandra assumed I'd always choose her, because she didn't know who Jessy truly was. That's why she didn't hesitate to follow Neon and initiate the Change Process."
Kai picked a daisy from the ground and gently placed it on the book. This small flower seemed to remind him of a memory."In the early ages, when Jessy—our new Transmitter—was brought to my home, I wanted to kill both of you. Because my choice had already been made. I couldn't allow another Kaizen transmitter to rise..."
Alex looked at the book still clenched tightly in Kai's hand. Breaking the silence, he asked,"Then why did you accept us that day?"
Kai answered with a smile. He knew Alex wasn't aware of what had truly happened back then. If he had known, he wouldn't have asked."If you want to know that, you'll have to travel through time once more. If your feelings for Jessy are real, they'll guide you to the right moment."
With those words, Kai withdrew into silence once more. Alex, however, understood what he needed to do. His heart told him he had to go to the final place in Kai's memory. When he turned to the tree behind him, he saw its bark had transformed into a door. The door opened directly to the Library. Just as he was about to pass through, Kai spoke again.
"When I killed Neon, I learned that it was actually Sandra who had started the destruction process early. That truth devastated me. When I returned home to confront her, Sandra was preparing for war. She thought I had come to kill her for wanting to pass Jessy onto the next generation. We fought for months on those lands. Everyone believed I killed Sandra that day..." Kai's voice fell silent for a moment—clearly, he realized Alex had believed the same."You want to know, don't you? What really happened that night? Did I kill her, or didn't I?"
The book in Kai's hands suddenly began to spark. As tears fell from his eyes onto the cover, Sandra's name slowly disappeared. Only Kai's name remained.
As Alex stepped through the door, he closed his eyes. Kai's words echoed in his mind, and he began to feel his power awakening. He surrendered himself fully to the past. At last, he was heading toward the night that had changed Kai's life—the moment where it all began.