The old power station on the city's outskirts still stood like a fossil from another era—concrete bones half-buried beneath vines and decades of dust. The glitch pulsed in Jae-Won's spine as he approached, tugging him toward the collapsed entrance like it remembered the place even when he couldn't.
She was already inside.
He passed through the threshold in silence, each step guided more by instinct than thought. The air felt electrified, not just with memory, but with tension—like the entire building held its breath.
He found her in the center chamber, sitting cross-legged beside a rusted breaker panel.
Serin looked up as he approached.
"I didn't know if you'd come," she said, her voice too soft for someone who'd stabbed him in the back.
"I almost didn't."
A beat passed before she stood, dusting off her coat. "Then let's not waste time."
"No. Let's not."
Jae-Won crossed his arms. "Start talking. Why?"
Serin didn't flinch.
"You were supposed to die," she said.
Silence stretched like wire.
"What?"
"I didn't expect you to survive Sub-Level 9. I didn't think... the glitch would take root." She turned away from him, eyes fixed on a cracked window where moonlight poured in.
"I was recruited by Cipher over a year before you joined the Resistance," she continued. "They approached me after my brother vanished in one of their black ops. Said they could help me find him. Fix him. But the price... was you."
"So you used me?" Jae-Won said, voice low and steady.
"I didn't want to," she snapped. "But Cipher wanted someone with 'sync potential.' You were a match for the Chrono Fragment—and you didn't even know it."
He took a sharp step forward. "You let them throw me into that death pit."
"I thought it would kill you before the glitch activated," she admitted. "I didn't expect you to become this."
The glitch surged in his chest at her words, flickering in patterns he didn't yet understand. "So I was a test subject."
"A sacrifice," she corrected. "To keep my brother alive. Cipher promised they'd release him if I did what they asked. Plant you. Betray you. Make sure you broke."
"And did they?"
She looked up at him. Her eyes glistened.
"They turned him into a weapon. Just like they wanted to do with you."
Jae-Won clenched his fists. "And now what? You want redemption? Forgiveness?"
"No," Serin whispered. "I want revenge."
He froze.
"I defected after Sub-Level 9," she said. "When I saw what they did to him, I ran. I've been fighting from the shadows ever since—sabotaging their projects. Laying breadcrumbs. But I knew... eventually, you'd come looking for answers."
"So that's it? You betray me, and now we're allies again?"
She didn't respond right away.
"I don't expect you to trust me. But Cipher's preparing something bigger. They're building a Chrono Core—something that could rewrite entire timelines. If they finish it... no one comes back from that."
Jae-Won's heart pounded, glitch fire dancing across his nerves.
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because you're the only one who survived the glitch. You're the key. And because…" She stepped closer, gaze steady.
"I never stopped regretting what I did."
He stared at her. The Serin he knew—the one he trusted—was gone. But this new Serin... might be the only person who could help him stop what was coming.
The glitch pulsed again, but this time, not in anger.
In warning.
"We do this my way," Jae-Won said. "No more lies. No more leverage."
Serin nodded.
"Agreed."