The last thing Kade Fallon remembered was pain. Not the sharp kind that screamed. No, this one whispered. Heavy. Final.
It echoed in his bones as he bled out on the cold, steel floor of an underground facility that wasn't supposed to exist. Concrete walls groaned like they were ashamed to hold what had just happened. Sirens wailed faintly, dying like his breath.
Betrayed.
The word repeated in his skull like a mantra.
Major Rell—his mentor, his closest ally—had pulled the trigger.
Point-blank.
And just like that, Project Catalyst ended with a corpse they would pretend never existed.
But something in the dark didn't let go of him.
Not fully.
Biometric link confirmed…
Initiating King Protocol…
Subject Kade Fallon: Termination Verified.
Reset in progress.
He should've slipped into death. But instead, he fell—into heat, into stars, into static. Through memory. Through time.
There were other versions of himself. One who joined the wrong side. One who died younger. One who survived long enough to see Earth fall beneath alien ash and human betrayal.
All of them screaming.
None of them could stop it.
Until now.
Kade gasped awake.
Sweat clung to his skin. His shirt stuck to his back. A ceiling fan spun lazily overhead, creaking with the rhythm of a room too old, too familiar.
No blood. No gunfire. No war.
Just silence.
And then—the date.
He turned to the desk calendar hanging beside a cracked mirror.
August 14th, 2036.
His breath hitched.
Seven years ago. One week before everything collapsed. Before the outbreak. Before Catalyst fell. Before the sky turned black.
He was back.
System online.
Welcome, Forgotten King.
Primary Mission: Prevent the Fall.
Secondary Directive: Eliminate hidden threats.
First Unlock: Memory Surge in 3 minutes.
Kade stared into the mirror. His face was younger, cleaner, untouched by the scars he remembered carrying. This wasn't a dream. It wasn't a hallucination. It was real.
"System…" he muttered. "What are you?"
The last contingency.
A tool. A curse. A crown.
His phone buzzed.
Back in 2036, he remembered this exact moment—he'd get a call from his handler, asking him to tail a rogue scientist named Vexin. But this time… he wouldn't answer.
Instead, Kade walked to the window, pushed it open, and stared down at the buzzing neon life of a city that didn't know its own death was coming.
Billboards lit the skyline.
Hover-trams floated quietly past steel towers. People rushed. Laughed. Lived. All of it destined to burn.
Not this time.
Memory Surge activating…
Loading hidden timeline fragments…
Unlocked: Event Log – Project Catalyst Breach
Unlocked: Identity – Agent Rell, classified traitor
Unlocked: Combat Ability – "Phantom Pulse"
His body trembled.
Pain, light, and sound surged into his skull all at once. He dropped to one knee, clutching his temple as fractured memories bled into his thoughts—his old death, hidden secrets, coded names, passwords, locations, enemies who smiled to his face.
Everything they thought he forgot—he now remembered.
He rose slowly, fists clenched.
"I remember now."
In his pocket, a small hologram pad blinked—an old prototype no one knew still worked.
He tapped it once.
The first target appeared on the screen.
Dr. Marei Vexin.
Classified: Rogue Developer.
Status: Alive.
Location: Sector 12, Rynhaven Institute.
Time: 4 hours before she disappears permanently.
He had a head start no one else had ever gotten.
Next Objective: Save Marei Vexin. Intercept Timeline Breach.
Reward: Ability Upgrade. Timeline Recalibration. Fragmented Memory Access.
Kade slipped a coat over his shoulders. His heart was racing. Not from fear—but from something deeper.
This time, he wasn't following orders.
This time, he was writing the orders.