Jade wasn't sure if the old train car smelled like rust, mold, or broken dreams, but whatever it was, it wasn't great. She sat on a dented metal bench, trying not to breathe too deeply while Riley messed with her strange glitch-device in the corner.
Lexie, on the other hand, was pacing like a hamster on espresso.
"Okay, so let me get this straight" Lexie said, waving her hands like she was conducting an invisible orchestra of stress.
"You've died. Multiple times. You're stuck in a time loop. There are weird skinwalker robot things stalking you. And this whole thing might end with you being... deleted? Erased? What even is the right word here?"
"I personally vote for 'aggressively un-existed'" Jade offered.
Lexie shot her a look that screamed, this is not funny, but Jade couldn't help it. If she didn't joke, her brain might finally crack in half.
"And you've just been... dealing with this? By yourself?" Lexie asked, voice dropping.
Jade shrugged. "Well, me and my anxiety. We've become very close."
"And him," Lexie added, nodding toward Noah. "Let's not forget tall, dark, and emotionally repressed."
Noah raised an eyebrow but didn't respond. That was kind of his thing, brooding quietly like some kind of tragic novel character who refused to admit he had feelings.
"I'm right here, you know" he finally said, deadpan.
"Yeah, we know" Lexie shot back. "You're very ' here' Always lurking like a haunted house tour guide."
Riley laughed from her corner without looking up from her device. "This is why I don't do team projects" she muttered.
The tension in the train car should've been unbearable, but somehow it wasn't. The jokes, even Lexie's annoyed rambling, kept Jade's brain from fully unraveling. She appreciated it more than she could say.
For about ten whole minutes, they were able to pretend this was just some extremely weird sleepover.
Then the device in Riley's hand started beeping. Not the slow, annoying beep from earlier, the fast, panicked kind that usually meant someone in a movie was about to lose a limb.
"That's new" Riley said, suddenly very focused. "Definitely new."
"Define 'new'" Jade asked, standing up.
"As in, the breach has shifted" Riley said. "They're forcing a manual scan."
"Can you translate that into non-science for those of us who didn't major in Temporal Catastrophes?" Lexie asked.
"They're breaking the rules" Riley said simply. "They're not waiting for the system to stabilize. They're trying to flush Jade out."
Noah's posture changed instantly. All calm vanished. He was on high alert now, eyes sharp. "We have to move."
"And go where exactly?!" Lexie's voice cracked. "Because it's not like we have a lot of five-star safe houses waiting for us."
"We'll think of something" Jade said, trying to sound confident and failing spectacularly.
"Fantastic" Lexie muttered. "I always wanted to die creatively."
As they stepped out of the train car, the world felt... wrong.
The air shimmered faintly, like heat waves on asphalt, except it was freezing cold. The stars above blinked unnaturally, like someone was toggling them on and off.
Riley glanced at her scanner. "We have thirty seconds before they pinpoint this location."
"No pressure" Jade said. "I love a good timed death threat."
"Why is this happening faster now?" Lexie whispered.
"Because you're here" Noah answered without looking at her. "You weren't supposed to be part of this thread."
Lexie's face paled. "Great. So I'm not just useless...I'm actively making things worse."
"Technically, yes" Riley said, far too casually.
"Thanks for the pep talk, Hacker Barbie," Lexie snapped.
> "Anytime, princess." Riley replied with a smirk.
The ground beneath them pulsed.
That's the only way Jade could describe it,it pulsed, like the entire world took a heartbeat. Then another. The space around them warped slightly.
Through the trees, two Watchers materialized.
Same long limbs. Same glowing slits for eyes. Same heads tilting like creepy birds trying to decide whether to eat or study them.
Jade's skin crawled.
"Any bright ideas?!" she asked hoping Riley will have some magical device.
"Yes" Riley said. "Don't die."
"Wow. Revolutionary."
The Watchers began gliding toward them, smooth and silent.
Noah stepped forward, his hand reaching into his jacket, pulling out a small device, flat and silver, like a disc.
"Everyone get behind me."
"You could've led with that!" Lexie shouted as they backed up.
Noah pressed his thumb into the device. A soft hum filled the air, followed by a faint blue ripple that expanded out like an invisible dome.
The Watchers froze mid-step.
They didn't retreat.
They simply... stopped.
"Shield's temporary" Noah said, voice strained. "It's bending the field, but it won't hold."
"How long do we have?" Jade asked.
"Long enough for you to get angry that I didn't build a bigger one."
The ground pulsed again. Riley's device started sparking.
"Okay" she said, eyes wide. "We have a bigger problem."
"Bigger than killer stick-figure robots?" Lexie asked.
"Oh yeah" Riley breathed. "A destabilizer drone just deployed."
From above, they could hear it, the low mechanical whir of something spinning in slow circles.
Jade looked up.
A floating black orb hovered over them, faint red lights blinking.
"Drone's locking your temporal signature" Riley said quickly. "It's trying to mark your thread for extraction."
"Meaning?" Jade asked.
"Meaning they're getting ready to pull you out of the loop entirely."
"And that's... bad?"
"It's not ideal."
"Seriously, can you two stop being cryptic for like five minutes?!" Lexie snapped.
"Short version for princess Lexie" Riley said flatly while rolling her eyes "Jade becomes very dead, very permanently."
The drone beeped once.
"Brace!" Noah shouted.
The orb emitted a sudden pulse of energy that made everything vibrate.
The world around her twisted, trees warping, colors bleeding into one another like melting crayons.
Then, out of nowhere, a perfect shot.
The drone sparked, shuddered, and fell like a rock, crashing into the dirt with a pathetic whimper of dying tech.
Everyone turned.
Standing near the treeline, holding what looked like a highly illegal pulse rifle casually over one shoulder, was a woman in a leather jacket.
She raised one eyebrow like she'd just shot a fly, not a piece of advanced military equipment.
"You kids really know how to attract attention" she said dryly.
Riley exhaled sharply "Ezra."
"Miss me?" the woman smirked.
"Not at all" Riley shot back sarcastically.
Jade stared at them. "Who the hell is this?"
"Dr. Ezra Lane" Riley sighed. "Complicated."
"Oh, great" Lexie said. "More mysterious adults. Just what this horror story needed."
"Don't worry, sweetheart" Ezra laughed. "I charge extra for babysitting."