The safehouse alarm didn't ring.
It screamed.
Red light flooded the concrete room, harsh and blinding. The overhead bulb shattered, glass raining down like shrapnel.
Vernon swore. "They found us."
Lucian was already moving, fingers flying over a hidden console embedded in the wall. "That's not possible. This location is off-grid."
Ash pushed himself upright despite the pain tearing through his side. "Then they didn't track the place."
Vernon snapped his gaze to him. "They tracked you."
The floor lurched.
Not an explosion — a displacement. Reality buckled like it had been yanked sideways. The air turned metallic, thick enough to choke on.
The Collectors didn't enter through the door.
They phased through the walls.
Three of them this time.
Taller. Sharper. Their forms stabilized faster than before — less glitch, more intent.
"Cycle breach confirmed," one intoned.
"Termination escalated to immediate."
Vernon was already firing.
The first bullet tore straight through a Collector's head — and did nothing.
"Useless!" Vernon shouted.
"No," Lucian barked. "Delay tactics!"
Ash grabbed the data chip still taped against his ribs — the one Vernon had died for. His head buzzed violently the moment his fingers closed around it.
Then—
The memories slammed back.
Not gently.
Not in order.
A rooftop chase.
A sniper scope shaking because he couldn't pull the trigger.
Vernon bleeding out in an elevator.
Ash pulling the trigger anyway.
Ash gasped, vision fracturing.
You have reached convergence,
the voice inside him said — not the Collectors'.
Authorization unlocked.
"What's happening to him?" Vernon yelled.
Lucian stared at Ash in open shock. "He's synchronizing. Faster than predicted."
A Collector turned toward Ash, eyes burning white.
"Anomaly detected. Core identified."
It raised its arm.
Vernon didn't hesitate.
He stepped in front of Ash and took the blast full-force.
The impact threw him across the room, slamming him into the wall hard enough to crack concrete.
"VERNON!"
Ash felt something snap inside his chest.
Not pain.
Permission.
The world slowed.
The Collector lunged—
—and Ash caught it.
Barehanded.
His fingers closed around its throat. The thing screamed, its form unraveling, data bleeding like smoke.
Ash's voice wasn't entirely his own when he spoke.
"You don't get to touch him."
He slammed the Collector into the floor.
Reality imploded.
The remaining Collectors staggered, forms destabilizing wildly.
"Impossible—" "Human neural load exceeding—"
Ash turned.
Looked at them.
And willed.
The room folded inward, crushing one Collector into static. The other flickered, screamed, and vanished into nothing.
Silence slammed down.
Ash dropped to his knees, gasping, blood dripping from his nose.
Vernon groaned from across the room.
Ash crawled to him, hands shaking. "You idiot… you jumped in front of it."
Vernon coughed, smirked faintly. "Still bad… at orders."
Ash pressed his forehead to Vernon's. "Don't ever do that again."
Vernon's voice softened. "Then don't give me a reason."
Lucian watched them, pale now.
"You're not just breaking cycles," he said quietly. "You're overriding them."
Ash looked up slowly. "Tell me the truth."
Lucian swallowed. "The Collectors aren't wardens."
Vernon's eyes narrowed. "Then what are they?"
Lucian exhaled.
"They're leftovers."
Ash frowned. "From what?"
Lucian met his gaze.
"From the last civilization that tried to rewrite fate."
The floor beneath them rumbled.
Not distortion.
Movement.
Lucian's console exploded in sparks. His screen flashed one final warning:
CORE SIGNAL ACTIVE
PRIMARY OBSERVER AWAKENING
Vernon pulled Ash up instantly. "We need to move."
Lucian shook his head. "It's already awake."
The wall behind them split open.
Not with force — with design.
A massive chamber yawned open beyond the safehouse, filled with light and machinery older than language. At its center—
A figure.
Human-shaped.
Motionless.
Waiting.
Ash felt the voice inside him whisper one word:
Creator.
Vernon tightened his grip on Ash's hand.
"Well," he said grimly, gun raised.
"Looks like we're finally meeting God."