The portal blinked to life in a burst of turquoise light, a perfect circle carved out of space itself. It shimmered like water suspended midair, revealing a twisted skyline on the other side—impossible architecture, floating rocks, stars frozen mid-collapse.

Auren hesitated for only a second before stepping through, followed closely by Riven.

The shift was instant.

Gravity pulled sideways. Time felt stretched thin, like it was holding its breath. The air smelled like old metal and ozone.

“Is this even a real world?” Auren whispered.

“It used to be,” Riven replied, scanning with his wristband. “Before it collapsed. Now it’s... memory residue. A ghost of a timeline.”

As they moved forward, fragments of past lives flickered into view—echoes caught in time-loops. A child chasing a paper bird. A couple arguing in silence. A soldier falling, forever mid-fall.

“Don't interact with them,” Riven warned. “They're not real anymore. Just echoes.”

Suddenly, a mechanical screech shattered the air.

A drone—not one from Riven’s world—swooped down, scanning them with a red beam. It clicked in an alien tongue before releasing a blast of energy.

They dove behind a broken monument.

Auren leapt out, slashing the drone with a single arc of her blade. It sparked and spun, then exploded in a shower of wires and gears.

Riven stood slowly. “Okay. That’s new.”

“Someone’s protecting this place.”

“They know we’re here,” he said, checking his scanner. “We need to move fast.”

---

They followed the signal to what had once been a library—or maybe a temple. Symbols from multiple civilizations lined the walls, some shifting when looked at directly.

At the center stood a pedestal, and on it—a shard.

This one pulsed with a deeper color—black shot through with threads of red. Not like the other.

Auren stepped forward. “This one feels… angry.”

Riven’s hand hovered near his weapon. “I don’t think it wants to be found.”

As her fingers brushed the shard—

Walls warped. The sky flickered. Echoes began to convulse, merging into twisted forms—faces overlapping, voices chanting in broken rhythm.

A shadow emerged from the chaos. Tall, draped in robes of static, with no face—just a void leaking memory.

“I’ve seen that thing before,” Riven whispered. “In my dreams.”

“No dream,” Auren said, drawing her blade. “That’s the guardian of fractured timelines.”

The Watcher raised a hand, and the space around them cracked like glass.

---

Auren stood in a desert under two suns. Alone.

Flash—

Riven knelt at a grave, reading a name that blurred the harder he stared.

They were dancing. Together. Under a sky of fireflies. Laughing.

Back in the ruins.

Auren clutched the shard. It pulsed violently, then calmed, recognizing her.

The Watcher stepped back.

Riven grabbed her hand. “Let’s get out of here—now!”

They ran for the portal, the world collapsing behind them. Auren’s grip tightened on the shard. She saw something in it—something more than memory.

A piece of a forgotten truth.

---

They dropped to the ground, gasping. The portal sealed behind them.

Riven looked at her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded slowly, opening her hand to show the shard. It glowed with new light—no longer angry.

“It showed me something,” she said. “A city of light. A tower… a door.”

“What kind of door?”

“A thirteenth one.”

He stared at her. “There were only twelve.”

“Not anymore.”

---