Kaelen was frozen in his tracks, heart pounding, as the alien, in human form, gazed at him with cold, calculating eyes. It was unmistakable now: this being standing before him wasn't just another person. It was something otherworldly, something that didn't belong in this world, no matter how convincingly it had woven itself into human society.
The figure still shrouded in darkness spoke again, its voice a low, eerie whisper that seemed to resonate directly in Kaelen's mind.
"You're more perceptive than I expected, Kaelen Graves. But your efforts are futile. This world is already ours."
Kaelen's fingers tingled to the familiar hum of the Nexus Device inside of him. Always, the device had responded well to moments such as this; moments when the fabric of time was at risk, but now it seemed to be faltering. His connection to it was like a tug-of-war with the alien presence threatening to break apart the timeline if Kaelen wasn't careful.
The alien took a step forward, and Kaelen instinctively drew back. Every fiber of his being screamed that this was no ordinary encounter. This was the moment that could change everything the point of no return.
"What do you want?" Kaelen asked, his voice steady despite the surge of unease threatening to rise within him.
The alien's lips curled into something like a smile, but there was no warmth in it. "I don't want much. You've already given me what I need the knowledge. You see, Kaelen, your precious device is no match for us. The war you foresee… it's already been set in motion."
Kaelen's thoughts raced. The alien had known about the Nexus Device. It had known about the loops. Had it been manipulating the timeline too? Could the alien's actions somehow be the cause of the instability in the Nexus Device?
"You've been manipulating things from the shadows," Kaelen said, piecing the clues together. "This is why the timeline feels off. Why everything is getting worse? You've been pulling the strings."
"Not entirely," the alien said, tilting its head as if considering Kaelen's words. "We've simply… accelerated the process. Humans are becoming too advanced, and too dangerous. We've only nudged them in the right direction. The rest? That's all you."
Kaelen's mind spun. The Nexus Device, designed to rewind time and safeguard humanity's future, had strengthened as Kaelen learned. But with that knowledge came a cost. And now, the alien was saying that his own actions, his search for knowledge, had fed the war into coming. Each cycle of knowledge, each trying to stop the inevitable, had been feeding the conflict, not preventing it.
"Why are you here? Why now?" Kaelen pressed, his vital control lurching into a drunken panic. His mind was racing, but he couldn't afford to let the alien get inside his head any further.
"We're here to claim what's owed to us, Kaelen. The war already started. Your timeline… is collapsing. Try resetting again, and again; each reset eats away at your hold over the future. The more that you know the more unstable it becomes. Every secret you allow to be spread brings us victory."
Kaelen felt the weight of those words settle deep into his chest. The Nexus Device was becoming a liability. And the more he learned, the more he revealed, the closer the alien came to taking over.
Kaelen now comprehends that this alien is playing a much larger game that transcends a war of physical matter, but that of time itself. The alien comprehends the Nexus Device far more than Kaelen could ever have imagined; it knows how to manipulate, disrupt, and keep the timeline from ever being stabilized.
The War's Origins: Kaelen discovers that the alien race has been quietly guiding human technology for centuries toward self-destruction. The introduction of the Nexus Device, with its ability to reset time, was the last step in their plan. Humanity had become vulnerable with the introduction of the device, and now the alien could manipulate it to his advantage.
Kaelen's Doubt: Kaelen's mind becomes muddled with doubt. If the alien had already won, if the timeline had already been corrupted beyond repair, was it even worth trying to stop it? Could the Nexus Device still be used to rewind everything, or had the resets only made things worse?
The Instability of the Device: In fact, with each passing day, as Kaelen is increasingly exposed to the extraterrestrial and learns more about the war from the future, the Nexus Device increasingly destabilizes. Partial resets occur more frequently. Fragments of memories that Kaelen once knew begin to disappear into small pieces, but important, all the same. Faces become smudged. Events shift. The alien's existence continues to destabilize the device, making Kaelen fight for survival in general and for identity in particular.
Kaelen stood his ground as the alien stood before him, still regarding him with cold, calculating eyes. The alien sounded almost almost assured, its voice smooth with an undertone of unsettling calmness. But there was a feeling in the way the creature spoke that there was more to be uncovered. The alien had already shared so much, but Kaelen knew it hadn't revealed everything.
"I'm not going to just stand here and let you destroy everything," Kaelen said, his voice steady despite the pressure building in his chest. The Nexus Device was pulsing again, but this time, instead of the erratic hum he'd grown used to, it felt like a calm surge of power as if the very act of questioning the alien's motives had strengthened it.
The alien's eyes flickered briefly as if sensing the shift. "You really think you can stop us? You, with your device, you're nothing but a pawn. All your knowledge, all your resets, they've led to this point. You've already played your part. The war will unfold regardless."
Kaelen smiled. Just a hint of a grin. "Maybe. But you're not as invincible as you think. You've been using my knowledge and my insights. But what if I told you I already know more than you think?"
The alien's face did not shift, but Kaelen caught a small shiver in the stance a tic of uncertainty. The alien may be playing some game, but Kaelen had learned through the years of playing the system how to manipulate its very fabric.
"I've seen the patterns," Kaelen continued, walking slowly around the alien. "I've seen how you've been guiding humanity towards this war. Every little push, every tiny alteration to the timeline it all leads back to you, doesn't it?"
The alien's eyes narrowed, but Kaelen pressed on, letting his words flow like a river. He could feel the Nexus Device responding its power growing, stabilizing.
"You've been playing us, yes. But you forget one thing: this machine was never to be used for your purposes," Kaelen said, his voice hard. "It was designed to reboot time, yes, but also to learn with knowledge, to grow. The more I know, the stronger it becomes."
The alien paused for a second, and that was all Kaelen needed.
"You were never meant to be able to control the timeline," Kaelen said. "You think you can warp it around your finger, but you're wrong. The Nexus Device was not made to destroy it was made to save. And now, I'm in a better position."
As Kaelen spoke, the Nexus Device within him hummed in response, its power building with each passing second. The alien's unnerving composure had faltered, and Kaelen felt the pulse of energy course through his body. He had led the alien on to expose itself, for the creature believed it held control over time when all along, the alien was little more than an actor in this greater play - a pawn that could easily shift in the fluidity of events. The greater the alien explained, the deeper Kaelen grasped as to how one could fully take advantage of what the Nexus Device could offer.
The alien snarled, its human disguise cracking as its true form started to be revealed. Dark tendrils of energy lashed out, warping space around them, but Kaelen was ready. With one last deep breath, he activated the full potential of the Nexus Device, redirecting energy that had been building inside him toward the fight.
In an instant, the world around them seemed to freeze time itself grinding to a halt for a split second. Kaelen saw the alien's next move, predicting it with perfect clarity. The Nexus Device had given him the ability to analyze time, and now he used it to predict every attack, every shift in the alien's movements. The device was more than a tool for resetting it was a weapon for controlling time itself.
Kaelen lunged forward, his body moving with lightning speed, as the alien hissed, letting its own momentum turn against it before flipping the creature onto the ground with a forceful push. The Nexus Device pulsed with power as Kaelen let loose the blast of energy from his hands, the ripple of force sending the alien reeling backward.
The alien rapidly recovered, its form shifting and growing more monstrous, its limbs elongating and twisting as it tried to retaliate. It struck with incredible force, but Kaelen was faster. Every move he made seemed to be predicted before it happened, his mind working in sync with the Nexus Device, allowing him to dodge and counter with precision.
"You've made a grave mistake," Kaelen said, his voice now full of confidence. The more the alien fought back, the more the Nexus Device stabilized, its power now coursing through Kaelen's veins like a second heartbeat.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," the alien snarled, its voice dripping with frustration. "You think you can stop me with your little device?"
Kaelen smiled. "It's not about stopping you. It's about rewriting the rules. And you've already given me the knowledge I need to control this fight."
Kaelen moved fluidly, his body moving like it had been trained for this battle all his life. With every strike, every move, the Nexus Device grew stronger, stabilizing with each passing second. The alien's strikes became slower, more erratic, as if the Nexus Device was not just responding to Kaelen's movements, but to the very timeline the alien had tried to manipulate.
With one final burst of power, Kaelen drew on the full strength of the Nexus Device and fired all his energy into a single concentrated blast. The alien tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too late. The blast hit, and the creature shot backward with a blinding explosion that seemed to crack the air itself.
The alien's form flickered, its true shape struggling to maintain its hold in this dimension. "This isn't over, Kaelen Graves," it growled, its voice weakening as it was pushed back.
Kaelen stood tall, breathing heavily but feeling the power coursing through him. "It is over. You've lost."
The alien had broken apart in its desperate fight to hold onto its form; it vanished into a whirl of dark energy, and Kaelen stood alone, in the silent aftermath. The hum of the Nexus Device stabilized, its power now more stable, more intense. Kaelen had won at least for now.
Kaelen just stood there, letting the impact of victory set in. It had been one hell of an opponent, that alien, but he had managed to outwit it, using its knowledge against it: the very information it had given him turned against it, a trump card from the Nexus Device, which had stabilized itself for the first time ever.
Even though Kaelen had emerged victorious, he knew that this was just the beginning of the war. The alien had a vast number of forces, and their plan was huge in scope. He had temporarily gotten the better of them, but he was aware that the actual fight was yet to come.
Walking away from the battlefield, Kaelen's thoughts came back to Lara and the others. They were going to need to be prepared for what came next. The alien was but one player in a much greater game, and Kaelen had to find a way to stop the war before it consumed everything.
The Nexus Device may have stabilized now, but the real challenge has yet to come.