Ethan didn't look back. He stepped through the open passageway, the hum of the system growing louder with every step. Aiden followed, his pace measured, controlled. Lyra hesitated, exchanging a glance with Cassandra, but neither of them spoke. They followed.
The corridor led them into the core. The air was different here—thicker, charged, alive. The walls pulsed with soft blue light, data streams shifting across unseen networks, rewriting reality in real-time. This wasn't just a server hub. This was the foundation of the Time Loop Bank.
Aiden stopped before a reinforced terminal. "This is it. The anchor point." His voice was steady, but there was something else beneath it. Anticipation.
Ethan stepped forward, scanning the interface. No security locks. No defenses. The system wasn't programmed to protect itself from someone like him. Because it never expected him to survive this long.
Cassandra's voice was quiet. "If you do this, you can reset everything."
Ethan's jaw tightened. "Or control it."
Lyra exhaled. "And how do we know that's any better?"
Aiden smirked. "Because this time, the system won't belong to them."
Ethan didn't react. He knew the weight of this moment. Destroy the loop, and time reverts to its natural state. Chaos. Unpredictability. An uncontrolled world.
Take control, and he decides what stays, what goes. Who exists. Who doesn't.
His fingers hovered over the interface. One command. That was all it would take.
Cassandra's voice was sharp. "If you rewrite the system, you're no better than them."
Aiden tilted his head. "Or he's better than them because he knows what it's like to be erased."
Ethan exhaled slowly. He wasn't naive. There was no perfect choice. But there was a necessary one.
He made it.
The interface pulsed. The entire room shifted. The air vibrated as data streams rewrote reality itself. The system accepted the command—because it had always been waiting for someone like him to make it.
Lyra's voice was tight. "What did you do?"
Ethan's pulse remained steady. He turned from the console, meeting their gazes.
"I ended the game."
The hum of the system faded. The loop had changed.
And for the first time, Ethan Carter was in control of time itself.