The alarms pulsed through the control wing, a deafening signal that they had been found. Ethan didn't flinch. The countdown had started the moment he rewrote the loop. Now, it was about who finished first.
Lyra's voice was sharp. "They're breaching the perimeter—heavy response teams, high-tier enforcers." She checked her console. "We have two minutes before they reach this room."
Cassandra pulled her weapon. "That's one minute too long."
Aiden was already moving, scanning the failsafe servers. "This system wasn't designed to be shut down. If we hit it wrong, it could trigger a cascade rollback—undoing everything we just did."
Ethan clenched his jaw. "Then we don't shut it down."
Lyra's eyes flicked to him. "What are you thinking?"
Ethan placed his hands against the core terminal. This wasn't just a system anymore. It was a war. And the only way to win a war wasn't to destroy the enemy. It was to take their weapons.
Cassandra's voice was tight. "Ethan?"
His fingers moved over the interface. The failsafe security layers recognized him. Accepted him.
Because he was the anomaly that couldn't be erased.
He didn't input a shutdown command. He didn't delete the system. He restructured it.
The failsafe pulses flickered. The data streams shifted. Every enforcer, every operative connected to the Time Loop Bank's hierarchy—was now locked out.
Lyra inhaled sharply. "You just cut them off."
Aiden's smirk returned. "You took the system for yourself."
Ethan exhaled, steadying his pulse. "No. I took it for the people they erased."
The alarms changed tone. A reset sequence had begun. Not the Time Loop Bank's. His.
Cassandra's gaze sharpened. "Ethan, what did you just do?"
He turned to face them, his voice steady. "I rewrote the future."
The control panels locked. The failsafe barriers collapsed. And the Time Loop Bank, for the first time in history, lost its power.
Lyra's console flickered. "They know. They're still coming."
Ethan nodded. "Then we make sure this was worth it."
The doors exploded inward.
The war for time was over.
Now, it was a fight to survive the new world they had just created.