The explosion of light swallowed everything.
X felt himself stretch across infinity, his body unraveling into strands of energy and reassembling all at once. Time fractured around him—flashes of different realities flickering past his vision.
A world where he had never been created.
A world where Area 51 was nothing but desert.
A world where he was the one hunting Evelyn.
Then—darkness.
X hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the air from his lungs. The world around him snapped back into focus, but something was wrong.
He was no longer in the bunker.
Instead, he stood in the middle of a city street—except everything was frozen in time. Cars suspended mid-crash, pedestrians locked mid-stride, raindrops hovering in the air like glass beads. The silence was deafening.
X exhaled, his breath fogging in the unnatural stillness.
"What the hell is this?"
A voice answered from behind him.
"This is what happens when you break reality."
X spun around. A man in a dark coat stood on the sidewalk, arms crossed. His face was eerily familiar—because it was X's own face.
A perfect copy.
X's pulse quickened. "Who the hell are you?"
The other X smirked. "The better question is: who the hell are you?"
X took a step back. His fingers twitched, and for a brief second, his body flickered—phasing through different versions of himself.
The copy raised an eyebrow. "You're unstable. Fresh out of the Singularity Engine, huh? Let me guess—Evelyn told you you're a glitch?"
X clenched his fists. "Yeah. What of it?"
The copy laughed. "Then you really have no idea what you are."
A crack of thunder split the frozen sky. The air rippled violently as if something massive was trying to break through.
The copy's smirk disappeared.
"Damn it. They're already here."
Before X could react, the world shattered.
---
Back in the real world.
Evelyn gasped as X's body convulsed in the bunker, energy rippling off him like heat waves.
The Singularity Engine pulsed wildly, its core unstable, spitting out fragmented pieces of data—glimpses of worlds that never should have existed.
Her hands flew over the console. "Come on, X, stay with me…"
A deep hum filled the air. The lights flickered.
Then, everything shut down.
Total blackout.
The only thing left glowing in the darkness was X.
Evelyn took a slow step back as his body rose from the ground. His eyes opened—but they weren't human anymore.
They were filled with shifting constellations.
Then, he spoke.
"…They're coming."
The bunker exploded into alarms.
The air in the bunker crackled with static energy. Evelyn's breath hitched as she watched X hover inches above the ground, his entire body warping like a mirage. His irises were no longer normal—they swirled with infinite galaxies, shifting through different timelines at once.
The alarms screamed louder. The underground facility trembled, and the monitors around her displayed something impossible—
Multiple versions of X appearing and disappearing within the same space.
Evelyn's fingers twitched over the emergency override controls. If he lost control now, the entire base could collapse into a singularity.
"X…" she said cautiously. "If you can hear me, you need to fight this."
His head jerked violently, as if something inside him was wrestling for control.
Then—his feet slammed back onto the floor.
The energy around him snapped back into his body, the bunker's systems stabilizing in an instant. The alarms stopped, the lights flickered back on, and for a brief moment, everything was still.
X swayed slightly before grabbing onto the console for support. His breathing was ragged, his hands trembling.
"…What the hell was that?" he muttered.
Evelyn exhaled, tension draining from her shoulders. "You just touched something beyond human understanding."
X wiped the sweat from his brow. "Yeah? Well, next time, remind me not to."
But deep down, he knew something had changed.
He could still feel it—the echoes of the Singularity Engine humming inside him.
And worse… he wasn't alone anymore.
That copy of himself—the one in the frozen city.
That wasn't a hallucination.
Something or someone had reached out to him. And he had a sinking feeling it wouldn't be the last time.
A loud bang on the bunker doors shattered his thoughts.
Evelyn's eyes widened. "No… they couldn't have found us this fast."
X turned sharply. "Who?"
Another bang—this time, the steel dented inward.
Then—a voice.
"Subject X-109. Surrender now. The Bureau has authorized immediate termination."
X's pulse skyrocketed. He knew that voice.
General Richter.
The man who ran the deepest projects inside Area 51.
The man who had given the order to erase X from existence.
And now… he was right outside.
Evelyn's fingers flew over the console. "I need two minutes to trigger the emergency escape tunnel."
X cracked his knuckles. "You have one."
The door exploded inward.
Soldiers in black tactical gear flooded the room. Their helmets bore no insignia—ghost units, the kind that didn't officially exist. Their rifles locked onto X instantly, red laser sights painting his chest.
"STAND DOWN!" the lead soldier barked.
X smirked.
"Make me."
The first bullet was fired.
And the world bent.
---
The world outside time.
Somewhere beyond the veil of reality, the frozen city still stood. The copy of X—the one who had spoken to him earlier—watched through a rift in space, observing everything.
He smiled.
"So… you're finally waking up."
He turned, walking deeper into the void. Around him, fragments of thousands of universes floated aimlessly, each one an echo of a timeline that once existed.
In the distance, something moved.
Something ancient. Something aware.
It had noticed X.
And now, it was coming for him.