The baby's scream tore through time itself.
Sound inverted. Blood floated upward from the carpet. Shards of glass reassembled into the chandelier now hovering mid-air. My skin prickled as the rewind pulled at muscle and bone—but the original Chen's revolver stayed lodged in my grip, its otherworldly metal resisting the flow of causation.
Across the frozen ballroom, our son's mouth stretched into a grin too wide for his face. "You finally understand, don't you Father? *She* made sure you'd never remember winning."
The System convulsed in my skull:
*▶ Temporal reversal at 64%*
*▶ Memory partition detected*
*▶ Primary directive corrupted*
Then the baby's eyes—*my eyes*—locked onto mine, and the truth detonated behind my ribs.
---
THE FIRST VICTORY
*Loop Zero*
We'd cornered Mu in her own laboratory.
Anya's knife had already taken one of the woman's hands. My bullet had shattered her kneecap. The stench of burning circuitry from the System's mainframe choked the air as I pressed the barrel to Mu's forehead.
"It's over," I'd said.
Anya's fingers found mine. Warm. Alive.
Mu had laughed through the blood. "You poor children. You actually think *you* chose this path?"
Her remaining hand activated the failsafe.
The last thing I remembered was Anya screaming—
—then waking up choking on champagne at the Grand Hyatt.
---
PRESENT (UNPRESENT) MOMENT
The baby's rewind stuttered.
A crack split the air as reality itself groaned under the strain. The original Chen lunged through suspended debris, his scarred hands closing around the infant's throat. "You don't get to erase her again!"
Not-Anya's body twitched on the floor, golden light leaking from her mouth and eyes as the possession fractured. For one fractured instant, I saw *my* Anya staring back at me through the haze—terrified, furious, *remembering*.
The System's final warning flashed:
*▶ Memory partition collapsing*
*▶ Direct neural interface required*
*▶ Warning: 97% mortality risk*
Our son sighed and raised the detonator. "We'll get it right next loop."
I plunged the revolver's barrel into my own temple and pulled the trigger.
Darkness.
Then—
A sterile white room.
An IV drip in my arm.
And Mu's voice, gentle as a scalpel:
"Welcome back to Loop One, Chen. Let's try this again."