9:10 a.m. – Surveillance Office, Helix Tower
A security officer named Ryle sat hunched over the monitor bank, eyes flicking across feed after feed—hallways, lobbies, rooftops. Nothing moved. Nothing ever changed.
But this morning, something did.
In Camera 3F, a woman in a gray coat entered a restricted stairwell. She passed by the biometric lock without swiping her badge.
Ryle blinked.
Rewound the footage.
Played it again.
Same result.
He leaned forward, heart quickening. That door had three layers of security. No one—no one—walked through it unless they were pre-cleared.
But this woman? She moved with intention. Like she'd done it a hundred times.
No. A thousand.
Ryle's fingers trembled as he reached for the emergency channel.
Then stopped.
Because when he looked back at the footage—
The hallway was empty.
The woman was gone.
Like she'd never been there.
---
9:20 a.m. – Hidden Base, Underground
Eron and Talia hunched over the map, finalizing keystone movements. Every piece they placed, every human pawn they aligned, brought them closer to dismantling Helix from within.
But neither of them noticed the screen flicker behind them.
For a brief moment, their camera feed looped backward. And a third figure flashed across the frame—a silhouette standing behind them.
Watching.
Not acting.
Just… present.
By the time Eron turned, the feed had corrected itself.
He narrowed his eyes. "Something's wrong."
---
9:35 a.m. – East Plaza Café
Across the city, a barista spilled a cup of coffee and cursed.
A man at the corner table didn't flinch. His eyes were locked on a small black notebook.
He flipped the pages—over and over.
Each page had one word written, scrawled thousands of times:
> "Repeat."
He looked at the waitress as she passed. "Today's special?"
She blinked. "Same as yesterday."
He smiled.
"I know."
9:40 a.m. – Hidden Base, Underground
Talia tapped the surveillance console, rewinding the feed frame by frame.
"There," she said, freezing the screen.
Behind them—just for a flicker—stood a blurred figure. Black hoodie. No visible face. Impossible positioning. As if the system itself couldn't decide whether he belonged there.
Eron stepped closer.
"I didn't see him. Not even for a second."
"That's because we weren't meant to," Talia replied. "He's hiding in the data itself. Not the room."
Eron muttered, "Another walker. But not like us."
She nodded grimly. "A ghost in the loop."
---
9:55 a.m. – East Plaza Café
The man in the hoodie stirred his coffee, watching the world move in slow, predictable rhythms.
He had tried dying.
Jumping.
Burning.
Sleeping.
Screaming.
Begging.
Nothing worked.
Then one day—he stopped trying. And that's when it changed.
He began to observe.
Now, he wasn't seeking a way out. He was seeking them—the others who remembered. The ones playing chess on a board where no one else even saw the pieces.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a photo.
Two faces. Blurred but familiar.
Eron. Talia.
The third loopwalker smiled faintly.
"Finally."
---
10:00 a.m. – Loop Reset Approaches
As the digital clock on Eron's console ticked closer to zero, he jotted final notes.
Talia looked at him. "You're not going to sleep today?"
Eron shook his head. "I need to test something."
She paused. "And if you die?"
"I'll see you on the next try," he said with a smirk.
But even as the seconds counted down, he couldn't shake the sensation that someone else was already watching tomorrow before it arrived.
10:03 a.m. – Rooftop of Helix Building
The wind was still.
Eron stood alone, eyes scanning the horizon, mind racing faster than the city beneath him. For 10,438 tries, this had been his loop. His battlefield. His domain.
But today, for the first time, he wasn't the only one who remembered.
A soft footstep echoed behind him.
He turned.
The man was already there—hooded, silent, calm.
No words.
No questions.
Just a nod.
Eron narrowed his eyes. "You're not surprised to see me."
The hooded man finally spoke, voice low, like it hadn't been used in years.
"I've watched you break the world a thousand different ways. This is the first time you've noticed me."
Eron's instincts flared. "Who are you?"
"I'm Try One."
---
10:05 a.m. – Helix Security Archives, Basement Level
Talia accessed Helix's oldest server logs, diving past firewalls with practiced grace.
She traced a familiar glitch—data that reset every day, except one sequence. One string of code that had existed long before Eron's loop began.
> [TRY 1 – CYCLE 0]
Status: ABANDONED
User: [REDACTED]
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
"This guy's loop didn't start with us."
She leaned back, goosebumps rising.
Someone had been trapped long before Eron ever took his first leap.
---
10:07 a.m. – Rooftop, Helix Building
"Why haven't you approached before?" Eron asked, folding his arms.
"Because I learned the hard way," the hooded man said, "that if you touch the loop wrong, it touches you back."
He stepped forward, eyes finally visible—tired, hollow, ancient.
"I burned through 30,000 tries before I realized escape wasn't the goal. Control was."
Eron's eyes flickered with recognition.
"I tried to end it," the man continued. "You tried to win it. But maybe… maybe together, we break it."
10:10 a.m. – Rooftop, Helix Building
Eron kept his voice calm, but his mind was racing.
"You want to team up?" he asked. "After spying on me for thousands of loops?"
Try One gave a dry smile. "I wasn't spying. I was measuring. Watching you manipulate an entire organization, rewrite alliances, and evolve faster than I thought possible."
Eron didn't flinch. "So you've been a shadow this whole time."
"I was learning how you beat the loop," Try One said. "Because my way? Just caused collapse. Reset. Insanity."
Eron's eyes narrowed. "What's your angle?"
Try One paused.
"There's something coming. The loop isn't stable anymore. You feel it, don't you? The repeats are… twitching. Glitches. People remembering slivers. Some events not resetting cleanly."
Eron clenched his jaw. He had noticed. A waiter who remembered his face. A camera that kept footage for an extra second. Talia dreaming of things that hadn't happened yet.
"Then what do you propose?"
Try One stepped close.
"A merger. Your manipulation. My knowledge of the loop's roots. Together, we don't escape it—we control it. We overwrite the rules."
---
10:15 a.m. – Central Control Room
Talia's voice came through Eron's earpiece. "You're not alone on that rooftop, are you?"
Eron turned slightly. "You saw him?"
"Not clearly. But the cameras glitched—hard. I think he's tied into the foundation of the loop."
Try One gave a half-smile. "She's smart. Keep her close."
Talia continued, her voice low. "Eron… if you're about to make a deal, be careful. Anyone who survives that long in the loop knows how to play a deeper game than we've seen."
Eron muted the mic. "One condition," he said to Try One. "You give me full access to your memory logs. Every failed try. Every cause of reset."
Try One hesitated.
"That's dangerous," he said. "Some truths break minds."
Eron's eyes gleamed. "Good. I'm done playing small."
---
10:17 a.m. – Loop Pulse Detected
Below them, time itself seemed to shudder.
People paused in mid-step. Birds froze mid-air. A wave of distortion rippled through the skyline.
Try One turned toward it.
"It's starting. We triggered something."
Eron checked his watch. The numbers were melting.
"Whatever's coming," he said, "we face it as players—not pieces."
They shook hands.
The alliance was made.