As they approached a gas station on their way to the villa, Elara's senses tingled with warning. "We need fuel, but we're not alone," she murmured, pulling up to one of the pumps.
Through the station's grimy windows, she could make out a group of four men, clearly having decided the apocalypse was their chance to play at being lords of their small domain. Their leader - a tall, lanky figure with dyed blue hair - was leaning against the counter, water swirling unnaturally around his fingers.
"Another Evolver," Elara whispered to Seraph. "Water affinity. Be careful."
They had barely stepped out of the SUV when the group emerged from the station, sizing them up with predatory eyes. The blue-haired leader's gaze lingered uncomfortably on Seraph, a sleazy grin spreading across his face.
"Well, well... what do we have here?" He sauntered closer, water droplets dancing around him in an obvious display of power. "Pretty ladies shouldn't be out alone in times like these. Why don't you join us? We could... protect you."
Seraph's expression hardened. "We can protect ourselves, thanks."
The man reached out to touch Seraph's face, but she stepped back, her eyes flashing with barely contained fire. "Don't."
"Ooh, feisty!" He laughed, his demeanor shifting from sleazy to threatening. "And what's this? Another powered one? Listen, sweetheart, I've been playing with water since the meteors fell. You really don't want to-"
He never finished his sentence. One moment he was leering at Seraph, the next he was crumpling to the ground, struck by a metal pipe that seemed to materialize out of thin air. Elara stood calmly behind him, the pipe in her hand flickering with residual temporal energy.
The other three thugs stared in shock. None of them had seen her move - because she hadn't, not in the conventional sense.
"What the hell?" one of them gasped.
"Space-time manipulation," Elara explained coldly, her voice carrying an edge that hadn't been there before. "In my previous life, I could barely bend space enough to dodge. Now?" The pipe vanished from her hand, reappearing instantly at another thug's throat. "I can do so much more."
Seraph watched in fascination as her friend seemed to flicker in and out of reality, each movement leaving ghostly afterimages. In seconds, the remaining thugs were on the ground, groaning.
"That's... new," Seraph commented, impressed.
Elara nodded, allowing the pipe to fall to the ground with a clang. "In my past life, I never understood my power's true nature. I thought I was just weak, barely able to create small spatial distortions. But now I realize - I wasn't weak, I was just... limited by my own understanding."
She began filling the SUV's tank, keeping one eye on the unconscious thugs. "Time and space are connected. The ability to bend one means the ability to bend both. I just needed to know it was possible."
"Is that why you're stronger this time? Because you remember what you're capable of?"
"Partly," Elara replied, securing the gas cap. "But it's more than that. Last time, I was always reactive, always running. This time..." She looked at her hands, where tiny rifts in space-time sparkled like stars. "This time, I'm fighting back."
Back on the road, Elara's enhanced senses detected movement ahead. Through the SUV's headlights, they spotted a woman and a young girl backed against a wall, surrounded by several infected. The woman, despite her obvious terror, was fighting back with desperate determination, wielding a broken brick as a makeshift weapon.
"Stop the car," Seraph said, already reaching for a wine bottle.
But Elara was watching the child with intense focus. The girl - no more than seven or eight - stood unnaturally still, her eyes fixed on the infected. And something was... off. The undead's movements were sluggish, almost hesitant, unlike the frenzied attacks Elara remembered.
"Wait," Elara held up a hand, memories from her past life surfacing. "Look at how they're moving."
The infected seemed to be fighting against an invisible force, their attacks becoming increasingly uncoordinated. The young girl's unwavering stare never broke, even as her mother frantically bashed another infected's skull with the brick.
"Help them," Seraph urged, but there was something in Elara's expression that made her pause.
Elara's mind raced back to a figure from her previous timeline - the Dark Witch, they'd called her. A woman who could command the dead, always accompanied by a shambling female corpse that some whispered was her mother. The story went that losing her mother had driven her to madness, twisting her power into something darker.
Using her space-time abilities, Elara quickly dispatched the remaining infected, giving the mother and daughter a chance to catch their breath.
"Thank you," the woman gasped, still clutching her brick. "I'm Emily, and this is my daughter, Vespera. She... she can't speak."
Vespera's eyes finally broke away from the fallen infected, meeting Elara's gaze with an intensity that seemed beyond her years.
"I'm Elara, and this is Seraph," Elara introduced them, studying the girl carefully. "That was quite impressive, what you did with the infected."
Emily looked confused, but Vespera's eyes widened slightly.
"You can see it, can't you?" Elara asked the girl gently. "You can feel them. Control them, even if just a little."
Vespera nodded slowly, her small hand reaching for her mother's.
"We have a safe place," Elara said, making a quick decision. "You should come with us."
As they helped Emily and Vespera into the SUV, Elara couldn't shake the memory of the Dark Witch - how that power had manifested differently in someone who'd lost everything. Looking at Vespera now, clinging to her mother's hand, Elara saw a chance to prevent that dark future.
"Your daughter has a gift," Elara told Emily quietly as they drove. "It's important that she doesn't lose you. In another life... I saw what that power could become without love to temper it."
Emily pulled Vespera closer, while Seraph gave Elara a questioning look. Later, Elara would explain about the Dark Witch, about the shambling corpse that had once been a mother, about the darkness that grief could breed. But for now, she focused on driving, grateful for the chance to change another piece of the future.