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Everything was gone.

The moment I hit the ground that afternoon, my system recalibrated, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The only thing that appeared on my screen was a single, glaring location: Dallas, Texas. No date, no time, no mission logs. Just those two words flashing like a cruel joke. The rest of my system? Empty. Blank. Silent.

Not even him.

I knew there was someone—someone important. A name I should have remembered, a face I should have recognized. But when I searched my database, all I found was static. A dull ache in the back of my mind, a missing piece of myself that I couldn't access no matter how hard I tried. I didn't know why I was here. But I knew—deep down—that I had been sent here for a reason.

So I adapted. I survived. For an entire year, I wandered through this unfamiliar world, learning how to exist without the code that once dictated my every move. I learned how to blend in, how to breathe in a world that wasn't mine. I learned what it meant to be alone. I even learned what kind of life I could have, if I let myself forget the past that refused to resurface.

And then I saw him.

A face I shouldn't have known. But the second our eyes met, something inside me snapped back into place, like a switch being flipped in the darkest part of my mind. The name that had eluded me for so long suddenly rang loud and clear. Five.

And with his name came everything else.

The apocalypse. The mission. The family we had been separated from. The fact that I wasn't just stranded in Dallas—I was trapped here, just like them. And the worst part? We hadn't escaped anything. The apocalypse had followed us here. It had found us.

Now, Five and I are back where we started—side by side, fighting against the inevitable. Trying to fix a world that seems determined to end, no matter where or when we are.

But there's something different this time. Something wrong.

I'm breaking down.

My system—my very existence—is failing. I can feel it with every passing second, warnings flashing in the depths of my mind, errors I don't know how to fix. Time travel has done something to me, rewired something I don't understand. I don't know how much longer I have before I stop functioning entirely.

And for the first time since I was created, I'm afraid.

Afraid of disappearing. Afraid of forgetting again.

Afraid of losing him.

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