The morning light was weak, filtered through grimy windows and heavy clouds that hung low over Dallas. The city stirred with a restless energy—an undercurrent of unease that prickled at the edges of Zero's awareness. Every second brought the world closer to a point of no return.
He stood silently in the cramped safehouse, watching his siblings move around in a haze of tension and exhaustion. Time had become a merciless enemy, slipping faster than they could grasp, the threads of their fractured lives tangling and snapping in dangerous patterns.
(Fighting time feels like swimming against a current you can never see, never quite reach. And still, I have to keep swimming.)
Five paced, his eyes sharp with frantic calculation. "We've got less than twenty-four hours. The assassination is the pivot—the event that will shatter the timeline. We have to stop it, or everything falls apart."
Luther's fists clenched. "And if we do stop it? What then? What happens to all the lives caught in the ripple?"
Zero met his gaze steadily. "Then we change everything. We give the world a chance to heal, to rebuild. But only if we stand together."
Allison cradled her daughter close, her voice trembling. "We're all so broken. How do we become whole again?"
Diego sharpened a blade with deliberate strokes, never meeting anyone's eyes. Klaus wandered near the window, whispering to the ghosts that no one else could see.
And Vanya sat apart, violin resting on her lap, fingers twitching with suppressed power and fear.
Zero moved toward her, voice low. "You're not alone in this. Whatever happens, we face it together."
Her eyes flickered up, haunted but grateful. "I don't want to hurt anyone again."
"You won't," Zero promised. "I'll be here."
Outside, the Handler's presence grew stronger, her shadow creeping across the city like a poison. She had eyes everywhere, a web tightening around them all. Every move they made was watched, every plan threatened.
Zero felt the noose closing.
(There's no more room for mistakes. No more chances to hesitate.)
He closed his eyes briefly, reaching deep into the flow of time. He saw flickers—visions of chaos, destruction, moments when the world would end if they failed.
But he also saw something else: a sliver of hope. A future where the siblings stood united, where the past was rewritten, and the apocalypse stopped.
The question was whether they could reach that future before time ran out.
As the day wore on, the family fractured further. Arguments flared, old wounds opened, and fear threatened to consume them all. Zero watched, heart heavy.
(Love and hate—they're two sides of the same coin in this family. And right now, it feels like the coin is spinning out of control.)
He sought Five again, the sibling whose sharp mind held the key to their survival.
"We need a plan," Zero said. "Something no one's tried yet."
Five nodded grimly. "I've been thinking. The Commission has rules. But what if we break them?"
Zero raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"We can use the briefcase. Not to escape, but to rewrite. To jump forward—to a moment after the assassination, where the world is already changed. Then go back and stop it."
Zero's mind raced. (It's risky. Dangerous. But it might just work.)
"We'll need everyone," Five added. "All of us."
That night, as the city slept fitfully beneath a sky heavy with thunder, the siblings gathered one last time. The weight of fate pressed down on them, but so did the fragile bond that tied them together.
Zero looked around, his eyes resting on each of them.
"We don't have to be ghosts lost in time," he said quietly. "We can be the ones who change the story."
Vanya smiled faintly, a spark of something new shining in her eyes.
"Then let's make history," she said.
The future was waiting.
And this time, they would be ready.