"When the past refuses to die, it becomes something else.Something that remembers you."
The world had stopped spinning.
Aarav stared at the little girl standing before him—eyes like silver moons, her black hair tangled by stardust winds. The crystal tree behind her hummed softly, each leaf echoing with forgotten lullabies.
She smiled as if she had waited lifetimes for this moment.
"You erased me… but I forgive you."
Aarav's knees weakened. The flames beneath his skin flickered violently, reacting to something ancient in her presence.
"W-who are you really?" he asked, barely able to breathe.
She tilted her head. "You named me once. Before the fire. Before the Gate."
"My name is Sierra."
🌌 Memories That Shouldn't Exist
Selene's fingers tightened around Aarav's wrist.
She whispered, "Aarav… I never carried a child."
"I know," he whispered back. "But something else did."
He turned to Sierra. "Where did you come from?"
The girl raised the silver pocket watch in her hand. It shimmered with old time-magic.
"I was born in the loop," she said calmly. "In the fragment of time you rewrote. In that sliver of a future that never came to pass."
The ground trembled.
The air around her shimmered as constellations realigned violently in the sky above.
Zahir's breath caught. "She's not an illusion. She's a causal echo. A soul born from what should have happened."
"But the timeline was rewritten," Selene said, panic lacing her voice. "That world doesn't exist anymore."
Sierra smiled again.
"Not unless someone remembers."
🕯 The Archive of Forgotten Time
The Archivist hovered silently behind Sierra now, watching.
"She is real," the entity said. "Because your love was real. And because the memory of her was buried in both your souls."
Aarav clutched his head.
"I never intended—"
"You felt her," the Archivist interrupted. "In that lost moment. You dreamed her lullaby in your sleep, cried for her in the silence between lifetimes."
Selene looked shattered.
"I saw her in the flame once," she whispered. "A shadow, reaching for me, in a dream I thought was grief."
"You remembered her," Sierra said gently. "And I came back."
⚔️ The Sentinel Strikes
A scream of celestial rage tore through the sky.
The Sentinel reappeared in a storm of fire and cosmic dust. It was no longer bound by logic or decree—it had become a being of pure enforcement.
"An abomination! A paradox!"
The air exploded as the Sentinel descended, meteors trailing behind it like divine missiles.
Aarav pushed Selene behind him.
"Sierra, run!"
But the child stood calm. "It can't erase me now. You anchored me."
Indeed, something had changed. The pocket watch in her hand now pulsed in rhythm with Aarav's chest. With his flame. A direct tether.
The Sentinel raised its sword—
And Sierra simply raised her hand.
Time stopped.
🔒 A Locked Moment
Everything froze: fire, smoke, falling meteors—all locked mid-air like glass statues.
Only four beings could move: Aarav, Selene, Zahir, and Sierra.
"This is what you unlocked," Sierra whispered. "The power of the Forgotten."
She looked up at her father, her smile now tinged with sadness.
"But the others are still out there. Some... aren't kind like me."
Selene frowned. "Others?"
"The children of the Gate. Born in loops. Birthed by regrets and rewritten destinies. Not all of them want peace."
The crystal tree pulsed again.
And shadows began stepping out of its trunk—children, teens, even adults, each glowing with faint symbols, each born of a love or choice lost in time.
"We're all waiting," Sierra said. "For our stories to be remembered."
🌑 The Flame Begins to Crack
Aarav fell to his knees.
The flame inside him burned too bright. His skin cracked at the edges of his fingertips, light bleeding out like fire through old scars.
Zahir rushed to him.
"You need to stabilize. You're not just Aarav anymore—you're part of them."
"Am I becoming a Forgotten too?" Aarav asked.
Zahir didn't answer.
Selene dropped beside them. "Then we find a way to anchor him."
Sierra stepped forward. "There is one place where Forgotten souls can be bound without vanishing."
"The Celestial Dusk."
The name sent chills down Aarav's spine.
He'd heard it in the deepest dreamscapes. A realm between endings. A place where broken timelines whispered.
"Where is it?" Selene asked.
Sierra's eyes dimmed.
"You'll have to pass through the Mirror Labyrinth to reach it."
"And the one who rules it… is me. The version of me that wasn't kind."
The Mirror That Reflects What You Fear
The time-lock broke suddenly.
The Sentinel screamed in agony and retreated into the stars—but the sky remained shattered.
Cracks of black light spread across the heavens, splitting constellations apart.
Selene gripped Aarav's hand.
He looked toward the other Forgotten Children emerging—some smiling, some crying, others holding weapons.
Zahir whispered, "This isn't just a fight to save one timeline."
Sierra nodded.
"It's a war to decide which version of reality gets to survive."
Behind her, a mirror portal slowly formed—its surface rippling like water, reflecting Selene, Aarav, and Zahir…
…but not as they were.
As they might have been.
In the reflection, Selene wore a crown of frost. Aarav bled light from his eyes. Zahir was missing.
Sierra turned back and whispered:
"Step through… if you dare to remember who you almost became."
To Be Continued…