Chapter 40: Chlorophyll Communion** **POV: Noah**

The Trench Zones were photosynthesizing.

Noah crouched in the leaking pipe, his stolen chrono-glove still smoking from the time fold that saved him from Threshold's hunters. Through the rusted grate, he watched the Changed Ones—former trench dwellers now with jade-green skin and chloroplast eyes. They moved in eerie synchronicity, cultivating black orchids that grew through concrete like tumors.

A child no older than seven approached his hiding spot. Her hair had become ivy vines.

"You smell like time," she lisped, moss growing where her teeth should be. "The Gardener wants to taste your memories."

Noah's glove sparked—not his doing. The temporal energy he'd absorbed during the library explosion (Chapter 38's cliffhanger) was manifesting. Fractured moments began materializing:

▼ A younger Lin Shen screaming as surgeons implanted the entropy core

▼ Mira planting a kiss on Ghosthand's brow as he coded the Elysium Link

▼ And something new: Bai Ye standing over a comatose child, photon arm morphing into a syringe filled with Vorath's silvery essence

The Changed Ones hissed in unison. Their orchid petals peeled back to reveal mouths—human mouths—chanting:

*"Break the hourglass*

*Spill the sand*

*Let the Gardener*

*Claim this land!"*

Noah ran. The pipes came alive around him, spewing acidic pollen that dissolved his jacket but left his skin untouched. His glove's chrono-readout flashed a warning:

**CAUSALITY COLLAPSE IMMINENT**

He skidded into an abandoned gene-clinic. The emergency lights revealed the horror: hundreds of chrysalis-like pods containing half-transformed humans. One pod's glass was cracked.

Inside, floating in green liquid, was his own face.