Echoes of the Unwritten

Leon fell.

He had lost count of how many times he had fallen.

Every time, it was different. The first had been pure nothingness—an abyss of white noise stretching into eternity. The second had been violent, a plummet through time itself, reality warping around him like a broken film reel.

But this—

This was wrong in a way he couldn't explain.

His body wasn't weightless. He wasn't plummeting.

He was suspended.

Held in place by something unseen, as if the air around him had turned into thick, invisible hands, gripping his arms, legs, and throat.

For a moment, he couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.

Then—

A pulse.

It wasn't sound. It wasn't light.

It was a shift.

Like the universe had just exhaled.

And suddenly, he was somewhere else.

Leon landed hard, his knees hitting smooth, cold ground. He gasped as the impact rattled through him, but the pain was secondary to the sheer wrongness of where he was.

His fingers pressed against the surface beneath him—glasslike, but not reflective. It was solid and endless, stretching infinitely in every direction.

The air smelled of nothing.

No dust. No moisture. No life.

It was a void—not empty, but unfinished.

Leon pushed himself up, his pulse hammering. "Selene?" His voice barely echoed, swallowed by the weight of silence.

A moment later, a groan.

He turned sharply, his heart nearly jumping when he saw her.

Selene was lying a few feet away, her hands pressing into the ground as she forced herself upright. Strands of her dark hair had come loose from her usual tight bob, framing her face as her silver-gray eyes narrowed in confusion.

Leon exhaled. "You okay?"

She looked at him, her expression unreadable. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Yeah," she muttered. "I think so."

Leon rose to his feet, his body still unsteady. He looked around.

There was nothing.

No sky. No horizon.

The world around them simply existed, a vast plane of endless white stretching into eternity. The only thing that broke the emptiness was the sky—or what should have been the sky.

It wasn't black.

It wasn't blue.

It was shifting.

A swirling mass of echoes, distortions, and flickering images. Moments from different times—cities rising and falling, faces appearing and disappearing, entire histories blinking in and out of existence.

Leon's stomach twisted.

This wasn't a place.

It was a limbo between realities.

Selene turned in a slow circle, her stance tense. "What the hell is this place?"

Leon swallowed hard. "The Nexus."

She exhaled sharply. "Right. And what exactly does that mean?"

Before Leon could answer—

The world shifted.

The air around them stirred, rippling like water. The ground beneath their feet trembled.

Then—

They weren't alone.

Shadows moved at the edges of the white expanse.

Leon turned sharply, his entire body going rigid.

Figures. Unmoving, watching.

At first, they looked like silhouettes. Humanoid, but featureless, their bodies shimmering like unfinished sketches. But as they stepped forward, the distortions around them flickered—and suddenly, they weren't blank anymore.

Leon felt his breath catch.

Because they had faces.

Familiar faces.

Selene froze beside him, her fingers twitching toward her gun. "Leon," she said slowly. "What the hell are those?"

Leon's jaw tightened.

He knew what they were.

Or rather—

Who they were.

The figures surrounding them were people they had lost.

People who had died.

People who had never existed.

And worst of all—people they could have become.

Leon's throat went dry. "Reflections."

Selene's grip on her gun tightened. "Reflections of what?"

Leon exhaled shakily. "Of everything time erased."

Selene's eyes darkened.

Before either of them could react—

One of the figures stepped forward.

Leon's pulse spiked.

Because this time, it wasn't just some random ghost of the past.

It was Lira.

She was standing just a few feet away, her green eyes wide, filled with something unreadable.

Leon's breath hitched.

"Lira?" His voice was barely a whisper.

The girl didn't move.

Didn't blink.

Then—

She smiled.

And everything collapsed.

The sky above them fractured.

The figures surrounding them vanished.

Leon barely had time to react before the ground beneath him gave way—

And he was falling again.

Leon fell.

Again.

But this time, it was different.

The previous times had felt like an endless plunge into nothingness—weightless, chaotic, unrelenting. But now—this wasn't a fall.

It was a descent.

A controlled pull, like something was guiding him down rather than throwing him into the void. The air around him felt denser, pressing against his skin, rippling with unseen forces.

Then—

Impact.

Leon landed on his knees, breath ragged, his hands pressing against the cold surface beneath him. It was the same glasslike floor, stretching infinitely. But this time—

It was different.

He felt it.

A pulse.

Faint, rhythmic—like the beating of a heart beneath the surface.

Leon's stomach twisted.

This place was alive.

A sharp breath beside him made him snap his head up.

Selene.

She had landed just a few feet away, one knee bent, her body tensed like a coiled wire. Her eyes scanned their surroundings, but Leon could see it—the way her fingers trembled slightly, the way her breathing was just a little too fast.

She had felt it too.

Leon swallowed hard, pushing himself up. "You okay?"

Selene exhaled sharply, shaking her head. "No. And I don't think you are either."

Leon didn't argue.

Because she was right.

He turned his gaze upward—and froze.

The sky—or what should have been the sky—had changed.

It was no longer a swirling void of broken images.

Now—it was filled with eyes.

Hundreds. Thousands.

Some human. Some… not.

All of them watching.

Leon felt a cold shudder crawl up his spine.

"What the hell is this place?" Selene muttered, her voice low.

Leon clenched his jaw. "The Nexus is testing us."

Selene shot him a sharp look. "Testing us for what?"

Leon didn't have an answer.

But before he could respond—

The world shifted.

It wasn't a physical movement.

It was a change in existence itself.

One moment, they were standing on an endless plane. The next—

They were somewhere else.

Leon's breath hitched.

Because he knew this place.

Chrono Corp.

But not as it was now—as it had been before the Fracture.

The walls were pristine, lined with advanced monitors and holographic blueprints of time-field stabilizers. The air was sterile, humming with energy.

Leon's stomach twisted violently.

This was a memory.

But not just any memory.

His memory.

Selene tensed beside him. "Leon. What the hell is this?"

Leon's mouth felt dry. "This is… my past."

A figure moved ahead of them.

Leon's heart stopped.

It was him.

Not Dark Leon. Not an illusion.

The real, past version of himself.

Standing in a white lab coat, scanning over reports, his younger face calm, focused, unburdened by the weight of everything that had happened since.

Leon took a step forward, his pulse hammering in his skull. "This isn't possible."

Past-Leon didn't react.

It was like watching a recording, the moment playing out exactly as it had before.

Then—

Another voice.

A girl's voice.

"Leon, are you even listening?"

Leon froze.

Selene inhaled sharply.

The voice was Lira's.

Leon turned sharply—and there she was.

Lira Chronos.

She looked exactly as he remembered—bright green eyes full of life, auburn hair tied back in a loose ponytail, her expression a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

She was standing beside Past-Leon, arms crossed, watching him expectantly.

Leon's throat tightened.

This wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

Selene took a slow step forward, her silver-gray eyes locked onto Lira. "Leon… is that really her?"

Leon couldn't answer.

Because he didn't know.

Lira sighed in frustration at Past-Leon. "You can't just ignore everything, you know."

Past-Leon let out a tired chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not ignoring everything. I just… have too much on my mind."

Lira rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, maybe if you stopped playing God for five minutes, you'd actually have time to think."

Leon's hands clenched into fists.

He remembered this moment.

It had been just a normal conversation. Before everything. Before the experiments. Before the Fracture.

Before he lost her.

His breath came faster.

This wasn't real.

This wasn't real.

This wasn't—

Lira turned.

Not to Past-Leon.

To him.

Her green eyes locked onto his.

And she smiled.

"Leon."

The memory shattered.

Leon stumbled back as reality itself collapsed around them—walls dissolving, the lab disintegrating into light.

And then—

Lira's voice.

Soft. Echoing.

"You're getting closer."

Leon's breath hitched.

"Don't stop looking for me."

Then—

Darkness.