The observatory dissolved around Zayn, not in a violent explosion, but a sickening implosion of reality. The walls shimmered, then seemed to melt into nothingness, the dust motes ceasing their dance as if the concept of 'dust' itself was being unwritten. The cold, indifferent gaze of the Watcher's colossal eye, visible through the disintegrating dome, bore down on him, not with malice, but with the implacable certainty of cosmic law. Deviation. Correction. Elimination.
"Zayn! Report!" Leo’s voice, ragged and distorted by the temporal maelstrom, clawed its way through the comms. "Your energy signature just flatlined! What happened?"
Zayn’s Fate Reversal System, his only lifeline, flickered violently on his wrist, its warnings now a cacophony of critical alerts. Temporal integrity compromi
