Chapter 12: Shattered Reflections

When the world stopped blinking, Elliot Grayson found himself standing in a vast expanse of emptiness. No walls. No sky. No ground. Just an infinite void filled with floating shards of glass, each one reflecting a different version of himself.

One shard showed him as an old man, sitting alone in a decrepit bunker. Another showed him in battle, blood on his face, his eyes hollow. One shard caught his attention most—a version of himself smiling with Voss and other agents, standing in front of the Chronos Division’s headquarters. A timeline where everything worked out.

This place isn't real, Elliot realized. It’s a construct. A liminal space.

“Correct,” a familiar voice echoed. It wasn’t his future self this time—it was something worse.

Elliot turned to see a being made of smoke and glass, its body shifting as if it were an ever-changing puzzle. It had no face, only a hollow mask with a jagged smile. When it spoke, every shard around him vibrated.

“We are the Custodians,” it said, its voice a chorus of thousands. “You have disrupted the weave.”

“The weave?” Elliot asked, bracing himself. His fingers gripped the stabilizer at his side.

“Time is a fabric,” the Custodian replied, twisting its arms in slow, fluid movements. “You have tugged too hard, little anomaly. He has tugged too hard.”

“You mean my future self?” Elliot said, narrowing his eyes.

The Custodian cocked its head. “You still don’t see it, do you?” The glass shards around them shifted, each one showing Elliot's face at different points in time. “You see yourself as one thread in the weave. But you are many threads, overlapping, fraying. Every choice you make splits you further. Every doubt creates a new you. A choice to fight. A choice to run.”

“That’s… not possible,” Elliot muttered, but he knew it was. The fractures in time weren’t caused by anomalies—they were caused by himself.

The Custodian stepped closer, its form towering over him. “Your future self seeks to end the multitudes. He calls it 'perfection.' But perfection is still destruction.”

Elliot’s heart pounded. “Then help me stop him.”

The Custodian's smile widened unnaturally. “No. We do not intervene. We only… observe.”

The void began to collapse. The shards spun rapidly, swirling into a whirlpool of memories. The Custodian's hollow face leaned in close.

“Run fast, little anomaly. The Collector is coming.”

কিন্তু এই সময়ে আমরা আমাদের দেশে ফিরে যাচ্ছে যে বলছো কখন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন কি না জানি কত কি করে সম্ভব হবে বলে মনে করেন

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