The Choice That Shouldn’t Exist

"The cruelest trick time plays on us isn’t taking away what we love. It’s offering it back, knowing we can never truly take it."

Viraj couldn’t breathe.

Aditi was standing right there.

Not a shadow. Not an echo. Her.

Lucius took a slow step forward. “Okay, so before we all lose our minds—are we sure that’s really her?”

Viraj barely heard him. His mind was spinning. He had spent so much time grieving, fighting, breaking the universe apart just to stop the Timeborne—only to find out now that maybe, just maybe...

She had never been lost at all.

Viraj forced himself to speak. “This... this isn’t possible.”

The alternate Viraj—his other self—watched him carefully. “And yet, here she is.”

Viraj’s hands curled into fists. “No. You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to throw her in front of me like a test.”

The alternate Viraj shook his head. “This isn’t a test.”

Viraj exhaled sharply, trying to hold onto logic. “Then what is it?”

The answer came, quiet but unshakable.

"A choice."

Viraj’s pulse spiked. “A choice?”

His alternate self took a slow step forward. “You wanted to stop the Timeborne. But time is not something you stop—it’s something you accept.”

Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh great, here we go again. More ‘accept your fate’ nonsense. You know, for a version of Viraj, you’re really leaning into the whole ‘cryptic and unhelpful’ role.”

Viraj ignored him. His entire focus was on her.

She wasn’t moving. Frozen, as if waiting for him.

The whispers of the graveyard city were distant now. Everything else faded away.

Only one thought remained.

Could he save her?

Or worse—had he already failed to?

Viraj turned to his alternate self, his voice dangerously low. “Tell me what’s going on. Now.”

The alternate Viraj studied him for a long moment. Then, finally, he spoke.

"The Timeborne was never meant to be destroyed. It was meant to be completed."

Silence.

Lucius let out a frustrated groan. “Okay, I give up. What does that even mean?”

The alternate Viraj ignored him. “Time was broken long before you ever stepped into it, Viraj. Every timeline, every paradox, every change we made—it all led to one thing. A cycle. One that keeps repeating because we refuse to accept what must happen.”

Viraj felt something cold settle in his chest. “And what must happen?”

His alternate self exhaled.

"She must return to it."

Everything inside Viraj froze.

Lucius took a sharp breath. “Wait. Hold on. You’re saying Aditi is—?”

The alternate Viraj nodded. “She is the missing piece. The one the Timeborne has been calling back.”

Viraj’s stomach dropped.

“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not possible. That doesn’t make sense.”

The other Viraj’s expression softened. “I know. I thought the same thing when I stood where you are.”

Viraj’s mind raced, trying to piece it together. The Timeborne had always been an entity beyond time itself, something that existed outside of logic. But if what his alternate self was saying was true...

Then Aditi had been part of it all along.

Lucius broke the silence. “Alright. You know what? No. I refuse. There is absolutely no way we’re handing over Aditi to some cosmic time monster just because the universe said so.”

Viraj agreed.

Every fiber of his being screamed against it.

But deep down, something inside him whispered: What if it’s true?

The alternate Viraj watched him carefully. “You have a choice, Viraj. Continue the fight. Tear apart time itself trying to stop what must happen. Or... let it complete, and end the cycle.”

Viraj clenched his jaw. “You’re asking me to sacrifice her.”

“No.” His other self shook his head. “I’m telling you that she was never ours to save.”

Viraj’s breath came sharp and uneven. He looked at Aditi again—still frozen, still waiting.

How could he choose?

How could he possibly make the right call?

Then, Aditi’s eyes moved.

She was waking up.

And just like that—the choice was no longer his alone.

"There is no such thing as an easy choice. Only the ones we have to live with."

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