chapter 04 going dark

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The sky was a deep shade of crimson, the sun setting on another brutal day of war. It had been three long months since Sif joined the ranks of the Liberty Republic's forces, and his reputation had soared. He was a clone, but not just any clone—he was the warrior who led charge after charge, the soldier who refused to stay down. The Great Clone War, as it was now called, was a bloodbath, and despite Sif's efforts, the Liberty Republic was losing badly to the two republics

Despite the chaos of war, Sif found solace in his daily meetings with Ash and Pandora. Ash, with his fiery red hair and quick wit, worked in the mechanical area, always tinkering with something. Pandora, with her striking beauty and sharp mind, was a scientist in the medical department. They shared lunch every day, and for the first time in his life, Sif didn't feel alone. They were his friends, his comrades, the ones who kept him grounded in the madness of war.But everything changed when the doctor summoned Sif to report to the CEO of NighTech. The CEO was a mysterious figure, one whom Sif had only met twice before. Strong, commanding, and possessing an aura of quiet intensity, the CEO was not someone to be trifled with. Sif knew this meeting was important.

The CEO wasted no time. "There's a mission I've been waiting to assign to you," he said, his voice steady and deliberate. "We have a device—a time machine and also a wormhole generator , though it's not just any dvice. It's something far more valuable. I need you to transfer it from one of our other bases to this location. I'm certain it will be stolen if it stays where it is."

Sif nodded, taking in the gravity of the situation. He left the CEO's office, his mind already formulating a plan. But as he gathered his team, something felt off.s Sif prepared for the mission, a gnawing unease settled in his chest. Something was amiss, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. When he arrived at the base, he found an eerie silence where Ash and Pandora should have been. Their absence was unsettling, but Sif brushed it aside, focusing on the task at hand.

The truth hit him like a thunderbolt one evening as he combed through old records and communications, searching for answers. It started with a discrepancy—a date that didn't match up, a name that seemed oddly familiar. As he dug deeper, fragments of his memories began to fall into place, but they were twisted and fragmented, like pieces of a shattered mirror reflecting distorted images of the past.

The leader he had followed so faithfully, the one who had guided him through countless battles, was not a figure of strength and authority. No, he was a phantom of Sif's past, a distorted vision of his deceased older brother. The leader's face was an amalgamation of grief and loss, a memory clouded by the ravages of war.

Pandora, whose elegance and kindness had once been his sanctuary, was nothing more than a figment of his imagination, a hollowed-out actress he had admired from afar. The soft laughter and the gentle touch that had seemed so real were nothing but shadows on the walls of his mind.

Ash, the roguish mechanic with his sharp wit and fiery demeanor, was merely a character from a comedy show Sif had once loved. The camaraderie they shared, the jokes and the shared meals—it was all an illusion, a comforting façade created by his desperate mind.

The revelation shattered Sif's reality. The emotional weight of discovering that the people he had grown to care about were mere figments of his imagination was unbearable. For three long days, he felt as if he was drowning in a sea of anguish. The loneliness was palpable, a suffocating fog that clung to his every thought. He was adrift, lost in a labyrinth of despair where every turn revealed new horrors of his fractured mind.

His isolation was crushing, the realization of being utterly alone pressing down on him like a physical weight. The trust he had placed in his imagined comrades turned to bitter ashes in his mouth. The very fabric of his reality unraveled before his eyes, leaving him with nothing but a deep, gnawing emptiness.

In the depths of his despair, Sif grappled with the crumbling pieces of his sanity. His mind, once a reliable ally, now seemed like a traitor, conspiring to drive him into madness. The isolation was relentless, each moment stretching into an eternity of torment.

But amidst the chaos of his thoughts, Sif found a flicker of resolve. It was a fragile ember, but it was enough. He forced himself to focus, to pull himself together. The pain was undeniable, but he had a mission to complete. The echoes of his shattered reality would not be the end of him.The day of the mission dawned with an oppressive weight. Sif and a squad of identical clones assembled around the massive device, a monolithic box suspended ominously in the air by an unseen force. The air crackled with a low, relentless hum that resonated deep in Sif's bones, a prelude to the chaos that would soon unfold.

As the transfer began, an icy detachment descended over Sif's mind. He could feel the coldness spreading through him, numbing his emotions, stripping him of any trace of empathy. Without warning, his hand tightened around the grip of his weapon, and he turned on the other clones with ruthless efficiency.

The sterile cargo space became a scene of brutal carnage. Sif's actions were swift and merciless—his blade moved with clinical precision, each swing severing limbs, each thrust piercing hearts. The clones fell one by one, their blood staining the cold metal floors, their cries for help falling on deaf ears. Sif's face remained a mask of emotionless resolve; he felt nothing as he watched them die. Their pleas were just background noise to the single purpose driving him.

The few clones who tried to stop him were met with brutal resistance. They rushed at him, shouting over the cacophony of the battle, trying to reason with him. Their voices were frantic, pleading, but Sif's mind was a fortress of ice. He cut them down without hesitation, each movement a testament to his complete detachment from the humanity he had once possessed.

Finally, he reached the device, its humming now a deafening roar. His hands were shaking, but not from fear or regret—he was devoid of both. He engaged the controls with a grim finality, ignoring the alarms and warnings flashing around him. The device whirred and vibrated violently as energy built up, its power surging uncontrollably.

The other clones, now barely a handful, desperately tried to restrain him, their voices a mix of desperation and anger. They fought against him, their attempts to wrestle him away from the controls futile against his cold determination. Sif fought them off with brutal efficiency, their resistance crumbling beneath his relentless assault.

And then, with a final surge of energy, the device exploded in a blinding flash. The force of the explosion was overwhelming, tearing through the cargo space with a ferocity that obliterated everything in its path. Sif felt his body being ripped apart, every atom disintegrating into a void of nothingness.

But amidst the annihilation, a peculiar calmness enveloped him. The white light that engulfed him was not pain but an eerie stillness. He found himself not dead, but floating—drifting in a vast expanse of nothing.

Moments later, he emerged from the depths of the explosion and into the cold embrace of the sea. The saltwater stung his skin, pulling him down before he surfaced with a gasp. The ocean stretched out endlessly around him, the sky above a serene blue, a stark contrast to the chaos he had just left behind.

 The ocean stretched out endlessly around him, the sky above a serene blue, a stark contrast to the chaos he had just left behind

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Sif floated on the water's surface, disoriented and bewildered. The battlefield, the device, the war—they were all gone. The only thing left was the unrelenting expanse of the ocean. As he struggled to grasp what had happened, he realized that his past was now a distant, fragmented memory. All that remained was the stark, brutal reality of survival in this new, uncharted world

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