POV: Riley

My granddaughter came back wrong. Not evil. Not corrupted. Just fundamentally altered in ways I couldn't comprehend.

Thea sat in the medical bay while Luna ran tests. Her eyes flickered between normal brown and something else. Something that held infinity. Past, present, and future overlapping in a single gaze.

"She's stable," Luna said quietly, looking at readings that made no sense. "Physically, she's still fifteen. But her consciousness exists across multiple timelines simultaneously. She's experiencing every version of it at once."

I watched Thea. She was staring at nothing. Or everything. I couldn't tell.

"Thea?" I said softly. "Can you hear me?"

She blinked. Focused on me. "Yes,...