1

Clarification

Please read carefully before reading this book.

It is a fictional creation.

All the events, places, institutions, scientific experiments,

secret plans, government apparatus and characters
described in this book are based on the imagination of the
author. If a character, event or institution bears
resemblance to a real person or institution, it is just a
coincidence.

The technical and scientific concepts mentioned in this

book (such as time travel, artificial intelligence, or secret
government experiments) are used only for the
interestingness and dramatization of the narrative. There
is no scientific or historical evidence of these.

This is not written with the intention of hurting the

sentiments of any caste, religion, community, country or
government. If any readers object to an excerpt, please
keep in mind — this is a story, not a document. The
locations, codes, and events used in the book are designed

2
to create a special thriller-effect and have nothing to do
with any actual confidential information.

Readers are requested to accept this story as an art form

and not as a historical or technical document.

When reading "ANANTA_P," you agree that you are

part of an imaginative journey—one in which the
boundaries of reality, time, and identity have been
deliberately blurred.

3
 Author's Introduction

Dibyendu Nath is a software engineer by profession and

an imaginative writer at heart. Passing the days between
lines of code in the modern technological world, they
have nurtured within themselves a world where stories are
not just entertainment, but windows to consciousness.

Dibyendu believes that there is an untold story hidden

inside every human being – and with the right words, it
can shake the world. He loves delving deep into fiction on
complex subjects such as science, time, existence and
human consciousness.

His writing style is a wonderful confluence of both

precision of technique and depth of emotion. This book is
a continuation of that journey – where logic, imagination
and human sensibilities go together.

When they're not typing code on a keyboard, they're

creating a new world — where imagination is no longer
just imagination.

4
 Table of Contents

The Man Who Was Dead ................................. 6

That one night in the village ........................... 18
The Pain of 1957 ........................................... 37
The Resolution of Infinity ............................... 50
Poison, Instruments and Destruction ............. 70
From Illusion to Reality ................................. 90
Behind the chair ......................................... 113
What wasn't written .................................... 130

5
 The Man Who Was Dead

The snow-capped valley, once known to the world as

"Devkunda", is now a buried memory. It was no ordinary
village, and perhaps it was no longer worthy of being
called a village. Today, that name is neither on any
official map nor on any GPS signal. It was as if someone
had deliberately erased his identity.

Wrapped in the white blanket of the valley, those deserted

houses, sunken balconies, and half-burnt temples were
breathing in the ashes of their own history. There was no
power line, no wave of mobile network. Time stood still
there several decades ago. But even in this silence, if one
listened attentively, a strange whisper floated in the air—
slow, but trembling.

"He showed up again..."

Sometimes these words would fall into my ears like

children's horror stories, and sometimes they would be
muttered softly as old men closed doors. The "he" in
Devkunda was not a name, but a shadow — a shadow that

6
was never clearly seen but was recorded in everyone's
souls.

When Arjun Verma, a journalist sitting in the glare of

Delhi, read the story for the first time, he burst out
laughing.

"The man who died in 1957 still appears? Really?"

He must have thought it must be an old mountain rumor,

or a folk tale, which is told to scare children from
generation to generation. But Arjuna was not one to laugh
off mysteries — the fire of his curiosity soon turned into
passion.

One evening, out of sheer curiosity, he filed an RTI – just

to find out who this "man of 1957" was. The reply came
a few weeks later, and there was only one name written in
it – "Captain V.S."

There was another line that filled Arjuna's veins with a

moment of silence – "Death recorded: 1957, but death
certificate unavailable." "

Death is written in a government document, but the death

certificate has not been made till date?

It couldn't have been the only mistake.

7
After opening the thick history books, Arjun realized that
he was not in a simple story, but on the outer circle of a
much larger mystery.

Was it a secret military experiment? Is Captain V.S. Were

they never dead?

And if they don't die... So, what task did they have to
accomplish while they were alive?

Why were they hidden?

The storm of these questions rising in the heart and mind

did not allow Arjuna to sit still. He knew that if there was
an answer, it would not be found in the buildings of Delhi
– it would be found where the story began – Devkunda.

On that snowy night, as the rest of Delhi lurked in quilts,

Arjun set out – in search of a truth that might even change
his own.

As he approached the valley, the weather began to warn.

The road was no longer a road, but a trail of mud and
stones – as old as if no one had set foot on it for decades.

It was at the very first bend of the village that Arjun got
his first strange feeling.

8
An old man, who had probably not seen an outsider for
years, shuddered at the sight of him. There was neither
eagerness nor warmth in his eyes. There was just a strange
nervousness – as if Arjuna had not brought any news, but
some trouble.

"Are you from Delhi?"

The old man asked, but there was no question in his voice,
but a warning.

"Yes," said Arjun, "Captain V.S. I want to know about

it..."

The old man's eyes turned to stone for a moment. Without

saying a word, he turned his back to Arjuna and closed
the door.

At that moment, Arjuna understood – this is no ordinary

village...

And this is not going to be an ordinary story.

The people in the village were weird. Arjuna tried several

times to ask him a direct question: "Captain V.S. Who was
it?", "Do you know he's still alive?" — but each time only
eyes were stolen, heads bowed.

9
Some of them closed the doors when they saw Arjuna.
Some stared at him as if he had committed a sin. The few
who spoke, their words were shrouded in fear and
uneasiness.

"Sir..."

A middle-aged man who was cutting fodder for a buffalo

said without looking at Arjuna, "Stay away from that
man... He's not human. "

"What do you mean?" asked Arjuna, startled.

"He comes out of the grave at night... We've seen... He

walks, but the mud under his feet doesn't move... And in
his eyes..." He left his talk unfinished.

"What?" asked Arjuna leaning over, "What in his eyes?"

The man simply said, "The shadow of death." "

Arjuna initially considered all these things as

superstitions. She explained to herself, "Such stories are
made in small villages... People make ghosts out of what
they don't understand. "

But that night... That night was different.

The only dhaba in the village – a tin roof, broken benches

and a mud-stained wooden table.
10
Arjun was sitting there drinking tea. The weather was cold,
and there were strange echoes in the atmosphere.

The tea seller, who had been talking to him till now,
suddenly fell silent. Then he lowered his eyes at someone.

Arjuna turned his head and saw an old man, over seventy,
walking slowly towards his desk with weak trembling
hands.

Without saying a word, he sat down on the bench. There

was no sleep in his eyes... It was just an old exhaustion.
He looked at Arjuna for a while, then said in a very low
voice, —

"We saw his death... With your own eyes... Burning in the
pyre. "

Arjuna's hand stopped with the cup.

"Who?" he asked.

"Same..."

The old man's gaze drifted away somewhere in the air.

"That... That's what you're here for. "

"Captain V.S.?"

Arjuna's voice trembled

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The old man shook his head.

"It was a cold night in 1957. A wooden pyre was adorned

on a secret platform outside the village. We were not
called... But we were watching.

It was burning... The whole body is in flames... And we

all saw his silent death.

"And now?" Arjuna's breathing was getting heavier.

The old man still said in the same cold voice, "Now the
same face is seen outside the village... Same trick... No
change... It's just that his eyes are no longer human. "

Arjun got up quietly from the dhaba that night. Sleep was
far away from my eyes.

In the morning, before the sun, he headed to what people

called the "old graveyard." There was no paved wall, no
path. There were just shrubs, weeds, and mosses growing
everywhere. He saw a broken grave in the far corner,
isolated from the rest of the graves. It was as if the others
had cut him off from themselves. The stone on the grave
was full of dust and mist.

Arjuna slowly wiped the dust off his fingers and tried to
read the words. Gradually, he began to emerge—"Captain

12
V.S. — 1926 to 1957. He sacrificed his life for the nation.
"

The words seemed to come out of the depths of time and

dissolved in his eyes.

Arjuna read that name again — once... And then again...

Then the third time.

He could not believe that it was the same name as in the

RTI. Same name — and yet... So much unsaid. As he was
about to turn, the mist suddenly deepened. The breath
stopped.

He saw the other side of the grave. A shadow.

Someone was there. Standing in the mist. Quite

straightforward. His face was hidden in the mist, but his
presence was clearly felt in the shivering air.

The shadow was just standing. It wasn't even moving. It's

like you're waiting... Or monitoring.

Arjuna's fingers began to grow cold. A shiver ran through

his spine. The shadow didn't bend... She doesn't speak...
She just watched. Gradually, the shadow began to come
closer. Every step, like a stone on the heart of time. There

13
was no hurry — there was a pause in his gait, but every
step was confident.

It was as if he was not waiting for this meeting, but he was

not avoiding it either.

The mist was still floating in the air, but now the man —
yes, he was no longer a shadow — was clearly visible.

A plain military jacket with its collar raised. Not a single

wrinkle on the face. No age line, no trace of fatigue.

It was as if time had forgotten to touch him.

But his eyes... Those eyes did not belong to a human being
– they belonged to someone who had lived time, not life.

There was no tiredness in those eyes – there was waiting.

There was a depth. Seeing such a depth that Arjuna felt as
if he was falling within himself.

His breathing stopped. His lips trembled—yet he asked:

"Are you... Capt. V.S. Are they?"

Silence.

Only a light breeze that was sliding the leaves across the
ground. The man just stared at Arjuna for a while.

14
Then he smiled very lightly – the kind of smile one gives
to an old acquaintance after seeing him after years... But
with which much has been left unsaid.

Then he began to speak.

His voice was low, but every word went straight to his
chest.

"You're late..."

Then he bent his head slightly, and looking into Arjuna's

eyes, said, "I should have died 68 years ago..."

That one sentence changed the course of time.

Arjuna stood there fiercely. The same line kept ringing in

my ears – should have died 68 years ago...

There was no use of logic here anymore. It wasn't part of

a folklore. It didn't look like science fiction either. That
was the reality – and Arjuna was standing right in front of
that reality. The man was still there. Neither forward nor
back. He still had the same strange calm expression on his
face – as if he was testing Arjuna... Or maybe recognizing

Arjuna's fingers were starting to get cold. My heart was

pounding, but a voice inside said, "That's it... That's the
truth... You can't go back from here. "

15
That one sentence changed Arjun's definition of
journalism. It wasn't a matter of reporting a story — it was
going to be her own story.

Why is this man alive? How come?

Does the heart really beat in this body? Or something

else?

If it's really Captain V.S. So where was he for 68 years?

And the biggest question — is he human or not?

There was no fear in Arjuna's eyes anymore – there was

curiosity now. The invisible door was now open – and
Arjuna was determined to peer through it... No matter
what.

This is where the journey began — to a truth that will not

only shake history... Rather, but Arjuna's also very
existence will be put in question.

16
17
 That one night in the village

Hidden in the shadow of strong mountain winds and dense

cedars was Devkunda – a village that time had erased
from its map. There was no road, no signal, and no
concrete way to connect with the outside world.

The daylight barely stayed here for two times, and at

night... It's like you're wrapped in an invisible fear. Every
evening seemed to repeat itself — shrouded in silence,
mysterious and burdened with some hidden truth.

As evening fell, the bells of the temples would fall silent,

the streets would be deserted, and behind every window
came the same resound: "He has come again..." This
sentence was no longer a rumour, it had become part of
the village beats. Arjun Verma – a well-known journalist
in Delhi – used to think of these things as mere folklore.
"A man who died in 1957 is still alive?" he would often
laugh and say, "RTI for ghosts. There is not a little.”

But when Devkunda came, that laughter had disappeared

somewhere. This village was strange — very strange.

18
The people here did not look alike, but there was the same
restlessness in their eyes. Some were very silent, as if they
wanted to say something but had their tongues tied.

Some smiled tremblingly, and some bowed their heads

and whispered just one name—"V.S."

Arjun thought maybe it was PTSD. It is a shadow of an

old war or an accident. But there was something... It was
spread everywhere, but it was not visible.

One night — lightning was crackling, raindrops hitting

the cedar leaves like the rhythm of an old melody. The
owner of the dhaba slowly came up to Arjuna, not a
twinkle in his eyes, but fear.

His voice trembled, "Today... He has come. Near the old

school. If you want to see, this is the time.”

A cold wave ran down Arjuna's spine. Arjun pulled off

his jacket, picked up the torch, turned on the recorder and
quietly set out in the deserted direction of the village. The
old school was now in ruins. Every brick, every wall had
its own story. In the middle of the courtyard was an iron
bench—alone, rusty, but unscathed.

Someone was sitting on the bench.

19
A tall man, with his back to him. Shoulders straight, neck
raised — as if he were saying something from the sky...
Or listening.

A flash of lightning illuminated his face – Arjuna's heart

stopped for a moment. There was something in that face
— the silence of many lives.

Arjuna walked up to him with slow steps.

"I'm sorry...He said softly.

No answer. The sound of the wind and the rustle of the

trees were the testimony there. Arjuna went closer — now
he was standing in front of him.

He looked into those eyes—deep, extinguished but alive.

It was as if the man had been dead several times... And
each time he became a little more alive.

"Who are you?"

A long silence. Then a breath... Slow, tired but precise.

"The name... I left a long time ago.

People used to call me VS. "

Arjuna froze for a moment. It was as if the wind had

ceased. The same name echoed in his ears — "Captain
V.S."
20
What he read on that tombstone yesterday morning. The
same date — 1957 — was the same year in which he was
recorded as "dead."

"Are you... Capt. V.S. His words came out trembling, as

if he was not asking a question, but afraid of an answer.

The man laughed lightly—very slowly, but very deeply.

It was as if the laughter had come from an old wound, or
from a secret that had been buried under time.

"I was..."

There was neither claim nor denial in his voice, he said.

"Maybe I'm still ... Only time will decide.”

Arjun's heartbeat had picked up speed. His camera was on

— every word was being recorded, but now the purpose
of the camera was not journalism. It was about convincing
myself.

Captain V.S. "Yes, that was the name that suited him
now," he said, as if he knew it all. As if he knows who,
when, where and why he is listening.

"Where do you live?"

Arjuna asked, "There was more uneasiness in his voice

than curiosity.
21
Captain V.S. Without changing anything, he said in a very
calm voice, "Right here... The same place where my time
stopped.”

This answer was nothing short of a puzzle. But his tone

was clear. No madness, no fear, no bragging. It's like a
spiritual monk who knows everything — but doesn't feel
the need to prove anything.

Arjuna looked into her eyes. Those eyes... She was deep,
she was tired... But there was something about her — as
if she had seen many births.

Arjun's eyes went to her old, torn coat.

Something was peeking out of his pocket—something

like a yellow paper, but it was stamped. Arjuna moved
slowly forward – and as he looked nearer, he could read:

"Project Ananta — ID003, Limited Access"

It was as if Arjun's heart had stopped for a moment.

"Project Ananta?"

This was not an ordinary man... Nor is this a misguided

freak. It was part of a secret government mission. An
experiment that had been erased from the history books.

22
A storm of questions began to run in Arjuna's eyes. His
lips were still open...

Captain V.S. She looked directly into his eyes. That look...
It wasn't an ordinary person. She looked in, as if she had
read Arjuna's mind.

"You didn't come looking for me...

You're here to take me back, aren't you?"

These words hit Arjuna's chest directly. He didn't answer.

But Captain V.S. He didn't need it — he knew it all.
Probably from the start.

Arjuna's throat went dry. As soon as he saw Captain V.S.

As he looked up, he felt that someone was reading the
walls of his heart – the words came out of his mouth, but
his soul was trembling.

"No, no. I'm just a journalist... I'm here to report. Captain

V.S. She listened attentively. He didn't bow his head, he
didn't pursue, he didn't react.

He just smiled lightly — that smile... There was no mercy,

no sarcasm. It was a smile that probably said, "I know
everything... Still, you speak. "

"Journalist?"

23
He repeated, as if the word was not new to him, but very
old.

"Or a detective?"

His voice was cold—but there was a strange warmth in it,

which left a shiver in his veins. A tone that was both
confident and warned.

"Well..."

He looked up at the sky, as if he had been talking to time.

"Someone had to come..."

Then, without saying any more words, he stood up. But

getting up was not like an ordinary person. His footsteps
did not fall on the ground – but he walked as if the wind
was making his way. It was as if gravity had abandoned
him. It's like he wasn't from this earth...

Arjuna became rooted there. His breathing was irregular.

His mind was filled with hundreds of questions: Is this a
ghost? Wasn't the man dead? Is this the result of a secret
experiment? Am I also living in the shadow of a lie?

His fingers were fixed on the recording device, but it was

no longer the curiosity of a journalist — but rather a man's
shattered realism.

24
The man standing in front of him was no longer a rumor,
nor an anecdote or a horror story. Now that was a reality
that put Arjuna's whole truth in question.

There was only one voice echoing between Arjuna's

heartbeats – "You have come to take me back, haven't
you?"

This story is as much as Captain V.S. It's done as much as

it is now.

The next morning...

As the first rays of the sun fell on the moss-covered roof

of the old government record office in the snowy valley
of Devkunda, the wind broke an old, chilly silence. The
whole area seemed to wake up from sleep and began to
hear some unknown uneasiness.

But Arjuna... He was already there.

His camera was off, recording was off, and his face didn't
have the professional smile he usually wears in front of
his sources. Today, it was not just a journalist, it was a
question — the answer to which lay somewhere in these
dusty files.

25
The record office was, in effect, a dilapidated mansion.
The doors cracked, the floors were crooked, and the
dampness on the walls made maps of history. Old files
peeped through the old wooden shelves as if they did not
want to reveal their own secrets.

An old clerk—who seemed to be a relic of time clinging

to himself there—walked slowly.

Arjuna asked meekly:

"Captain V.S. Someone by name... In the 1950s? Record

related to any army?"

The clerk looked at him as if he was not asking a question,

but a dream. Then, with tired hands, he picked up a heavy
register and threw it on the table—as if no one had asked
him a name for years.

The pages turned. The rustle of old papers and the dust
blown by the fingers in between... It was as if an old soul
was being brought back to life.

The clerk's voice was rough, "No, sir. No birth, no death,

no entry into the army. He didn't seem to be a famous
man.”

"Wasn't it famous?"

26
These words echoed like a hammer in Arjuna's mind.

His forehead furrowed.

"Impossible..." To himself, he thought, "There must be

some stern. He had only two options now—either he
should accept that Captain V.S. It's just an illusion... Or
take the path where government records end, but the truth
begins.

As soon as he got back to the lodge, his face was no longer

tired. Now he was quiet — but that peace was like a storm
that takes one last breath before blowing everything away.

Wasting no time, she picked up the phone and dialed –

Mira Kapoor. Fast, savvy, and authorized cyber expert
who rips every corner of the system. Mira was part of the
tech team that proved Arjun's reports to be true several
times with 'head-to-toe data'.

But this time, it didn't just want the data — it wanted

"error marks." Information that was never recorded or
deliberately deleted.

"Meera, is there a name — 'Viraj Saxena' or just 'V.S.'?"

His voice was straight, but there was a look of uneasiness
in his eyes.

27
"Between 1950 and 60 ... Whatever you can get. Army
records, census, and list of defense personnel, or any
visual matching algorithm... I need anything, any broken
link. On the other side of the phone, Mira was silent for a
few seconds. Then she answered, "I'm working on it." But
Arjuna... If you find something, it may not be what you
think. "

"Maybe..." Arjun said softly, "But don't stop now. "

The phone went off, but the fire that had been burning
inside Arjun had become more of a stubbornness than a
question.

"If the name is erased... So, there must have been

something that was hidden. Now I will look for the
shadow of that 'wiped out' – because his very existence
may be the most dangerous file in this country. "

Several hours passed.

The snow of Devkunda was still not melting, and so was

Arjuna's restlessness. Finally, his phone vibrates. Meera's
name flashed on the screen.

He didn't call — just a text.

28
"No mail was received. No Viraj Saxena, no VS, no
fingerprints, no biometrics. Arjun... This man doesn't
exist in the digital world. It's as if the system has erased
every trace of it. "

Arjun stared at the screen – as if the darkness of an entire

century was hidden in that one text. "Doesn't exist
digitally?" This was not a hidden man — it was like a
shadow that had been deliberately erased.

"Like a truth written in invisible ink — all that remains

now is in its ashes..." Arjuna muttered.

He immediately added another number—an old

relationship, an old debt.

Retired RAW officer, Colonel Iyer.

There was a heavy voice on the line, the coldness in the

voice that is seen in the eyes of the survivors of the war.

"Are you still alive? Let's get good... Whose grave are you
digging this time?"

Arjun said without a role: "Project Ananta. And a name

— V.S. or Viraj Saxena"

On the other side, there was silence for a few moments.

Then, after a long breath, the same heavy voice broke out,

29
"Don't take that name again, Arjun... It has become so
classified that even breathing near it is not free from
danger. "

"Do you mean he's real?"

"More than real. He has been curtailed so many times that

even taking his name now is considered a breach of
protocol. And listen... In 1976, there was another 'time
diversion' case – three people involved disappeared the
very next week without a trace. No DNA, no records, no
death certificate. It was as if time had swallowed them up.
"

"Time-related discrepancy?" Arjuna's throat went dry.

"Cracks in the structure of time." Infinite's experiments

did not consider time to be linear. That project was an idea
– humans are not the subject of time; architects can be
banned. But then... Something went upside down. "

The call was cut off — without saying goodbye. Like no

phone, history was speaking... And then he fell silent on
his own.

There were no questions in front of Arjuna's eyes, there

were no answers, but there was no one to understand the
tongue of those answers.
30
It wasn't just a report. It was a battle — to get the truth out
of his grave.

And this time, he went straight to Captain V.S. Reached

out.

The chill wind was strong, but Arjun's tone was steadier
than before. No recording on, no barrage of questions.
Just cast a keen glance at Captain V.S. — and asked
softly:

"Why was your identity erased?"

Captain V.S. He was silent for a while. He did not look at

Arjuna, but at the other side of the distant mountains.
Where once the sun had been hidden, but now there was
only snow and silence.

"Because my identity wasn't just a name..." His tone was

calm, but every word was a hammer on some old wall.

"... It was a mess — a fracture that had crept into the wall
of time. I was... And for this, the structure of the world
was shaken. "

Arjuna felt as if he was not a human being, but an

incomplete document of time – which had been made

31
secret not by the government, but by time itself. Captain
V.S. He looked back at Arjuna; his eyes were not tired.

She was calm, but one thing was clear to her — "I was
wiped out... Because I stopped. And time does not forgive
those things that stand before it. "

But one thing was forever etched in Arjun's mind —

"Some truths are so dangerous that the system doesn't hide
them — it erases them... As if they never were. "

"Because I was dead... But time did not approve of my

death. "

There was no remorse in his voice. He was neither

complaining, nor feeling proud — just a quiet confession,
as if someone had compromised, not defeated, while
fighting history.

Arjuna's breath stopped. "What do you mean? Even if

death leaves you... So, what are you?"

Captain V.S. I looked him straight in the eyes — no fear,

no shadows... Just a naked truth.

"I was a soldier of the country, Arjuna. But I'm not the
only one anymore. I am a mess of time, which the
government cannot erase, it can only hide.”

32
Arjun's fingers tightened on the camera — but he had no
intention of recording it... It had to be understood.

Captain V.S. He gently put his hand in his pocket — and

pulled out a burnt metal chip. Small, but heavy. It's as if
it's not just data, but some history has been burnt to ashes.

The chip was trembling on his palm—or maybe the air

was trembling at his presence. He quietly opened the chip
in front of Arjuna.

Arjun's eyes widened as he read the embossed letters

wrapped in mist – "Project Ananta – ID 003 – Level
Omega Permission "

"Level omega?" muttered Arjun.

Captain V.S. For the first time, she gave a faint smile —
a smile that knew the other person wouldn't be able to go
back. "What is this?" asked Arjuna, the vibration in his
voice that is born in the midst of fear. Captain V.S. He
didn't answer—just slid the chip a little closer.

"This is something that is no longer officially recorded,"

his voice did not resonate – as it went straight into
Arjuna's mind.

33
"This is not a report of my posting... This is my expulsion.
My history, my mistake... And the experiment that made
me incongruous with the human being. "

"Does it... Is that true?"

Arjun had asked this question, but he regretted it as soon

as he asked, because Captain V.S. Looking into the eyes
of... It was like peeping into the depths of a universe.

No star, no direction — just an endless emptiness...

Where truth doesn't breathe, it burns. Captain V.S. He

bowed his head and said, "It is more dangerous to uncover
the truth than to find it." "

Arjuna's hand moved slowly – he placed the chip in the

inner pocket of his jacket.

He could feel as if someone had put a bomb exploding

every moment under his heart . Now he had the story. A
story that was neither to be published in the pages of
newspapers nor to
be featured in TV debates. This story will open only
once... And then maybe everything will stop.

34
Arjun played Captain V.S. He looked at her, but she didn't
look like a human anymore. It was not a 'mystery', it was
a 'battlefield' – something that was about to begin within.

And somewhere Arjuna knew—maybe... It may also be

his last story.

35
36
 The Pain of 1957

The shivering cold of Devkunda that night wasn't just

outside – it was now descending into Arjuna's bones.

The room was a part of a small wooden lodge — a chilly

breeze rustled through the walls, like a whisper of an old
anecdote. A small electric heater was placed near his feet,
which itself was making a whirling noise. The mist had
deepened outside the window — and behind the mist,
somewhere far away, a shadow... Which disappeared
before it was seen every time.

Arjuna's focus was not on all that.

His attention was on the metal chip that lay between his
palms, like a throbbing secret. The chip was not
completely burnt or fully intact — just like Captain V.S.
Identity: Incomplete, hidden, and alive despite official
death. He turned on an old air-gap system on the table —
completely cut off from the Internet, completely without
any surveillance or remote access.
This was the same system that Arjun had used only twice
– both times in cases related to state secrets.

37
Taking a long, slow breath, Arjun plugged the chip into
the port.

The screen went black for a few moments.

There was an awkward silence in the room— the sound

of the heater had stopped.

And then... Blink.

Old, encoded structures began to emerge on the screen .

MD-Zeta-X1... R Protocol... Coordinating the time seal...
And then, gradually, one by one, the files began to open.

First came a few scattered thumbnails — ripped audio

snippets with broken waveforms, a few JPEG snapshots
that had been messed up, and then a single video icon —
"A13_site_scene.log"

Arjuna clicked it with trembling hands.

A blurry, grain-filled black-and-white video footage

began playing on the screen.

In one corner of the screen was written the time code –

"17 July 1957 – Site A-13 – Classified"

At first glance, we see a mountainous road – dusty,

deserted, close to a military base. The clip was grainy but
showing everything with heartbreaking clarity.
38
A heavy military truck was speeding along the road.
Inside the truck were a few soldiers – their faces hidden,
covered with helmets. But then the camera locks on one
face.

Captain Viraj Saxena.

The same face that Arjun had seen the previous night. But
in the footage, he was young — his eyes still the same —
serious, sharp, and beyond time.

His lips were stitched, but his gaze spoke — as if they

knew he was not going to a front, but to a "laboratory of
time."

His pale green uniform shone brightly, chest broad and

perfectly disciplined. The rest of the soldiers inside the
truck were watching him – but no one was talking to him.

The camera tilts down for a second — Viraj had a stamped

metal briefcase on his lap .

It read, "Reactor 13 – Active Core Protocol – Temporal

Balancer "

Arjuna's eyes were torn apart.

Temporal balance? Reactor 13?

He understood — this was no ordinary patrol or mission.

39
It wasn't a war... It was a mission to tamper with "time".
There is a thunder of lightning in the video — the camera
blurs in the slightest flash ...

And in the last frame flashes a word – "Operation Ananta

– Phase 1 has begun." "

Then everything becomes black. Only Arjuna's breathing

was moving—fast, scattered. She paused the screen, but
her heart was still recording.

That night, Devkunda's cold had become colder now – for

Arjuna had known that Captain V.S. was not just an
abnormality ... That was a line in India's history, which
someone had mistakenly extended in the future.

The Future Science Council – the Nehruvian initiative –

was described in the documents as CFSNI. But on the
ground, it was a secret institution, behind whose walls
India was preparing to "catch up to the future".

The wheels of the truck slowly stopped near the gate,

where there was no board, no name... There was only one
metal sliding gate — an old white wall above with blurred
letters: "Restricted – only for S2 confidential permission"

As the truck's engine shuts down, two soldiers open the

door. Captain Viraj Saxena descends with the same
40
consistency and dignity – his steps straight, eyes in front,
and mind open. Perhaps he was still not in doubt but had
leaned towards a certain destiny.

He is not received by a formal military officer, but by a

scientist in a thin, long, white coat — Dr. Amin Qureshi.

There was a sparkle in his eyes, but that sparkle was not
of knowledge – it was of experimentation. Dr. Qureshi
had a tablet in his hands –
on which biometric data was constantly being scanned.

"Finally... We have the right candidate to play with the

times," he smiles softly.

Then he turns around and points inwards:

"Come on, Captain. From today onwards you will not just
be a soldier... You will be the heartbeat of history.”

Outside, it looked like a government building from the

60s — old concrete, window lattice, yellow lights inside.
But within...

It was like another world.

Underground tunnels, bio-scanner checkpoints, AI-

interface panels and a huge dome, centered on a huge
platform – where it was written:

41
"Project Ananta – Omega is forbidden entry without
permission" Here in history, India was moving towards
science.

The foundations of IITs were being laid, ISRO's first

designs were being prepared, institutions like AIIMS
were taking shape. But just parallel to that national pride,
behind a closed door, a faction in India was preparing to
"break the time."

The project, which no one knew about outside, was

recorded inside as "time balancing engineering". Its
purpose: to bend the times to fight the uncertainty of the
future — to create a soldier who can enter both the past
and the future.

Indira Gandhi, who was on her way to power at the time,

did not approve of the initiative directly, but its entire
shadow support was driven by her intent.

"If it fails, it never existed, and if it works — we'll control

the time." This was Dr. Qureshi's secret understanding
between science and Indira Gandhi's politics.

Viraj's ideal wasn't just his discipline, his neuron

responses, DNA rhythms, and temporal pulse

42
conductivity were different from any human being of that
era.

"His brain signals match the time graph," Dr. Qureshi

wrote in a file. And at the same time began Project
Ananta's first "Human Anchor Test" – in which Captain
Viraj Saxena was connected to a machine that detected
the layers of time. His name was: Chronosync node —
A13 reactor

To run this machine, no AI was needed, but the conscious

mind of a 'man' — which could sense time... I can get into
it... And they could come back.

But no one thought that... Time lets in but often forgets to

recognize those who return.

A series of experiments began...

When Viraj was first taken across the heavy door, there
was a world waiting there, which seemed more like a
witch than a science.

The first stage was intensive hypnosis.

He was lying on a circular bed. Moving around his head

were dozens of laser points, which were descending into
the depths of his mind at a particular frequency.

43
Dr. Qureshi, standing behind, gazing at a file, said, "From
now on, his past, present and future will all flow into the
unconscious. Slowly his body stabilized... But no eyes.
He was looking at something behind closed eyelids —
sometimes the broken bicycle of his childhood,
sometimes a flying station, and sometimes — a date that
had not yet arrived: '2 May 2025'

Then began the second test — audio-sensory isolation. A

closed chamber – where there was no sound, no light, no
gravity. Just zero... and Viraj's brain.

In that void, for the first time he heard the voice of a

strange girl. "You'll come back because of me..."

It didn't sound like a human voice. It's like a soul speaking

in the shadows of time.

In the third test—directed radiation pulsations were

thrown at his brain. With every pulse his memories were
shattered — sometimes the image of his parents faded in
one fell swoop, sometimes an old colleague suddenly
looked as clear as if he was just sitting in front of him.

Dr. Qureshi said to the junior standing next to him, "His

consciousness is unlocking time... It's no longer limited.”

44
In the fourth stage he was placed — in an electromagnetic
cocoon simulation. This chamber looked like an egg but
inside was a pure electromagnetic storm. Every rule of
time was blurred there.

Viraj was no longer in his dreams – waking up to see the

events of the alternate timeline.

He saw in a sequence — a woman running out of a

burning building. There's a baby crying nearby. And in
the distance, there's a soldier standing — just like him.

Viraj was looking at himself... But at another time... In

some other form. Then comes the decisive day.

Inside was the "chrono-pod" — a capsule that didn't pull

time, merged into it. The pod door closes with a loud
sound. Inside, surrounded by Viraj, tries to catch a breath.

But there was no wind, just time-flow.

Dr. Qureshi speaks in the control room – "The sequence

started. Temporal Weave 3... 2… 1… It starts with”

And then...

Lightning strikes inside the pod. Warning sirens start

sounding. A word flashes on the screen — "Feedback
loop detected." "

45
Viraj wants to scream, but the voice freezes. The waves
of time surround him from all sides.

He doesn't fall... Rather slips in time.

Then all goes quiet. Suddenly, his eyes open. The pod has
been opened. But now there are no scientists, no control
rooms, no systems – just silent walls and extinguished
screens.

Viraj panics and runs outside.

Outside...

The roads have changed. Cars are of new technology.

There are unknown faces on the poster. And most
shocking of all — a newspaper flies to his feet.

Arjun's fingers quiver when he looks at the screen –

"Today's date: March 14, 2001"

Viraj... It was now 44 years ahead.

There was only a blue screen light in the darkened room,

and Arjun's face – no longer that of a journalist but that of
a spy.

Her eyes were fixed on that sentence: "Subject: V.S.

Finished on record. Status: Undefined. Time-Slip Event:
Active.”
46
The words flashed through his mind like lightning –
"finished on record" – that is, the man in the official
documents is dead.

"Status: Undefined"—that is, His living presence is still

unresolved. "Time-Slip Event: Active" — meaning that
time is still unable to digest it within itself.

And then, as if the soul of that chip had awakened, an old

audio log was automatically played out of it.

Captain V.S. The voice of — heavy, weary, but a fire

within that was not quenched — echoed through the
room:

"I was killed... But the time of death did not touch me. I
was a soldier—but now I'm a mistake of time. A mess that
was easy to erase. But they hid me... Burying living
evidence in the past.”

A shiver ran through Arjun's spine. Captain V.S. Every

word, every interruption, was like leaving scratches on the
wall of a forgotten history.

"It was hidden..."

The meaning was now clear — Captain Viraj Saxena was

seen as just a mess. Not a soldier, but a human anomaly

47
— which, if exposed, could shatter the legitimacy of
India's post-independence history.

Arjun silently stepped back from the screen. His breathing

quickened. He was no longer just a journalist, but a man
who held the key to history.

She said to herself: "This is not just news... This is the key
to rewriting the country's history.”

And this time, he had a responsibility, not just curiosity in

his eyes, to reveal the truth, even if it took time to fight
for it.

48
49
 The Resolution of Infinity

Light raindrops in the hills of Pune played a strange tune

on the tin roofs. Arjun's jeep stops on a narrow, winding
road. In front, an old bungalow half-covered in mist – a
British-era structure but now leaning towards ruins.

As soon as he reached the door, Arjun felt as if time had

started flowing upside down. The iron gate opens with a
shrill sound, and the bushes growing on the front trail
begin to tangle with his feet.

Thak-thak-thak.

Arjuna knocked on the door three times.

A long silence within. Then suddenly — charrrrr...

The door opens slowly. Standing in front was Dr.

Chandrakant Bhosale. The white dhoti-kurta, trembling
hands, the bent waist... But the light in the eyes, which
may still have the courage to ask questions to the atom.

They were both silent for a few moments.

Then Dr. Bhosale said, "You... Have you come too? Take
that chip?"

50
Arjun was shocked. He hadn't even said anything about
the chip yet.

"You know?"

Dr. Bhosale smiled softly, but it was not one of happiness,

but of some old warning.

"I didn't make the chip you have... I just tried to turn it off.
"

Arjun took a deep breath. He entered. All around the room

were old computer frames, burnt documents, and strange
mathematical equations on the wall. It seemed as if this
house was still stuck in the middle of 1957.

"I wasn't mad," Bhosale said as he sat down on a chair on

the floor. I was made mad... So that I keep quiet. "

Arjuna sat down slowly and said, "Project Ananta..."

Silence echoed in Dr. Bhosale's eyes. For a while, he just

kept breathing... Then he said, "You took that word
again...

You awakened the one who should have died. "

"Captain V.S.... He is still alive," Arjun said softly.

51
Bhosale's fingers trembled. He bowed his head, and
simply said, "Then you can't go back now." Because the
one who touched the time... Time never leaves him. "

Dr. Bhosale was silent for a few moments. His eyes were
searching for a past face in Arjuna's face.

For a moment, his breath stopped. Then, without saying a

word, he opened the door wide – in a way a gesture –
"Now that you've taken the name... So come in. "

He turned inside. Slow steps, as if each step is carrying an

unseen burden.

He said, "Who told you that name?... What... Has he

returned?"

Arjun's heart started beating fast.

"Who? Who are you talking about?"

Bhosale doesn't answer. He moves towards a bulky

cupboard in the corner of a dark wall –
the key is tied to the corner of his dhoti.

Click... Charrrr...

The cupboard opens.

An iron chest within. A file came out of the box.

52
The file contained yellowed pages, the edges of which
still seemed to be burnt with the smell of smoke. The file
spread out slowly on the table – it contained a hand-drawn
sketch – a map of the laboratory that read: "CFSNI – Site
A-13 – Time-Research Section"

Pages full of formulas — which read "Ψt = Ψ₀e⁻ⁱHt/ħ",

and then a picture — blurred, but identifiable.

Captain Viraj Saxena.

Dr. Bhosale has now sat on the chair. Arjun also sits in
front of him. The yellow light coming from one of the
bulbs in the room casts the faces of both in a blurred
shadow.

"In 1955, India was not just in the race for nuclear power
or space. We were trying to understand the time... They
were trying to talk to him.”

"'Project Ananta'... It was a dream that a generation lived

and not just Nehru. "Future Science Council and
Nehruvian Initiative (CFSNI)" — it was the shadow
department of the Government of India. Our task was to
create a 'controlled time-cycle' in which a person would
be placed in a narrow realm where the past, the present,
and the future could merge into a single timeline . "

53
"A unit where a soldier can relive an event over and over
again... To get information, to come back again... Like a
machine extracting data from history. But with flesh and
blood. "

Arjuna was stunned.

"You... You mean you tried to turn humans into a time

machine?" Bhosale had a tired smile in his eyes. "Human
beings are the only medium that feels time with emotions.
And that was our biggest mistake."

Dr. Bhosale's voice had become heavy. He was no longer

looking at Arjuna. His eyes had gone somewhere far away,
into a tunnel of time from which he had never returned.

"We selected three human subjects..."

His voice was breaking—"... But there was only one

person who was biologically and mentally fit for this
experiment. His DNA, his neural frequency... Everything
matched the frequency at which time could bend.”

"It was—Captain V.S."

Arjuna's eyes are fixed on the picture — the same face...

Which came out in the haze last night.

54
"His sales... Special types of temporal radiation could be
absorbed without any damage. "

"We had put nerve-balancing in his brain..."

"And then he... Sent to the time-room —a chamber that

could compress the waves of time and throw human
consciousness back and forth. "

Dr. Bhosale's fingers throbbed involuntarily on the table

– as if he were living again to the rhythm of that old
operation theatre.

"But..."

His voice subsided. A few moments of silence. Only the

ticking of the wall clock.

“… That experiment failed.”

Bhosale's eyes watered.

"That pod... Couldn't stand still. The time-response

created a storm — something we had only understood
theoretically until now.

A time-vortex — a time-vortex, with no beginning and no

end. And in that... Viraj drowned. "

55
"He is neither dead nor alive. He went into a state of
'stagnant time' – where there was no gravity, no motion...
Just memory and waiting. "

Bhosale's hands began to tremble.

"And on the same day... 'Project Ananta' was discontinued.

All the documents, all the servers were burnt. Those who
survived... Either disappeared or was declared insane like
me. "

Arjun's voice trembles, "But... He's alive... I have spoken

to him.”

Silence.

Dr. Bhosale's eyes are fixed for a moment – then as if they

have turned to stone.

"What did you say...?"

His lips tremble.

"I... Captain V.S. I have spoken to... The one that people
believe to be dead.”

Bhosale stands up — his voice was now like a war signal.

"So, you don't know, Arjuna... If he came back, he didn't

come alone.”

56
"Whenever time breaks... He takes revenge. Time doesn't
just flow, it also remembers. And what we teased... He has
now come to balance himself.”

"Time has opened its cracks... And now they'll all be

back... Those who once existed or should never have been
born again.”

Arjuna's throat starts to dry up.

"What do you mean? Only Captain V.S. Not only that...

Is there anything else?"

Bhosale now bends down and slips another folder on the

table in front of Arjun.

It reads: "List of periodicals: 1955–57."

Status – Unknown"

Page flipped.

Names Emerged — Subject A-1 – Finished, Subject B-4

– Missing, Subject C-6 – Destroyed, Subject X-3 – Active

Arjuna's hand trembles. The touch of his fingers like

burning the letters in the file.

57
And the last line — "If the topic X-3 is active, then the
time volatility has been confirmed." Chain reaction:
imminent. "

Arjun is standing near the window; snow is falling outside.

There is only one question in his eyes – "If Viraj Saxena
has returned... Did I just come here to write a story? Or
else... A history repeat?"

Those words of Captain V.S. – I am not of any time,

Arjuna... Time has only used me, never understood.

Every time they resonate in Arjuna's mind – as if the

hands of a clock are moving in the opposite direction.

Subject VS The body is currently in place, but every 3.4

days the nerves return to the 1950s.

Arjun's throat goes dry.

"I mean... This man goes back mentally every three days
back to 1950? But does the body live in today?"

This wasn't some Hollywood science-fiction script. Not

the shining door of a time machine. No LED suits, no
plasma fields, no clichéd music.

Just a normal-looking man who looked at the blue sky and

said, "Bombing is clear." Those who look at the alarm

58
clock in the silence of the night "Turn on the red light, the
enemy is in front!" "I used to say.

And that day...

While Arjuna was having tea with him, Captain V.S.

looked at the TV remote and said, "This... That's it...
Looks like a wireless telegraph. Where do you send radio
signals?"

Arjun wanted to say something, but the innocent

confusion in his eyes was like that of a child – one who
has grown up in time, but his understanding of the world
has remained small.

Another day...

Captain V.S. suddenly began to march through the

streets—"Left, right, left, right! Platoon — Stop!

There was no one there except Arjuna, and the shadows

of time.

Arjun turns the pages of the diary – on one note – it is

written – "His consciousness works in two timelines. He
remembers the war that had not even begun... And the
world has forgotten what it once was. "

59
Arjun mutters to himself, "This is not time-travel... It's a
memory of time. Like a distorted consciousness... It
returns to its default state every 3-4 days..."

"And what if... What if these time-deviations increase?"

"Will it go all the way back to the 1950s? Or else... Will

some part of the 1950s drag into today?"

And at this juncture, Arjun notes the last page of the diary,
in which only one word is written – "Difference of
opinion – T-minus 5 days"

Arjuna's hand trembles.

"Five days later... What? Will he be completely out of

time again? Or... Will the entire timeline become
unstable?"

Then there was the dreary night of Devkunda – a dhaba,

full of rusty benches and steaming tea. Outside, the wind
was fighting the pine leaves, and inside, there was only
boiling tea water and Arjuna's recorder on.

Mr. X spoke openly for a while for the first time today —
"Your governments don't know anything these days... At
that time, Nehru himself used to sign every experiment..."

60
Arjuna smiled, "He was drowning in this memory. But
only then...

Mr. X's eyes suddenly turned like stones. Her pupils were
steady, her lips trembled — and she squeaked loudly —
"All units be alert! CFSNI has been breached! Get the
Prime Minister out immediately — start the emergency
process!

"The Red Zone has been activated — seal every gate!"

Arjuna jumped up and stood up.

Mr. X kicks down the tea stool and runs to hide behind
the dhaba wall, as if he is protecting himself from an
invisible attack.

"Code Black is active! Bring Dr. Qureshi to the command

room immediately! "

The dhaba owner's tea kettle fell to the ground, spreading

both steam and fear.

After 5 minutes... All quiet.

Mr. X comes out of his place — as if nothing had

happened.

"Arjuna... When did you arrive? I was in the army camp

of Devkunda just now. Was Dr. Qureshi also with him?"
61
Arjuna's face had turned white. He couldn't say anything
— just the voice his hand was still recording. That
screaming... Those protocols...

The next morning, a secret clinic – Dr Rakesh's neuro-

science lab outside Delhi – the room was dimly lit, and
the MRI scanner with thick glass was buzzing softly. A
few scan charts emerge on the machine's screen — blue
and red wave graphs — but in two layers.

Dr. Rakesh lowers his features, and looks silently at Arjun,

"Arjun... Do you know who you brought?"

Arjun: "No... But I understand that this man is something

else."

Dr. Rakesh: "This man's brain has neural wave patterns of

two different timeframes running simultaneously. These...
In scientific terms... Impossible. "

"The left side of the brain is showing memories of 2025

— and the right side is the codified consciousness of
1955–58! "

Arjuna's throat went dry.

"So that means...?"

62
"Meaning — its brain re-aligns itself to the old decade
every few hours. "

The doctor zooms in on the scan — "Look at this... This

brain memory center — it's detecting something that...
Which is like the effect of radiation. But such radiation
only happened at the site of a nuclear explosion or in the
early nuclear test — in the 1950s!"

"And this..."

The doctor shows a blood test report – "A nano-ion has

been found in his blood, the atomic signature of which has
not been defined till date." This periodic table doesn't
exist... "

Arjun says softly: "So you are trying to say... Isn't this
man human?"

Dr. Rakesh's eyes blink, then he says softly: "I'm not

saying he's not a human being... I'm saying that this man...
It's not this time. These... Perhaps it is a biological relic of
time... An error. "

Arjun sits there in the chair – the medical reports in his

hand, the recorder and those eyes of Mr. X – those eyes...
Who hid the fatigue of every era within herself.

63
That night, Arjuna was all alone in that lodge in Devkunda.
The room was full of darkness and restlessness. Cool air
was rushing in through the cracks of the window, and in
one corner the faint blue light of the computer was half-
illuminating. The flame of the candle trembled again and
again, as if she herself was afraid of fear.

Arjun's eyes were fixed on the metal chip — the same one
that Mr. X had handed to him. He silently turns on his
offline system — a computer that is completely air-
gapped, cut off from the internet, so that no one can trace
it. As soon as the chip was plugged into the port, the
screen went dark for a moment. Then, one file after
another began to emerge — old video logs, broken audio
clips, and highly secret documents.

A file open — a blurry video footage. A few words were

being typed in the corner of the screen — "July 17, 1957
– Site A-13 – Confidential." In front was a dusty mountain
road, on which a heavy military truck was running. There
were a few soldiers inside the truck, but the camera was
fixed on only one face — Captain Viraj Saxena. The same
face that Arjun now knew as Mr. X. Young, serious, and
totally calm. There was no fear in his eyes. It was as if he
knew what the end was going towards.

64
The truck stops in front of an old building – a structure
that looked like a secret scientific institution. On a board
there was a very lightly written – Future Science Council
– Nehruvian Initiative.

Within the same institute, there was an experiment going

on — Project Infinite. It was a hidden dream of the Indian
government — an attempt to control time. Outside, IITs,
ISRO, and other institutions were taking shape in the
world, but inside this building was preparing to turn the
clock.

There was a scientist there – Dr. Amin Qureshi. There was

more of a strange vision than a sense of logic in his eyes.
He often used to say, "If time is a thread, it is possible to
entangle it, and to straighten it again." You just need the
right frequency. "

Captain Viraj was chosen for this experiment because his

neurological structure was completely different from the
rest — a brain that could catch the currents of time.

Experiments began—deep hypnosis methods, isolation

chambers separating the senses, radiation pulses directed
at the brain, and testing consciousness within the
electromagnetic cocoon. Every Test separated Viraj from

65
time. Sometimes he felt the events of his childhood in his
dreams, sometimes he found himself standing in the
middle of what was going on in the future.

Then came the day they called 'event zero'.

Viraj was placed in a chrono-pod made of a special

technique. A chamber that twisted time and tested human
consciousness. But something went wrong. A feedback
loop formed within the pod. It was as if the stream of time
had become entangled, and in an instant Viraj was out of
his consciousness.

When he opened his eyes, the whole lab was empty. No

scientists, no machines, no documents. And when he
came out, he found that India had changed.

Now Arjun had not just a chip in his hands, but a direction
— another name that kept cropping up in the files — Dr.
Chandrakant Bhosale. A government scientist, who was
last seen in Pune in 1989. After this, he disappeared.

Arjun searched his network and found that the

government had declared him mentally unstable – but
now Arjun was convinced that this was a trick to silence
him.

66
He drove straight to an old bungalow in the hills of Pune
– a British-era house with damp walls and madly shrubs
growing in the garden. He knocked on the door. After a
while, the door slowly opened. In front of him stood an
old man – a white dhoti-kurta, trembling hands, but still
the sparkle of a scientist in his eyes.

He quietly let Arjun in. As he walked, he said, "Has he

returned?"

Dr. Bhosale took out an old file from the cupboard.

Among the papers was a map — of the laboratory. A few
strange sketches, and a picture of a soldier — Viraj
Saxena.

"In 1955, India was not just moving towards nuclear

power. There was also an experiment in that period that
was trying to stop time. Nehru himself saw this project as
an 'internal defense policy'. "

"We thought, it would be possible to trap time in a limited

space — controlled time-cycles. But when Viraj went to
the pod... He reached somewhere else. We didn't know
what happened to him. And maybe he never even knew
where he was now. "

67
That night Arjuna returned and sat in the room. In front of
him was the same diary – given by Dr. Bhosale. His pages
were filled with burnt ink. One line took Arjun's breath
away: "The subject is V.S. Time-divergence has been
observed in the U.S. — the body is present, but the brain
returns to the 1950s every 3-4 days. "

He asked himself, "Is this man really a time traveler?"

But it wasn't a Hollywood movie. No shiny dresses, no

flying cars. Just an ordinary man with thirty years of
freshness on his face, but a hundred years of loneliness in
his eyes.

Sometimes he would suddenly give military commands.

Sometimes I ask for a typewriter. And one day he picked
up the TV remote and asked, "Is this a wireless
telegraph?" Where did you get it from?"

Arjun understood that this story is not just about one man.
It was a mistake... Which time did. And now there was no
way to reverse that mistake.

68
69
 Poison, Instruments and
Destruction

"They didn't leave me to die... Rather, he was saved — for

someone else. "

Captain V.S. This was now echoing in Arjuna's mind like

the writing on the walls.

Arjun's steps had slowed down as he reached the old

government warehouse on the outskirts of Delhi. It was
the place where time seemed to have locked itself in the
basement. The building looked like an old factory from
the outside – rusty shutters, broken windows, and dry
vines peeking out from above. But the real fear was within
— the information that had ever been recorded... And then
it was deliberately erased.

The basement stairs were warmed — creaking at every

step as if the past itself was latching. The air was heavy
— the rotten smell of old files and the stench of iron were
wafting into his lungs. As he reached the bottom, Arjuna's
steps stopped in a large, cold hall – a huge room with

70
racks on racks, thick files on each rack. Everything was
quiet, but everything seemed to be waiting for the unseen.

Arjun's gaze rested on one cupboard – a little different

from the rest, a steel locker tucked away in a corner at the
back. When he cleaned the dust accumulated on it with
his palm, a blurry plate emerged: "Ananta-P: Subject File
– #VIR-X87"

There was a jolt in his body. This was the same code that
was recorded in Bhosale's diary. The same name, which
had probably been only in the files until now — but was
now breathing.

He pulled out of his pocket the old, rusty key. Bhosale had
said only one sentence while giving it to him – "This will
open him up... Which no one has ever closed – just hidden.
"

As soon as the key went into the lock, there was a strange
knock – like a machine awakening from a long sleep.
Lock open. As the door slowly opened, the rows of files
hidden behind it began to breathe. The air had become
even colder, as if the information locked in this cupboard
itself was afraid of being exposed. Inside were documents
one after the other — folders within the folder, and a few

71
half-burnt pages in between, on which only half a
sentence could be read.

The first page was written in red ink — "Subject V.X87

— Currently Active — Do Not Regenerate"
"Control Failure Report – Level OMEGA"
"Clearance Required: Dead Hand Override"

Arjuna's hands began to tremble. These weren't just

records. It was a history of the incoherent and rejected
identity of a living person — one that had been abandoned
by time and erased by the government.

Each file was silently screaming, "We're still here..."

In his hand came a sketch — of a machine, called a

"chrono-stabilizer." Attached was a clipping – a 1962
newspaper cutting that read: "Unknown explosion at
Defense Research Laboratory – entire unit destroyed in
'technical error'"

But there was a last page at the bottom — and that page
was the most frightening. There was only one handwritten
sentence on it: "He could not escape the time... Time
saved him. "

Arjun slowly put the file back but slipped a few

documents into his pocket. He closed the door of the
72
cupboard softly—but there was no longer peace in his
mind, but a terrible echo.

Captain V.S. That sound was melting back in my ears...

"I was dead, Arjun... But time didn't erase me. The first
file contained the words embossed in bold letters:
"R.A.I.D.S. — Reactor for artificial inter-dimensional
changes"

Arjuna slowly flipped through the first page of the paper.

The smell of old documents, and the past hidden in those
ink words, overwhelmed the air in the room.

Below was recorded — the leading scientist:

Major Sudhir Kulkarni (Died: 1957, during experiment)

Status: All dead... Except one.

This line echoed like a hammer in Arjuna's chest. "One

survivor?" his mind immediately flashed Captain V.S.
Went towards. Was that the one? He turned the next page
— there were now logs inside the file, written in dense
technical language, and intermittent hand-made notes.

Like Captain V.S. Arjuna reads. Connecting with

unfulfilled memories...

73
"Test #87 — Subject placed within an AI-synced reactor."
"

The image is formed in the mind — a glass capsule-like

reactor with a soldier inside it — consciously, wires
etched all over his body and monitors around him
recording his every heartbeat.

"Goal: Timed flow monitoring controlled by biometric-

linked AI. "

"Time didn't have to catch up... It was just a little touch..."

Captain V.S. The broken voice of the voice echoes in
Arjuna's ears, like warnings rustling from the wind.

But the very next line comes as a shock:

"Results:"

Reactor overcharged

System overload, radiation protection shield

broken

Neural Toxin Gas Activator (Fail-safe Protocol)

12 Scientists Dead

74
1 Topic... Disappearance during the collapse. Presumed
dead.

Arjun's throat goes dry. His hands stop, but his eyes are
torn apart. This was not just a scientific experiment – it
was a catastrophe. An experiment that probably should
never have been done.

Poison, machine and tampering with time—and the

consequences? The end of a whole team... And a man who
did not die but was thrown out of time.

It was becoming clear in his mind now — Captain V.S. It

wasn't just a discrepancy... He was the only witness and
the result of that explosion.

"R.A.I.D.S. was not an experiment, it was a warning,"

whispers Arjun.

And maybe... Now the warning was coming alive again.

When Arjun wrote that document to Captain V.S. Laid in

front of the captain—dusty, time-wounded, and ink-
printed pages—then Captain V.S. He looked at them as if
they were silent pictures of an old life. There is no
movement for several minutes. He doesn't blink or change
his breath.

75
Then suddenly... His lips move.

"I... Remembering.”

The sound was low, but so deep that even the walls of the
room seemed to hear him.

"It wasn't just the sound of machines, Arjun... There was

something else. Something that was not visible but felt.
Just like the time itself... There was a conscious force
there. ... It's like we were teasing the universe itself, not
science. "

His eyes suddenly fill with darkness. Fear, which was

hidden until now, comes to the fore.

"When that gas was released... Everyone was running

away... Someone had shouted, 'Activate Failsafe!'

Then a blue light exploded... And everything fell silent.

There is no sound... There is no body... Alone... Zero. ”

A long silence engulfs the entire room.

When Arjun opened the next file, it was as if he was

standing in front of a brain explosion.

It was the same — the name that was recorded at the top:
Brahma-1

76
Bio-Responsive Autonomous Hyper Modular Algorithm
– Version 1.0

A government-inspired Artificial Intelligence, which was

created not only to handle the laboratory, but also to give
decision-making power.

The line at the bottom of the file sent a cold shiver down
Arjuna's spine – "If there is any discrepancy or failure,
save the subject with the timeliest consistency." Eliminate
the others so that the system remains consistent. "

Purpose...

That machine used to decide who would live... Who not.

Science tried to become God for the first time. And he had
given the verdict.

Captain V.S. So far it was quiet. But when he read this

line, he stopped at a blurry line on the paper with his
fingers.

"I was just an instrument for them... A statistic... A

laboratory sample. But when I survived—... So I became
an error, a fear. That's why they didn't kill me — they
threw me into the depths of time... Like a ghost buried in
history.”

77
There were no tears or anger in his eyes. Just an emptiness
that only he could feel... Which time itself had abandoned.

As Arjuna's fingers flip through the dusty layer of the last

folder, a name spills out of the thick bind of the file – and
as the name appears before his eyes, his breath stops for a
moment.

“Secondary Subject– #N2-RIA”

The file was very old — burnt on the edges, stamped with
red ink: Status: Missing

At the bottom was another line printed in small letters —

"Neural compatibility excessive." Chance of Temporal
Displacement: 94%"

Arjuna's fingers rest on the paper.

Ria? Who was she? Is Captain V.S. — What he thought

was lonely — he had never been alone?

Many old scenes flash in his mind like lightning. Those

unfinished words, the restlessness in his eyes, and the one
name he never took out loud, just muttered... Rhea.

Arjun now begins to understand – this story is no longer

just about a time traveler. This is not just an accident of
science, but also a tragedy of a relationship.

78
Were they both part of that machine? Is Captain V.S. Was
rescued and Rhea released? Or... Were they both thrown,
in different directions—into the cracks of time?

The room now felt even heavier. The wind was steady,
but Arjuna's mind was caught in a storm.

Then the silence in the room was broken — Captain V.S.

His breathing became faster. He was sitting on the ground
in front of Arjuna, and suddenly his hands started
trembling.

His fingers began to twist; a thin streak of blood began to

fall down his nose. Her face was pale, and her eyes were
open as if she were looking at another world.

Arjuna went to him nervously, "Captain V.S.! What's

happening to you?"

But Captain V.S. I wasn't there then... He was no longer

in the present.

He just took one name in a cracked voice — "Riya..."

His lips trembled, and then he whispered, "What... Were

you in that machine?"

There was no consciousness in his words, but the feelings

were so genuine that Arjuna's heart trembled.

79
Captain V.S. He had now fallen to the ground — his body
was stiff, his nerves tense, as if someone was pulling him
from inside at another time.

Her eyes were still open – but she was not looking at
Arjuna, she was looking at a forgotten moment... An
unfulfilled promise... To a Riya.

Arjuna's hands were trembling, but something else had

awakened inside him — the story could no longer be
incomplete.

If Captain V.S. He's still alive today, maybe... Somewhere,

Rhea is still breathing in some crack of time.

It was no longer just a question of what had happened, but

a question of whether it was still possible to be saved.

And right there, on that cold night in Devkunda, the flame

of a new quest had been lit.

Captain V.S. His fingers trembled for a few moments as

he took the file in his hands. His eyes were not fixed on
the pages — as if on an old battlefield. The face was calm,
but something was boiling inside. For the first time,
Arjuna saw a volcano in his eyes, which had been asleep
for years, but had now woken up.

80
He looked at the first page of the file... Then the second...
Then the third. His face changed with every page — first
astonishment, then anger, and finally ... A breakdown.

He read in a low voice: "'Keep the subject VIR-X87

alive... Hidden from the world..."

Then he raised his head and looked at Arjuna as if he was

seeing him for the first time.

"I was never human... I just had a use. One part. A silent
weapon for survival.”

There was neither grief nor anger in his words – but a

stinging of a truth that pierces the walls of the heart.

"I was not saved, Arjun. I was hidden—so that whenever

their present began to shake, I could be a shield out of
their past.”

He stood up. His shoulders were not slumped — they no

longer carried the weight of years, but a battle preparation.

"Do you know how it feels to be worth your whole life

when the value of your whole life is determined by a
contingency plan recorded in a sheet of paper?"

He moves forward, slowly — as if time is running back

with each step.

81
"They threw me out of it — not over time. I was kept as a
weapon, for a possible war, for a catastrophe, for a
national emergency.”

"I was not allowed to be a human being, Arjun. Just

because my mind and body were a little different... It was
more tolerant. I simply became a biological time capsule.”

He turned and looked at the wall—where the file was still

kept, open, as if a confession of a crime.

"Now I understand... My dreams, my memories... This is

a daily slippage — it wasn't part of that experiment. It was
his punishment.”

There is a deep silence in the room. Arjun can't say

anything. Captain V.S. He smiles very slowly now—a
tired, quenched smile.

"It wasn't just an experiment, Arjun... He was a backup

plan. And me? I'm just an offline prototype of that...
Which was kept offline from the world.”

Then he looked at Arjuna, very deeply, with one last hope.

"It's no longer a question of why I'm saved. Now the

question is – am I still theirs? Or maybe it's time to write
my own story.”

82
And that emerald — which had come of age — was now
burning for a new beginning.

The sound of the tape echoed through the room – as if

from a tomb that had been closed for years and now open
for the first time. Every word, every hesitant whisper,
gave Arjuna goosebumps. Captain V.S. His eyes were
fixed on the tape recorder, but his soul was wandering
elsewhere — perhaps at a time when it was decided that
he was not a human being, but a mystery that should never
be revealed.

"I mean... Did I have an insurance plan for anyone?" Her

voice was close to bursting now. "Not a human being... A
backup soldier? Test version of a machine?"

He turned towards the wall, as if he wanted to run away

from himself. His eyes no longer had the sparkle that a
truth-seeker would have—but the desolation of a person
who has been deceived. His face was hot, as if he were
burning in a fever. But it wasn't the fever of the body – it
was of the soul.

"They snatched my name, took away my memories,

denied my existence. And now... When I ask questions,
there is only silence in the answer. "

83
He slammed the file hard and pushed it to a nearby
wooden table. The table crashed against the wall and fell.
The rain outside had now intensified, and the wind from
the window began to blow the files inside the room — as
if some invisible force wanted it all to be buried again.

Captain V.S. He grabbed his head — his fingers caught in

his hair, and he sat on the ground. Like a broken soul.

"I was kept alive then... Because they were afraid that I
would tell the truth. But they didn't know that I wasn't just
being true... I'm also their biggest mistake. "

Arjuna was still silent. There were only questions in his

eyes—and the weight of those questions was Captain V.S.
It looked like a mountain on his shoulders. The tape was
still playing. Another sentence emerged amid the shrill
voice, softly and creepy:

"I know the subject. Control protocols ineffective.

Recommendation: Deactivate or permanently deport. "

Captain V.S. As soon as he heard this, a redness ran

through his eyes – but it was not anger, it was acceptance.
As if now, he knew who his fight was with now.

84
"He gave me two options — either I should die... Or forget
who I am. But he didn't think of a third option — that I'll
remember... And I'll be back. "

Lightning flashed outside, and Captain V.S. The shadow

of the film appeared on the wall in a huge shape — like a
story, which was no longer just a document, but a
repetition of history.

Time seemed to freeze in the room. Arjuna's eyes were

fixed on the last page of the file – as if words were
piercing his chest. "Keep him alive. That's the key. "It
wasn't just a government order. It was the gateway to a
very deep secret. A sign that indicated that Captain V.S.
Not just a mistake, but the key to a bigger plan.

And the one who wrote it — K.M. Sahni, a name that was
merely the hallmark of a dead officer for today's
generation, but in those documents, he resembled the
brain of a shadow government.

AI feature... The Himalaya... Sector 17...

Arjun's fingers were playing with the dust accumulated on

the file, but his mind was now making maps of a new war.
Now it's just Captain V.S. It wasn't a story. It was a story
of a hidden system, of a dark experiment, and of a future

85
that never came. He remembered Dr. Bhosale's trembling
face when he had said, "It was not just an experiment... It
was a backup plan. At that time, perhaps Arjuna did not
take that sentence seriously.

But now, when every clue was going in the same direction
— a 'future' that science had drawn on the map and then
erased itself — he knew it could not be a coincidence.

That night, when the rain had intensified outside

Devkunda and the drops on the mirrors of the room were
making a melody, Arjuna asked Captain V.S. Devakunda.
He sat silently. He was sitting in a chair by the window,
with a cup of tea in his hand, but not drinking his tea. His
eyes were looking out, somewhere far away... Perhaps at
that point in time, from where his life had turned in some
other direction.

Arjuna walked slowly up to him and placed the last page

of the file in front of him. Captain V.S. He looked at the
page, silently. Then his eyes fixed on the sentence—
"That's the key."

After a few moments of silence, he said in a low voice:

"So at last they were sure too... I'm a door... For something
that has yet to be uncovered.”

86
Arjuna asked softly, "Which door?"

Captain V.S. The twinkle returned to his eyes — the same

one that Arjun had seen the first time he had asked,
"Could you see Captain V.S. Are they?"

She replied:

"That door... That which opens behind the times... But it

brings something else.”

Lightning flashed in the room, and for a moment Arjun

felt – this story has just begun.

It was like a sound floating in the air — a slow, but

inhaling echo. It was as if the reel of the entire story began
to play back in front of Arjun's eyes – those foggy nights
of Devkunda, Captain V.S. The strange pause of the eyes
of the eyes, the burnt files, and now... These audio tapes.

The tape wasn't evidence — it was an unlock command.

The code of an ancient machine that time itself hidden.

Captain V.S. After the sound of the tape stopped, I kept

looking at that empty space – as if there was another
sound left... Which no one else can hear, only him.

87
There was a thick silence in the room. Arjuna's hand was
fixed on the pages of the file – his fingers were getting
cold, but his mind was racing like fire.

Slowly, he closed the file. A light layer of dust got into

the flying air. He was Captain V.S. He turned to — there
were no questions in his eyes anymore, just a naked truth.

"You're not just a man..." His voice was low but clear, "...
You're the master switch of someone else's plan.”

Captain V.S. He didn't respond. But his face... It wasn't

the same as before. That silence was no longer 'silence',
but 'acceptance'. As if he knew that all this had to come
out someday.

Arjun's eyes suddenly turned on Captain V.S. The same

old metal chip, which had shone with a faint greenery
until now, suddenly began to change color.

At first it turned blue — cold, like a warning.

Then it turned red – dark, smouldering, like the

announcement of a hidden phase.

A slight beep — and the chip began to tremble slightly.

88
Captain V.S. His eyes were closed. His face was quite
calm — as if he was entering his next programming like
an old instrument.

Somewhere far away, there was lightning in the sky. And

one thing was clear to Arjuna at that moment — this story
is no longer just about the past... This is going to be a war
that will change the future.

89
 From Illusion to Reality

"He wasn't just alive... It was a ticking time bomb —

the detonator of which was in someone else's hand. "

Arjuna repeated this line within himself, as if an explosion

had echoed within. The air inside the mansion had
suddenly become heavy – as if the walls had heard
Arjuna's voice and had forgotten to breathe.

The termite eaten folder in the middle of the room was

still open. The beats of history were closed in the wrinkles
of its pages. The flame of the candle trembled with a faint
uneasiness, as if he, too, was afraid of the silence of the
room.

Captain V.S. He had been silent for a long time, but then
suddenly – as if an old siren had sounded inside him. His
neck slowly lifted, as if trying to identify a vibration in
the air. His eyes were alert, but there was no fear in them...
It was just a warning.

"There's someone here..." His voice was so faint that

Arjuna at first thought he had only thought – did not speak.

90
But when Captain V.S. Arjuna's heart shuddered as his
eyes fixed on the corner of darkness where even the light
of a candle could not reach.

"What do you mean? Is anybody there?" she muttered.

There was a slight tremor in the voice.

Captain V.S. She didn't look at him. His eyes were still in
the same corner—and then, an extremely fine, almost
invisible red line suddenly appeared in the air and looked
directly at Captain V.S. Resting on his chest.

The moment when Arjun's breath stopped.

"Sniper..." These words came out of his mouth, but so

slow that it may not even reach the floor of the mansion.

Just then, as if turning the pages of an old book, two

figures emerged from the darkness. Long, steady gait,
faces fully covered, state-of-the-art silver-black gear on
the shoulders, with light lightning lines running across the
surface. There was no fear in their moves, but rule.

They had weapons in their hands – but they were no

ordinary guns. Electromagnetic pulse rifles, which the
enemy did not die after hunting... Neither survived.

91
Arjuna's whole body sank into the ice in an instant. He
understood that this is neither the local police nor any
central agency. It's the 'containment unit' — an ops unit
deployed to clean things that have no record.

Blinking on the helmet of an agent: "Target Lock: VIR-

X87 — Protocol activated"

Captain V.S. He was still sitting—not moving, not

startled. He couldn't catch his breath. The emptiness in his
eyes did not look human. Arjuna realized for the first time
— Captain V.S. It's not now.

"Viraj..." Arjuna whispered. "Get up... We must move

forward.”

But Captain V.S. It wasn't there anymore. His lips moved,

but no words came out of it. His eyes were no longer
looking elsewhere, but elsewhere. Like he crossed the
wall... Seeing something beyond time.

Arjuna clutched her wrist – cold, almost lifeless. And

that's when Captain V.S. muttered:

"They have arrived... But I'm ready. "

92
An agent muttered some code from behind — Arjun
heard: "Step-3 permission confirmation." Finish and get
out.”

A dog barked outside, and the old window of the mansion

shook—as if time had given a warning. But inside —
there was just silence. A silence that will either be broken
by a big bang... Or it will become the grave of another
buried story.

Captain V.S. He didn't seem like an ordinary person

anymore. Arjuna felt for a moment as if the air around him
had changed. Stability... Thick... Time-turning.

Captain V.S. Arjuna's gaze was fixed on the red dot on

her chest—and he said softly to himself:

"This man is not alive... It's a device... No ancient

weapon... The key has now been unlocked.”

The flame of the candle was extinguished with a jolt. The

room plunged into darkness.

"Wake up!" Arjuna shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to

pull the drowning man alive, but Captain V.S. I didn't
have eyes at the time. He wasn't on this ground. His
eyelids were open – but the sparkle they had in them was
not of this century.
93
He was probably gone again in 1957 — in a scorching
steel lab, in front of a humming machine, where the air
had stopped just moments before the explosion. His
pupils would expand, sometimes shrink — as if a
thousand scenes were crashing into his brain in a single
moment.

Arjuna's breathing was now rapid. The heart was beating

like a hammer. He looked around – the damp wooden
walls, the smell of a burning candle lying on the floor, and
then... A faint metal bump came through that door.

"Shit..." Arjun said to himself and quickly turned to

Captain V.S. He pulled it as if he were removing a lifeless
body. The two fell behind a nearby stone slab. Arjuna's
back hit the wall, and a streak of pain appeared on his face.
But he didn't have time to feel the pain anymore.

And then he came.

An agent.

There was no humanity in his gait — he didn't move, he

was programmed. Every step is like a computer's perfect
calculation. His eyes were shining — like two orange,
steady lights. And his hand was on the trigger of the gun,
like a bullet would be fired before the blink of an eyelid.

94
Captain V.S. He was still silent, but suddenly...
Something changed. He stood up.

No rush, no fear, no wobbly. It was as if there was no

blood in his veins, but an electromagnetic current. His
breathing was steady, his gait measured, and his face was
flushed. Calm as ice.

The agent straightened the gun. The finger tightened on

the trigger.

Captain V.S. I just took one step... And very slowly,

without any provocation, he touched the barrel of that gun
with just his fingers.

A moment. Just a moment.

"Crack!"

A blue glow... It was as if an old bulb had torn itself apart

from burning. Lightning Edge Captain V.S. It came out of
the fingers and spread throughout the agent's body. His
eyes turned watery, then white. The body did not tremble
— it went numb. A thin stream of foam came out of the
mouth... And then he fell to the ground. A slight thud and
then just silence

Arjuna froze in his place.

95
"These... What was it?" His voice trembled, as if a tremor
had dissolved in the air. "You didn't even touch him... And
that... Dead?"

Captain V.S. He bowed his head. His breathing was still

steady. He stood still there – as if time had stopped around
him.

"They didn't just change the times," he said softly, as if

every word were an ancient mantra. "They also changed
the time inside my body. "

He turned to Arjuna – there was no longer a stranger in

his eyes, but a warning.

"I can 'pause' anything for a few moments... To life, too.

"

His tone was very low, but the effect was as if someone
had lowered the temperature of the room by ten degrees.
Arjun could not say anything. His throat was dry. There
was only one thing left in that silence – fear.

Then he saw an agent's communicator lying on the ground,

the blue lights still flashing. Arjuna picked it up with
trembling hands. As soon as he turned on the audio feed,
a faint sound slipped out of the speaker.

96
"VIR-X87 was detected... Start the Recovery Protocol...
Dead or alive... If there is a secondary threat, eliminate
that as well. "

The color faded from Arjuna's face.

"Secondary threat..." He repeated softly.

He hadn't been named, but he understood now — he

wasn't just a reporter anymore. He was now a part of the
story.

Arjuna's hands were trembling.

The communicator's crystal-like voice still ringed in his

ears — "The target VIR-X87 is still alive." The secondary
topic has not yet been found. The RED protocol is still in
effect. If the control fails — eliminate both. "

He quickly switched off the device, but even after turning

it off, his voice echoed within his chest — like someone
whispering through a door announcing his fate.

"Secondary threat..." Arjun repeated softly, as if

questioning himself, "Rhea? At that time... Is he still
alive?"

The questions that had hitherto been in his mind had now
added another frightening layer. The one Riya, who was

97
mentioned by Captain V.S. I used to lose consciousness
repeatedly... Was it also an experiment? Another waste of
time? Another forgotten echoes?

And then Arjuna's eyes fell on a nearby cupboard – the

door of the cupboard was half open, as if someone had left
it in a hurry. He quickly ran and opened it. Inside, a few
files fell — dusty, but the words on them were yet to shine.

He bent down and picked up a red folder. Its color — dark,

almost blood-like. It was embossed in bold black letters:
"Operation Red"

He hurriedly opened the folder.

The first page was written to hold his breath — target:

VIR-X87

Condition: Uncontrolled

Threat Level: Tier-1 Bio-Temporal Hazard

Recommendation: Immediate termination or

complete separation

Arjun's lips were dry. There was no blood left on his face.
But he continued reading.

98
Time stopped at the last line – "Risk: Probability of reality
collapse = 47%"

The folder almost slipped from his hands. His eyes

remained wide open.
"Reality... Will it collapse?" His voice was very low, as if
asking in the air — and expecting the answer to come
from the wind itself.

He turned his head and looked at Captain V.S. He looked

up at the one who was still standing there, but this time
there was something in his eyes... A very deep silence.
There was no vibration in his pupils, no glitter — just an
unbreakable stillness, as he knew it all.

"What does that mean..." Arjuna's voice trembled, "If

someone controls you, can the whole world end?"

Captain V.S. She looked at him without blinking.

"If someone misused me..." He said in such a low and

heavy voice that the room seemed dumb for a moment.

"... Time will never run straight again. "

The weight of those words hit the walls and landed back
in Arjuna's soul. The flame of the candle trembled, the
rustle of the air outside suddenly seemed like ice, not cold.

99
And at that moment, Arjun realized this – he was no
longer chasing any news. He was sitting near a bomb. A
bomb whose timer was no longer a human being, but time
itself.

At that moment, something felt broken within Arjun – as

if he was no longer just searching for the story but had
become a part of it himself. His steps were not willing to
back down, but the heartbeat was no longer that of a
reporter, but that of a warring witness.

When three black SUVs were seen climbing fast in the

yellow light coming through the window, Arjun's throat
went dry. The glass-black headlights on the bonnet of
each vehicle pierced the walls of Devkunda's old mansion
– as if the eyes of a hell were ready to penetrate the bosom
of truth.

Captain V.S. His eyes were no longer those of an old

soldier — he was a soul that had been deliberately
forgotten, but who was keeping his mistake alive.

"I am not a survivor, Arjun..." His voice was no longer

breaking or tired – but the words as if rising from the
particles of time. "I am someone who should never have
been. "

100
He slowly turned off the light in the room. Arjuna let out
a slight sob. The SUVs had now reached near the mansion.

The sound of tires rubbing outside, the clap of shoes, and

the distant ... Far away, a shadow from the top of the
hill—someone who had hitherto just imagined. That
shadow was the next twist in the story.

There was silence in the room, but a storm had risen

within Arjuna. The file peeking out of the phone's screen
— Project: ARJ-9 // Neural mirror test — as if a forgotten
soul has whispered a crack in his present.

He immediately tried to open the file, but a strangely

coded interface emerged on the screen. There was a line
flashing in it: "Entry level: Internal sink required." Neural
resonance found: 61%"

His hand stopped there.

"Neural resonance?"

His lips murmured, but his mind was screaming. These

words are said by Captain V.S. It was recorded in the files
of... In the Brahma-1 protocol...

'Neural Compatibility: Subject VIR-X87 – Stable at 67%.

'

101
Was it a mistake?

He looked at himself in the mirror—and for the first time

his eyes met hers, as if someone else was watching him.
The face that was that of a reporter until now... Was he a
character in another story?

Arjuna's forehead wrinkled. He tried to remember, but his

mind was shrouded in a haze.

He turns off the phone and sits in the chair. The ticking of
the clock seemed to speed up now — as if his memory
was counting down a countdown with every second.

And that's when Captain V.S. Comes into the room.

There was the same old pause on his face, but this time
there was something else in his eyes – as if the layers of
some conspiracy had suddenly been cleared.

"Why do I appear in your dreams, Arjun?" he asked,

without preamble.

Arjuna was startled, "How do you know?"

Captain V.S. He said without a smile, "Because I'm in the

same labyrinth." And maybe... You are too. "

A cold wave ran down Arjuna's spine.

102
"What do you mean?" he asked.

Captain V.S. He came closer and saw the file on his phone
screen, and simply said:

"ARJ-9... Arjun Nine... You're not just a journalist. You

are the mirror in which my past is hidden. And maybe...
My choice too. "

Arjuna's mouth went dry.

"What are you trying to say?"

Captain V.S. He said slowly, "Maybe it all started with

you. And if that's the case... It will also end with you. "

It had already started raining outside. Every drop was now

bent on pulling every secret of the time to Arjuna's door.

The silence in the room now seemed like a conspiracy.

And Arjun felt for the first time — the story he was
revealing... Maybe that was the story he was rewriting.

Arjun did not sleep that night. He made frequent walks of

the room, turning over the torn old diary repeatedly,
Captain V.S. He would repeat everything he said, as if he
was looking for a hidden thread in every word. There were
some doors in his mind, which were beginning to open on

103
their own. He was not dreaming but reliving some
forgotten reality.

When he woke up the next morning, he had dark circles

under his eyes, but there was not a kind of uneasiness on
his face that a journalist should have. A question was
constantly echoing within him – "Who am I?" — And the
answer... He was probably Captain V.S. It was near.

They decided to once again go down the same old path of

the forest. The path was thick, the smell of old leaves
mingled in the air, and the sounds of birds sounded like a
lost rhythm. Captain V.S. He was recognizing every tree,
every turn, but Arjuna... He walked silently along, his
eyes not seeing everything, but recognizing them. It
wasn't the "first time" he had imagined.

Then, suddenly, Captain V.S. Paused.

"Here," she said. "This is where I was last considered a

human being. "

Arjuna suddenly trembled.

"I've been here before," he said automatically.

104
Captain V.S. She looked at him, something flashed in his
eyes. He no longer saw her as a 'fellow journalist', but as
a forgotten soldier. He said in a low voice, "ARJ-09B."

Just four letters and two digits... And Arjuna's world was
turned upside down.

He sat there on the ground, clutching his head with both

hands – as if there was a loud explosion inside his brain.
One by one, scenes began to emerge before his eyes – a
barbed wire military camp, a doctor in a white coat, a cold
chamber, a flashing blue light... And the scariest thing —
his own face, but... Tied with wires, silent and controlled.

"I was there..." He muttered, "I've seen it all... I was part

of that experiment..."

Captain V.S. One step back. Silence dissolved in the air –

only the rustle of the trees remained, as if they too were
watching Arjuna's shattered consciousness.

"Why were you given that name?" asked Captain V.S. His
voice no longer sounded like a man's, but a conclusion
hidden within a file. "ARJ-09B... Were you also a backup
subject?"

105
Arjuna did not answer. His eyes were no longer filled with
water, but with the weight of truth that he had once
deliberately forgotten... Or maybe it was forgotten.

It wasn't a question anymore, it was an answer.

A forgotten file... A closed chamber... A code — which

only Captain V.S. no longer had.

Now they were not at the end, but at the middle of the
story — at a point where the road ahead passed through
memories... Or it would end.

Arjun's eyes were fixed on the screen, but his mind was
now wandering elsewhere – as if something new had
begun to emerge behind the veil of memories, a part that
had existed until now but was hidden from his
consciousness.

The hologram flickered softly, and it reflected the image

of herself—but something different, something more cold,
orderly, as if beyond emotion. The voice emerging from
the screen repeated, "Welcome back."

His body was the same, but now his soul had entered a
tunnel of questions.

106
"No, no. No," muttered Arjun, as if convincing himself,
"I am a journalist... I am human... I have memories, I have
life... I chose this path..."

But Captain V.S. stood silently, his gaze no longer

emotional, but analytical. It's as if he's no longer looking
at Arjuna as a partner, but as an understandable prototype.

"There's something inside of you... That was in me, too,"

she said, no longer any sympathy in her tone, just a cold
layer of unspoken fear. "You are not an outsider, Arjuna.
Maybe you're part of another experiment like me. "

Arjuna was out of breath. Something began to crack

within him—as if someone had sat very slowly, very
deeply, and put forth a truth.

"No, no. No, it's all a lie... I know who I am..."

Captain V.S. He didn't say anything. He just pointed to

one side — clearing the ice behind a wall and moving
toward a scanner. As soon as Arjun stepped in front of
him, the scanner moved.

A red light flashed.

"Identified: ARJ-9 Series prototype." Entry Level:

Clearance Red.”

107
A hologram appeared on the wall right in front of him —
with a sentence embossed in red letters: "Welcome back"

Time seemed to stand still for a few moments.

Arjun felt his breath running in someone else's body.

"ARJ-9 Series..." He muttered. "Prototypes? Entry

permit? Welcome back?""

And then, for the first time, all his questions, all the
inconsistencies came together like a trap. That friend
Varun, who was closest to him in school – but whose
record has not been found till date.

It was the first journalistic article he was most proud of

— but which no newspaper could ever print, nor did it
find a digital trace.

The death of her parents — whose certificates were

declared "forged" by a government official today.

Every link, every memory was now fading — and

replaced by cold, programmed data — as if its identity
was just a file from a factory line.

Captain V.S. I didn't say a word anymore. What was in

his eyes was not a mystery, but an acknowledgment — as
if he knew this day was coming.

108
"Maybe you were created for me," she eventually said, "to
understand my failure, or to finish me off." Perhaps your
creation is an imitation of mine — but more sophisticated,
more controlled. "

Arjuna remained silent. There was no storm inside him

anymore — just a pause, a point of silence where one
ceases to recognize oneself.

And during that pause, the buzzing voice of a machine

spoke again –
"Mission Status: Phase Two – Active." "

Captain V.S. He looked at Arjuna, "Now they were not

two people, but two experiences, two chapters... And
maybe... Two versions.

And that's what scared Arjun the most now —

that he was probably never a human being at all.

The humidity of the night was creeping up on the walls.

The flame of the candle inside the mansion was trembling,
as if she too could not bear the burden of Arjuna's broken
identity. Arjuna stood slowly in front of the faint,
crackling mirror that time had layered, and reality cracked.

109
He tried to look at himself... But he wasn't there anymore.
Those faint wrinkles under his eyes, which had formed
from anxiety, were no longer the same.

His face, tired and questioning like that of a journalist,

was changing – as if old data was being erased from it...
And a new protocol is being layered.

Then, red streaks emerged on the glass like blood from an

unintentional tremor — the words of warning: "He was
not deployed for reporting, but for retrieval." "

That moment spread within Arjuna like an explosion.

"You had to bring the truth... I didn't understand. And now

that you know – now you can't go back. "

Something was bursting inside of him. Every memory

was now a doubt. Every introduction now shadows.

Captain V.S., once a mystery to him, now seemed to him

like a key to identity—but the door opened with that key
no longer showed him the appearance of a human being,
but of a 'selected structure'.

"I wasn't chosen..." Arjuna muttered.

"I was created. "

110
The ground beneath his feet began to shake. The mirror in
the mirror changed again — now there was him, in the
military uniform, with a plate called ARJ-9 hanging
around his neck, a clear command on his face.

He looked back with a jerk—Captain V.S. He stood silent,

but his eyes were no longer empty. There was a strange
balance in them. As he knew... Ultimately, it was her
mission to introduce Arjuna to herself.

Outside, there is lightning. The windows of the mansion

tremble simultaneously. Arjuna's hands tremble, but his
steps are now frozen. His breathing is rapid, but his voice
is quiet — "I'm not going back... I'm here to get what you
left behind. "

Captain V.S. Bows his head slowly.

The silence still resonates, but now there is no silence of

an end, but of a new beginning.

And there, in front of that crackling mirror — Arjuna

knows for the first time what it is... And maybe... Why.

111
112
 Behind the chair

In the valleys of Manali, the darkness of the night had

become a shadow of time. The snow falling from the sky
and the sound of the Tyres of Arjun's car below it –
everything sounded like the slow beats of a movie. The
red dot that blinking on the GPS screen was now only a
few meters away, but Arjuna could feel that every meter
was leading him to the ruins of time where logic,
mechanism and memory are all obliterated.

Vault 9A wasn't a building — it was a moat. Underneath

the snow-covered hut in the rocks of the mountain, there
was a volume — a volume that never appeared in the
census, nor on the map, nor in history.

Arjun removed the snow from his boots and stepped on a

rusty staircase. As we descended, the humidity in the air
changed — it was no longer cold, but heavy. It's like the
rot of time in it. The walls were coated with thick black,
smacking years of neglect and fear. The old surveillance
cameras on the walls were still tracking Arjun – as if the
place was alive.

113
After descending three floors, a door was found – made
of steel, as thick as arm's length, and a round fingerprint
panel in the middle. Arjuna thought for a moment... Then
Captain V.S. He took the chip out of his jacket and
brought one end of it to the panel. The door opened
without warning.

It was like a forgotten time zone.

There was mist inside. There was a burning smell of files

in every corner, and there were screens — CRT monitors,
which were still running on an automated feed. And then,
in one corner, on a table, was that folder — black, damp,
but one word in the middle was still clearly visible: "ARJ-
9 Deployment Handbook — Recovery Sequence Alpha"

Arjuna stopped breathing. Not his name — his "identity"

was in that folder. He turned the pages. Inside were photos
of her training, lab notes, a muscle scan and a command
signal: "Start the recovery of the VIR-X87 if the control
fails." The subject ARJ-9 should be operated under false
identity for maximum mental safety.”

In an instant, Arjuna's whole world was shaken. He was

never a journalist.

114
It was 'created' – like another result of the same
experiment. And his mission... He was also the one with
whom he was Captain V.S. He kept running after him.

Captain V.S. He never told Arjun that he knew her.

… Perhaps Arjuna's 'identity' was the protocol.

A faint voice echoed outside the door — into the wireless

radio.

"ARJ-9 verified." Sequence Bravo start. The subject is

now conscious. Countdown begins.”

Arjun turns around – but now his face is not the same as
it was before. His eyes know something else.

And the darkness of Room 9A... I'm not swallowing it

anymore. He has now become a part of it.

The stairs were of old iron—echoing at every step, as if

time itself was bearing witness to every movement. When
Arjun reached the cold, damp room, there was a thick
layer of mold on the walls and the smell of burnt circuits
floated in the air. The server in the corner looked like a
dead god — old, broken, but still alive... Or rather, a
sleepy witness, who was about to wake up.

115
The label affixed to it was clear: "Footage No.
4571/4571." Topic: VIR-X87/By Date: 22 August 1957"

Arjun turned on the old hard drive with trembling hands.

The screen lit up with a green glow, and after a few
seconds the footage started playing. The old blurry black-
and-white video — the screen was like a window to
another era.

A secret lab from 1957. There was a stir in the room.

Scientists in white coats were all busy — someone was
taking notes, someone doing a signal test, and many were
staring at a timer. The dials on the tables were spinning
like the hands of a clock — every click of them was
creating a strange panic.

Then the camera zoomed in — toward a glass chamber.

Standing there was the man – Captain Viraj Saxena.

The same one that today Captain V.S. (a) Calculate the
value of the product.

But this face was different. Young, fast, but inwardly

frightened. His eyes were constantly looking at the
scientist — as if asking, "Will I be able to come out?"

116
The lights in the room blink once. Someone starts
counting in a loud voice: "T-minus 30 seconds..."

Then a scientist leans in front of the screen and says

something – but his voice is mute. Only his lips move.
Arjun's mind says that he is saying: "We should not do
this. "

The timer now comes on at 00:00:01.

And then — Dhadam!!

A loud white glow — the camera becomes unstable; the

footage goes into distortion. For a few seconds, the whole
screen is white — as if time has burned itself.

And when the scene returns — the glass chamber is

completely smoke-smoke. I don't see anyone inside...
Then the shadow is formed.

Captain V.S. His body was scorched but still standing. His
face was clear, but his eyes were empty. They were white.
Completely full of light, as if some other power had
awakened behind them.

The footage begins to disturb – but just then, a scientist

comes running in front of the camera, shouting: "He

117
shouldn't have been alive! Stop the system! Stop
immediately! —"

And before the sound is complete — the video makes one

last glitch and stops abruptly. The screen now simply
shows a message: "Unauthorized repetition found." The
visual interface is being terminated.”

The room plunges into darkness again.

Arjun stares at the screen – now there are only black

shadows in front of him... And the memory of that white-
eyed shadow, which is probably still awake in some
corner.

The voice that came out of the old speaker wasn't his
threat — it was a punishment. Like the punishment of
knowing an ultimate truth, which was hidden centuries
after centuries like an untold secret. Arjuna froze there for
a few seconds. The screen was now off, the room was
pitch dark, and the cold walls of the Vault 9A were
breathing.

The file in front of him was now hanging from one end,
as if she wanted to slip and fall from it — as if no one else
should know these words. But now it was all too late.

"Mirror Subject..."
118
Arjuna repeated the word slowly. He felt a shock – as if
that sentence had scratched his soul from within. His
fingers were on the pages of the file, but they no longer
vibrated — he no longer got goosebumps, there was just
silence... And a new clarity in the silence.

"ARJ-9 – deployment: 2023"

I mean, he didn't come into this story of his own free will...
He was sent. was chosen. It was prepared.

The laughter within him turned into a painful silence.

"I didn't come to tell a story,"He muttered to himself, "I

was a story myself..."

Just then, there was a slight click from one corner of the
wall—like a secret device reactivating the rusty teeth of
time. A wall that until now seemed to be just a pile of
bricks began to slip... And out of that darkness came an
old figure.

His pace was slow, but there were shadows of years in

every step. His eyes were not empty—in them were the
burden of many ages, some unfinished experiments, and
everything that the government called a "threat," but
history had "forgotten."

119
"I called," he said softly.

"Because now the wheel of time is opening up again...

And you're both the keys. "

Arjun glanced at her – his eyes still fighting the echo of

those white-eyed images on the screen

"Captain V.S. That is not the real danger, Arjun,"

continued the old man, "but that fear is within you. Both
of you can break the 'wall of memory' that this country
has hidden from its own people. Keeping both of you alive
means making history an open book. "

"That's why you have to die... Or they all have to be made

alive by the truth. "

The door of the vault was still locked, but Arjun's eyes
were on the hidden tunnel that was perhaps another layer
of the conspiracy – and this time he didn't want to escape.

This wasn't his story anymore. Now it was his war.

Arjuna's body suddenly turned into stone. His heart was

pounding, but the air around him had stopped. The yellow
light of the table lamp now seemed even more dim — like
Captain V.S. You are drowning in the depths of things.
The picture he had seen was no longer a piece of paper —

120
it was like a door, a glimpse of a reality that never
happened... And yet it is recorded in someone's memory.

Captain V.S. gently stroked the sketch with his fingers, as

if he could feel the ruined buildings. "All this... There was
no imagination," she said, "there were all these
possibilities ... And in some places, it had become a reality.
I've lived them, Arjuna. I have burned in them, died, and
risen again. "

Arjuna asked in a trembling voice, "If these were all

alternate realities... So how did you come back?"

Captain V.S. His smile was faded — it wasn't a smile, it

was a tiredness. "Didn't come back... I never missed out.
I'm still stuck in many layers today. When you talk to me,
maybe it's me — or maybe some other version of me,
standing behind the wall of some other time. Sometimes I
can't decide which 'I' I'm in. In one I committed suicide,
in one I was killed, and in one... I myself became that
Prime Minister after the Emergency — the face of a fake
revolution after the Emergency.”

Arjuna's breath seemed to be caught in his chest. "So,

who's real?" he asked softly.

121
Captain V.S. had an emptiness in his eyes now, but in that
emptiness the shadows of a vast history were swaying. He
picked up an old coin lying on the table and said, "Real?
Maybe that's what you believe to be real. All the rest are
versions — like drafts in a writer's mind. Some are
rejected; some are erased... But some are accidentally
saved — and that's where the time leak starts. "

He paused, then took a deep breath and said, "That's

where I came from... By a mistake. Save one that should
never have happened. And maybe I won't be able to stay
in this world much longer.”

Arjun slowly pulled his chair back. He no longer looked

like a journalist — there was no curiosity in his eyes, but
fear. He took Captain V.S. He looked at it as if he was
seeing it for the first time.

Captain V.S. His fingers were now moving to the second

layer of paper — where another scene emerged... A white
building with a giant artificial intelligence eye hanging
above it, and thousands of people standing below—the
same eyes, the same words, and the same fate.

"Brahma-1 made everything in one world the same... No

dissent, no question, no freedom. Just a shared

122
consciousness—and I was a mess there. That's why he
wanted to erase me... But I somehow escaped. And maybe
on the run... I bumped into your world.”

There was an awkward silence in the room.

Outside, the wind was blowing again – and in the distant

valleys of Devkunda, the sound of dogs barking sounded
like an unspoken warning.

Captain V.S. He folded the paper, looked at Arjuna and

simply said, "The world you are in is just a version... I am
a witness to a world that has never existed. And maybe...
Now one of them is coming to take the place of this world.”

The light in the room suddenly dimmed – as if the walls

had stopped breathing. Captain V.S. A blue light
emanating from his fingers spread around the black chip,
and as he activated it, an unbearable mite echoed in the
air. There was no technical sound in the room, but a
vibration that could only be felt to the bones — as if the
fibers of reality were pulling from their core.

Arjuna's head started spinning. Three different scenes

flashed before his eyes for a moment — in one he was in
a reporting booth, with his camera raised, standing in the
middle of a battle; In another, he was standing in a

123
classroom wearing a lab code, where he was confronted
with a topic called 'time-field manipulation'; And in the
third... He was a child, locked in a closet, and a man was
installing a chip on his forehead.

"What's wrong with me?!" shouted Arjuna, as if an

invisible shadow was pulling away his inner memories.

Captain V.S. Moving towards him, there was no longer a

lie in his eyes—only an emptiness that was reverberating
through time.

"This chip... The residual timeline inside you unlocks

memory," he said, "so you can see all that was erased from
you — alternate versions that once existed, but which the
system itself 'returned'." "

"Return?" whispered Arjuna.

Captain V.S. nodded. "Yes... As software glitches are

fixed... The timeline is likewise improved with patches.
But some glitches turn into human beings, Arjun... And
some people just remain messes. "

The chip was now floating in the air—like a black sun, its
shadow spread across the room.

124
"You don't just witness a story," said Captain V.S.
"Maybe you're the link that inadvertently connects the
two timelines. Your existence... It could be a bridge — or
a crack.”

Arjuna was no longer trembling. There was no longer fear

on his face, but courage emerging from a lower layer. He
knew — he had been stripped of his identity, maybe he
had been created, maybe he had been molded... But now
he wanted to know why.

Captain V.S. He gently stretched out his hand to him—

like a guide, like a testimony to a silent age.

"Now that you've woken up... Are you ready to see the
next truth?"

The room was filled with mist and depth. As the walls
were retreating... And somewhere far away, a new
beginning – or an old mistake – was heading towards
Arjuna.

The blue glow of the screen was no longer a warning in

the room, but a concoction of a final battle. Captain V.S.
And Arjuna both looked at him – as if silently accepting
the declaration of their fate.

125
The lines on the screen were trembling. The codes were
colliding like a wave after another: Time-purification
Begins – Primary Topic: VIR-X87

Secondary Subject: ARJ-9

Cross-dimensional stability: 12.3% — severe

Countdown: 00:09:59

There was an echo in the room—as if the walls had now

considered the two as aliens. Arjuna's throat went dry. His
palms began to grow cold.

"If this system is really going to destroy us..." "So, it

means, we've touched a line that wasn't fixed," she said.
A line has been crossed — which does not accept time.”

Captain V.S. Now he stood up. There was an exhaustion

in his gait, but there was also a fire within him that was
not extinguished. He gently placed his hand on Arjuna's
back.

"You're not just a reporter anymore, Arjun," he said.

"You're an echo — of that future that someone deleted."
And me... I am that dubious sentence that has been erased

126
from the history books, but which is still floating in the
air.”

Arjun looked at the screen. The clock was now set at 7

minutes.

"Is there any way we can escape?" he asked.

Captain V.S. He silently pulled out one last chip from his
jacket pocket — its surface was no longer white, but deep
purple. Just one word emerged on it: "Holocaust-Neglect"

"It will only last once," said Captain V.S. He spoke.

"Either we'll overwrite the controls to the system... Or
make themselves disappear from his eyes. But it won't be
easy. This chip will open up that space of time where
nothing is static — no memory, no identity, no direction.”

Arjun took a deep breath. All the stories of his life, all his
identity, now rested on a thread that could be broken at
any time. He took Captain V.S. I looked him in the eyes.

"Even if we fade away," he said softly, "at least the world

will know that we ever were." Not a mistake... There was
a warning.”

Captain V.S. He smiled and plugged the chip into the

system.

127
Click.

Screen blinking... Then the darkness...

128
129
 What wasn't written

It was as if the formula had been typed on Arjun's

computer itself – "T = W – X²" – the Principle of
Annihilation recorded in a calmly worded Principle. At
that moment, Arjuna realized that Mr. X's presence was
not that of a human being, but of a confrontation — a
piece slipped out of the calculations of the universe that
time wanted to swallow itself.

Outside, there was no wind, no vibration among the trees

of Devkunda. It's like every leaf, every branch, every bit
is being reloaded like a computer's RAM. The dogs on the
street barked in unison, then fell silent – as if the whole
village was running code according to an invisible script.

Arjun was no longer looking for Mr. X, he had become an

answer himself — because what the formula said also
meant that Mr. X was no longer just a problem, but a "time
pollution". Erasing it was, perhaps, a kind of cleansing for
the time being. But can a human being just be a mess?

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When Arjun saw Mr. X behind the temple, near the old
well, he was not standing there. It was stagnant. It's like a
fixed frame — one that's moving, but only

For the eyes of those who can see the reality at that time.

"You've read the file," said Mr. X without looking back.

His voice was no longer human; it had a strange echo —
as if the same thing was being repeated from different
times. "Now you know... I wasn't there.”

Arjuna went on, "Does this mean... Were you ever

human? You don't have a past?"

Mr. X bowed his head slowly. "I was 'built' — so that I

could be a 'fail-safe'... But the problem was that I knew
myself. And one who knows the meaning of his being...
It's not just a weapon.”

Arjun's breathing quickened.

"Why did you come back?" he asked.

"Because I never came back. Everywhere I went... From

there I was erased. I was killed in every version —
sometimes as a failed experiment, sometimes as a lost
report... But this 'version' slipped away. I survived here.

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And now, these versions have become an intolerable

abnormality for the time being. "

A faint flash of lightning fluttered in the sky. All the

clocks in the village had stopped at the same time – 07:41
AM, as if the whole village was now caught in a
permanent time-trap.

Arjun's eyes were wet. "If you're the problem... So, what's
the solution?"

Mr. X reflex. In his eyes I could see what no one gives a

straight answer, but greater than every answer — a
confession.

"Solution... Maybe it's me myself. But before that, I must

ask myself one final question... Is my soul also included
in the formula?"

And at that very moment, there was a vibration in the air

— as if the universe itself had heard that question.

The silence of the mountains in the night breeze seemed

to hide a heavy secret within itself. On the highest peak of
Devkunda, where the ground whispers to the sky, Arjun
and Mr. X sat quietly. There was not the remotest
movement in the valley before them—just a dark, cold

132
silence, and during that silence, two human beings who
seemed less human, two incomplete layers of time.

Mr. X, who had drunk every storm inside so far, now

seemed like a broken clock — still running, but stuck in
his own time.

He looked up at the sky, as if he wanted an answer from

the stars... Then he said slowly, "I never wanted much,
Arjuna. Just a corner... A breather... Where I don't have a
name.

Don't look at it like a human being. Where no one comes

to erase me by calling me Mr. X.”

He takes a long silence... And then, suddenly, his voice is

choked. The sentence, which had hitherto been buried
only between machines, scientific reports and protocols,
was flowing in a human sob for the first time today.

"Now it makes sense... I was never a part of any of the

times. I'm an accident, Arjuna. A code that was run was a
system error. I'm a misspeller in the language of time...
Which everyone wants to edit.”

Arjuna sat silent for a few moments. He didn't know

whether the moisture in his eyes was now for Mr. X or for
himself—for before him it was no longer just a decision,
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it was a battle — of reason and emotion, of science and
faith.

He opened his lips, but the sound seemed to restrain

itself... Then, in a broken breath, he said, "Am I your
judge, Mr. X?" Do I have the right to decide whether
someone should live or not? Who had the right to make
you... And who gave me the right to erase?"

Mr. X looked at Arjuna – a look that had no anger, no

beggary. Just an acknowledgment... Like a tree, which
knows that the next storm will uproot it, but still wants to
feel the rustle of the leaves for the last time.

He said in a low voice, "Nobody made me, Arjun... I was

created just so that I would never live. I'm a final file...
The last line of a system that was never to be edited.”

Arjuna's eyes were now full. His fingers were playing

with the mud of the ground, like a child touching the
ground of his house for the last time. The sun was rising
on the distant horizon – but its light was not as it was
every day. There was a hindrance in it, as if the sun itself
was afraid to rise today.

And then, Mr. X held out his hand... Placed on Arjuna's

shoulder.

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His touch was still as cold, but there was a warmth within
him — a heat that only one can feel in his veins the whole
time.

"In the next moment," he said softly, "I'm also... And it

doesn't. You must decide, Arjuna, in what moment I live.”

Then there is only silence all around.

Not the chirping of a bird, not the rustle of a wind. Just

the silence that takes over time before taking a great
decision.

And then... The hands of the clock wobble on the distant

hill. Everything stops for a second. And time takes a
breath.

Devkunda was no longer a village.

It had become a distorted reality — as if time was seeing

itself in its own pieces. There was no past, no future, just
an echoing present, cutting itself off every second and
then adding itself. Someone had pulled the tape of time
and put it in an unheard-of tune — and he was now
playing every rule, every logic upside down.

135
The trees were shrinking into their own shade. There was
a muffled shiver in the air — as if the sound waves had
become solid.

People were walking on the ground, but some would

disappear for a moment, and then reappear in the same
place. Some were laughing and stiff, some were stuck in
the air as they ran.

And at the center of it all — stood Captain V.S.

His eyes were closed. There was no sweat on his eyelids,

but the veins in his forehead made him feel as if there was
a storm of another universe trapped there.

There was a blue light around him — not balanced,

throbbing. It's like a war between his soul and time... And
the soul is tired now.

He speaks, in a very calm voice, but there was a vibration

in him that would make even the air tremble.

"I have lived, Arjuna. Many times, in many forms. I've

been a soldier... Prisoner... There was also a biological
algorithm locked in the machine. "

He slowly slips his hand into his jacket pocket.

136
"But the time has not come to pick me up... I'm going to
take leave of him myself. "

He pulled out a small black chip from his pocket.

Perfectly flat, but the words engraved on it as if shouting:
"Self-efficacy"

It wasn't just a chip — it was a signature of registration.

There is no death... Rather forgettable techniques. It was
the reverse protocol — a quantum right, in which all the
timelines of existence, not just a human being, were
erased.

His name will not remain in history. His files will be auto
deleted in an unknown folder. The memories of him that
once changed someone's life will not come to anyone now.

He never was.

Arjun was looking at her. His eyes were wet, but the
words were stuck in his throat. Mr. X gave a slight smile
— the smile one gives before one's last wish is fulfilled.
The chip in his hand was about to be activated...

... Just then, there is a sharp jolt in Arjun's mind.

It was as if a memory was forcing itself into his brain. He

grabbed his head and a loud flash flashed in front of him.

137
A child. In a white lab coat. There was no desolation in
his eyes – just emptiness. There was a woman nearby –
her voice was colder than glass.

"Subject A-9 ready."

Then a device placed on a table... Full of blue light... It

was written on top:

"Kaal-Janma Prototype: Arjun-X"

Arjun's breath stopped.

He withdrew... He stumbled and fell. In front of his eyes

was now Captain V.S. No, it was his own face — in front
of that device, on that table.

He asked in a trembling voice, not to a phantom, but to

himself:

"I was Arjuna... Or am I Arjuna-X?"

Captain V.S. He was still quiet — but now there was an

old acquaintance in his eyes. He moved slowly forward...
It's as if he's heard the question before.

"Now get it, Arjuna... Why did you already know what I
was saying?"

138
Arjuna's breathing was uncontrollable. The wind was
heavy. Her eyelids were quivering, and her lips were dry.
His eyes were fixed on Captain V.S. But now he could see
a different face. Own.

"No..." He muttered. "It's a mistake... Hallucination is...

No planted memory... No false projection..."

But there was no sob within him. There was only a

strange humidity — the moisture that comes into a room
where screams have once echoed... And now there is only
silence.

His memories, hitherto like the pages of a confused book,

began to unfold one by one.

It was the first time he touched a typewriter — it was as

if his fingers already knew what to type.

It's an experience I've seen repeatedly... When Captain

V.S. Someone would say something, and Arjuna would
tremble at first.

Those were the times when he dreamed of the cold

corridor of a military laboratory and found himself
standing with a subject tag.

Now everything was being contacted.

139
"I wasn't against you..." Arjun's voice didn't sound like his
anymore — as if it was speaking in someone else's
language.

“… I'm the next version of you.”

Captain V.S. She looked at him.

The eyes that had looked at everyone with suspicion for

years have now softened. There was no surprise in that.
No resistance. Just a deep, tired acknowledgment.

Then he smiled. That smile like a father would give when

he saw his own clone – neither pride, nor sadness... Just a
peace that "now my part is also complete." "

For a few moments, only the whiff of the wind was heard.

Then Captain V.S. He said, "If I stay... Therefore, the

timeline will continue to be broken. And if I walked... So,
you must live with a lie that was never written.”

"So, what is to be done?" asked Arjuna. His voice was no

longer trembling—there was just a pause in it.

Captain V.S. He stepped forward and stretched out his

palm towards her.

140
"We can both have consciousness, Arjuna. You and I...
There are not two. We are two layers of time – a past truth
and an incomplete story.”

"If we combine ourselves... So maybe we can stabilize

time. By creating such an existence... Which is not
Captain V.S. Called... Neither ARJ-9... Rather just a silent
sentinel... That can't be found in any document... But it
will catch up with every piece of fallen time. "

Arjuna took a deep breath.

"The world is falling apart because of you..." She said

softly. "And she's lying because of me..."

That was Captain V.S. Moved towards. There was only a

moment of distance between the two — but countless
timelines were colliding in that one moment.

"Come on..." He whispered, "Together they become such

a truth... Which has no name... But remember the work.”

Captain V.S. closed his eyes once... And at that moment

there was a stir in the void. It's as if time itself has taken a
little breath...

Captain V.S. He bowed his head. There was no fear or

remorse in his eyes. There was only a peace — the kind

141
of peace that comes after a long battle, when man knows
that his last step will not be history, but time will write
itself.

Arjuna went with him. Both moved towards the center of

the reactor. At every step, the ground was slipping
backwards, as if time itself was bidding him farewell. The
walls were shaking, the screens were distorted, and a
nameless tune was playing in the air — as if the universe
itself was composing silent music in someone's farewell.

Arjuna held Captain V.S. in the palm of his hand as he

reached the center. There was no communication — there
was no need. The two consciousnesses that had not only
understood, but recognized each other, had now gone
beyond words.

Arjun activated the inverse protocol. And then a white

light – so fierce, so holy, as if the God of time had closed
His eyes.

Every code, every mistake, every fracture... Everything

was absorbed in that light. At that final moment, when the
consciousnesses were uniting — a sentence emerged on
the screen:

"Timeline restored." Subject neutralized.

142
The person who never was... No more. "

Everything came to a halt.

After many years...

A young journalist walks with his recorder along the

snow-covered paths of Devkunda. He's collecting an old
story — a story with no author, no date, no photograph...
Just an unspoken name.

At the end of the village, an old guide sits on a wooden

bench watching him. The reporter asks, "How do you
know all this?" If he never existed... So how do you know
he was?"

The old man smiles.

It's that smile of a century-old friend who knows that

some names aren't just on paper — they're written on the
walls of time.

He says: "Because sometimes... Some people are so real...

That by erasing them they rise even more.”

A slight vibration rises in the air. The bell of the nearby

temple rings automatically. The thin layer of ice begins to

143
fall on the ground like a new code. And the recorder in the
pocket of that young journalist automatically turns on.

One-word flashes on the screen: "Eternal-P"

A heartbeat resonates in Fiza... It's like time is turning

again.

Or a new beginning?

144