Chapter Five: The Final Thread

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Micah stands in the Rewrite chamber, hands trembling with power. 
The mirrors have gone. 
The echoes have silenced. 
All that remains is the thread.

One single strand — pulsing, silver, alive — suspended in midair like it's waiting for him to pull.

He steps closer.

And the moment he touches it, the thread unspools.

It doesn't just play memory. 
It *becomes* memory.

He's walking through his childhood, 
through every lie told to protect him, 
every vanishing version of himself the Core erased.

He sees Rae building a version of the Anchor in a sandpit. 
He sees Wren fading from existence in a classroom that's half-built, half-remembered. 
He sees his *mother* — someone he never thought he'd remember — whispering into his ear: 
"You were meant to fracture the timeline. Not follow it."

He falls to his knees. 
The memories tear through him like lightning, not burning him — *revealing* him.

He is not a glitch. 
He is not a victim.

He is the final thread that the Drift could never cut.

A wall of light forms ahead.

Inside it, a thousand Micahs spiral. 
Some broken. 
Some lost. 
Some — thriving.

He reaches toward the wall.

The silver thread weaves itself into his chest, stitching shut the wounds of who he was.

And then he hears it —

**"You are the tether and the torch."**

The wall begins to crack. 
Micah braces himself.

He has no plan. 
No backup.

Only belief.

Only *truth*.

And that's when it happens.

He doesn't step forward — 
he is *pulled*.

Into the light. 
Into the thread. 
Into the final rewrite.

Where no version has ever returned.

And he smiles.

Because he knows — 
he's not coming back as Micah.

He's coming back as the spark that ends the loop.

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