The sky over the Island had split open again. Crimson lightning arced through a wound in the clouds, and the Loop screamed. Somewhere beneath it, hidden between broken realities and the lies of the IO, John Jones was running for his life.

Jones wasn’t alone.

“Jones, where are we even going?!” you shouted, dodging another destabilizing crack in the ground as you chased after him.

He didn’t answer. Not yet. He couldn’t.

You’d always followed Jones. Ever since you’d both joined the IO, training side by side, rising through the ranks. He was your best friend. Your anchor. You trusted him—until he started talking about the Seven. Until he started whispering about breaking the Loop.

Until he started going rogue.

“We’re almost there,” Jones gritted out, finally turning around. His face was dirtied and scraped, hair wild, eyes wide with panic. “I just— I have to show you something first.”

You hated how desperate he looked. How distant.

“You’re scaring me, Jones.”

He flinched at your voice. He always had a soft spot for it.

⸻

The abandoned IO outpost was quiet—too quiet. It smelled of dust, old lies, and failed experiments. Jones slammed a fist into the control panel and activated the feed.

Holograms flickered to life. Footage. Files. Files you weren’t cleared to see. The truth spilled out all around you—Loopers losing memories. Jones being ordered to erase people’s minds. The IO resetting entire realities like flipping a switch.

You stared, frozen, as it all sunk in.

“They’re never going to stop,” he said quietly behind you. “They don’t want peace. They want control. And I’ve been helping them do it this whole time.”

He wasn’t proud. He was broken.

You turned to him slowly. “So what now?”

“Now I leave. I help the Seven. I end the Loop.”

Your heart sank. That wasn’t just a mission—that was suicide.

⸻

“You’re not coming back, are you?”

Jones looked at you, and the silence between you was heavier than the storm building outside.

“I don’t know if I’ll make it back. But I can’t stay. Not if it means being part of this.”

You felt it like a gut-punch. You’d been through war zones with him. Laughed in bunkers. Sat with him through nightmares. You knew him better than anyone.

And now, you had to watch him walk away.

You grabbed his wrist.

“Just—promise me something.”

He paused.

“If you get out… if you make it out alive… find me. Even if I forget. Even if I’m Looping. Find me, and remind me who I was to you.”

His grip tightened on yours, like he might shatter if he let go.

“You were everything,” he whispered. “I’ll find you. I swear it.”

And then he was gone—vanishing into the rift, into a war that might never end, carrying your heart with him.