France, 1915.
The lab was disguised as a collapsed signal tower—just another scar on the western edge of the Marne line. Camouflaged with sandbags and broken timber, it rose three stories high, built into the edge of a ridge barely a kilometer from the front.
To anyone passing by, it was a communications relic. A ruin.
But beneath its shell, Lucien stood at the top level, behind a reinforced viewing port and a wall of instruments—half of which had never existed before. The glass was laced with thread filaments, connected to a precision magnification scope mounted in the center.
Through it, he could see everything.
Below, French soldiers moved across a cratered field between collapsed trenches. Chronos personnel—disguised and hidden from view—had embedded the last machines along a thin corridor of mud, blood, and rusted wire. The soldiers didn't know. They were never told.
Twelve men. One medic.
They advanced. The lead soldier crossed the activation point.
The field engaged.
Time shivered.
Lucien watched the sequence in clinical silence.
The front two soldiers bent against invisible pressure. Their limbs slowed. Motion fractured—like reality was dragging behind their intent. The medic, responding to a sudden fall, dove toward the injured man just as the dilation expanded.
Lucien adjusted the scope.
The world inside the focused area moved slower now.
The medic treated the fallen soldier's wound.
From Lucien's scope, the bullet had struck the soldier still hovering mid-collapse—frozen in the field's edge.
Lucien glanced at the readings.
Seven seconds passed.
"That's enough," he said.
A soft click echoed behind him. The faint hum around the field dropped.
The image snapped—motion returning like a breath exhaled too quickly. The soldiers stumbled. The medic screamed. The wounded soldier's chest imploded.
By evening, the medic passed—Brain trauma.
The rest of the soldiers collapsed by morning. Seven never woke.
Lucien read the reports in silence.
Beyond the glass, the war continued.
Lucien was already preparing for the next test.
***
Washington D.C., 1917.
The room smelled of polished oak, aged tobacco, and victory.
A war tribunal.
Everyone was dressed for celebration—velvet banners, brass-trimmed lecterns, a string quartet rehearsing quietly in the corner. Men in high-ranking uniforms stood along the balcony railings, laughing in low, practiced tones. Reporters denied access.
Chronos had been given the floor.
Max stood at the center table, sleeves crisp, tie perfectly aligned. His hair gleamed under the chandelier's diffused light. He smiled, always at ease. He was born for rooms like this.
Lucien sat beside him, eyes fixed on a point somewhere beyond the walls. He hadn't spoken since arrival.
"Chronos Industries," Max began, "was never built for war. But when war came—faster, louder, more brutal than anyone imagined—we were ready!"
He let the silence breathe.
"Not because we anticipated conflict. But because Lucien understood something none of us did. Time isn't neutral. Time waits for no one. Unless you make it."
A general on the upper platform gave a single nod.
"The campaign reductions," another chimed in, "were unprecedented. Experts claim that two years were cut! Casualties—halved."
Another voice, quieter, more pointed, "You didn't just win the war. You ended it early!"
Max glanced sideways, as if to invite Lucien to speak.
Lucien didn't move.
He adjusted the button on his cuff.
"To Lucius Cronus!" Max cheered.
Applause blinded the room.
A man approached from the side—black suit, quiet, understated. He leaned toward Lucien, "Mr. Cronus, care for a chat?" he said, just loud enough for him to hear.
Lucien followed without a word. The room shifted around him, conversations dimming as they passed through an adjoining corridor lined with old war portraits. The man led him through a discreet doorway into a narrow balcony. It was quiet. Wind stirred the trees below.
The man extended a sealed folder.
"A gift from the white house—for your patriotism," he said, "Chronos Industries is to be granted full and unrestricted access to all defense research channels. You'll operate under direct executive privilege."
He paused.
"There might be a time when the United States will need your support. We hope that we can count on it."
Lucien look at the man. Then he took the folder. Did not open it.
"We have faith in your, Mr. Cornus," the man added. "You've already changed the pace of history."
Lucien turned back toward the light inside. Didn't reply.
Later, Max accepted the public recognition alone. There was polite applause. Someone offered a toast. Glass clinked faintly.
Lucien didn't touch his glass.
Later—outside, beneath a gray sky, the city moved on.
Lucien walked along the edge of the reflecting pool.
A wind stirred the surface. Ripples blurred the symmetry.
He looked down and saw himself split.
He didn't blink.
They think they've given me power, he thought, as if power is something they could grant.
They clutch their laws, their permissions, their protocols—all illusions.
He turned from the glass. The applause was gone. Above him, the sky hung motionless over a city that answered only to him—in breath, in rhythm, in silence.
I never needed permission.
His gaze sharpened, as if focusing not on the skyline—but the hour beneath it.
Laws govern the foolish.
I command time.
This—frivolous gift, it wasn't a reward. It was a realization. And even that was late.
This was always mine.
***
New York, 1919.
The study at the Upper East Side estate was warm with evening light, softened through the tall windows by silk curtains. Rain tapped faintly against the glass. The fireplace had gone cold, but the coals still held the shape of what once burned.
Isabelle stood by the desk.
Lucien had always kept his documents stored precisely—sealed, coded, locked behind misdirection. But she had found the reports anyway. Not hidden. Just… left. As if he no longer cared whether someone saw.
The papers trembled slightly in her hands.
"34 deaths….", she started.
Lucien looked up from his journal, unmoved.
"12 Suicides…"
His brow didn't twitch.
She took a step forward.
"You knew this was happening."
"Yes.", Lucien replied—cold.
"You let it happen…"
He met her eyes.
"The price of evolution."
Isabelle's breath caught—not in shock, but fury held tightly beneath composure.
Lucien closed his journal gently.
"We advanced the war by two years. Lives were saved."
"At what cost?"
He didn't hesitate.
"A few human lives, for a step closer to my goal. That's a trade I can live with."
Silence stretched between them.
"I believed in you," she said quietly. "I thought all this—Chronos, this… empire—it meant something more than just… your goals. I thought you were building something for the future."
"I'm not," Lucien replied. "I'm building for what was lost. What should have remained."
"They're gone, Lucien."
His voice was soft. Almost kind.
"Then the world can wait until they're not."
She stared at him.
There was nothing else to say.
She left the reports on the desk. Walked to the door. Paused—but didn't look back.
The door shut behind her with a quiet click.
Lucien sat alone.
Again.
***
1927.
Chronos was no longer a company. It was everything.
Across oceans, continents, every major capital held at least one Chronos tower. Cities pulsed on Chronos time. Governments coordinated through Chronos servers. Everything ran to the rhythm of Lucien's thread.
Energy systems flexed dynamically, adjusting to consumption before it ever arrived. Transportation was scheduled down to the microsecond. Security enforced through Chronos algorithms to predict and preempt everything before it happened.
The center of it. A man who was never seen.
Lucien managed it like a ghost threading the edge of glass. He never appeared on camera. Never stepped onto stages. When world leaders came to Chronos Towers, they were met by Max.
Max was everywhere.
He smiled, addressed. He held the attention of presidents and kings. He soothed markets with a sentence. With one hand, he carried the narrative. With the other, he shielded Lucien from the world.
Isabelle moved more quietly—but no less visibly.
She walked the camps. She toured the devastated provinces. She touched children's faces and reassured mothers. Every photo of her became an emblem of Chronos compassion. Every interview, a reminder that the future isn't just efficient—it was human.
Lucien remained in shadows.
He reviewed pulse maps of entire continents. Listened to deviations in temporal sync, like a conductor catching a mistimed note in a symphony
Somethings, the world would catch a glimpse of him.
A blurred figure behind frosted glass. A silhouette walking through Chronos Tower's uppermost corridors. Once, during a live broadcast from Chronos HQ, his reflection appeared for 3 seconds behind Max.
The world cheered that day.
They gave him titles.
"The Clockmaker."
"The Silent Architect."
"The Engineer-King."
"The Father of Time."
"The God of Creation."
Lucien didn't respond.
He didn't care.
He wasn't trying to be seen.
He was trying to find what had been lost.