Read Ouroboros 3: Repeat for Free Online Page A

She tried to deduct what she could from what she’d experienced.
    When she had opened the time gate, maybe she’d broken something? Maybe she’d done something to the entity?
    Of course, that made sense.
    As Nida realised that, despite the fact she was numb, a cold wash of dread spread through her.
    What if she had done this? What if she had corrupted the entity?
    She knew that every time it used its power, it became weaker, and more liable to corruption. And when Nida had forcefully opened the time gate, surely that had taken an immense amount of power.
    The dread continued to build in her, and as it travelled up her bones and stomach and back and legs, it reached her head. As it did, she swore she started to drown under it.
    What if this was her fault?
    Yet just as soon as that thought claimed her with crippling guilt, another one took hold.
    If the entity had corrupted completely, surely reality would have broken. She wouldn’t have been left here, wherever here was. She wouldn’t be tied to this hospital bed as Carson Blake lay beside her, his dead gaze locked on the ceiling as visions were forced into his mind.
    No, this didn’t make sense.
    This wasn’t the entity corrupting.
    So perhaps it really was the future.
    She returned to that thought just as she saw a shadowy figure walk towards her. The closer it came, the better she could see it. Whatever drugs they were pumping into her system were affecting her vision.
    Eventually she recognised white hair, black eyes, neck ridges, and blue spots.
    Vex.
    Though Nida’s eyes were stuck open and she could no longer move them, the Vex came into view as it checked one of the medical devices lodged into her neck.
    It was a woman, and her face had a fixed look of concentration.
    Nida stared at it, incapable of looking away.
    As the woman manipulated the device, she briefly looked down at Nida, then typed something into a device on her wrist, and promptly walked away.
    Perhaps the Vex thought Nida was so far gone that she was unable to see, but it was the first time her captors had been so indiscreet.
    She was doing it. She was gathering information. The longer she remained conscious and the harder she fought against the visions and her weak body, the more she would find out.
    It was her only hope. And quite possibly, it was Carson’s too.
    She frantically wanted to shift her head so she could see him again, but she could no longer move. So instead she stared up at the ceiling.
    Come on, she thought desperately, you can do this. You have to.
    It no longer mattered that Cadet Nida Harper had once been the worst recruit in 1000 years. In fact, her life at the Galactic Coalition Academy seemed centuries ago now. And if not centuries ago, then centuries into the future. The point was, she was alone. There was no one to rely on, and if she didn’t have the gumption to rely on herself, then there would be no escape.
    Not for the first time, she tried to call on the entity. She tried to locate it within her, she tried to discover whether it was there, whether it was okay. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lock onto the sense of it. Deep down, buried underneath her all-encompassing fatigue, she thought she could feel it, but that was it. The presence in her mind was gone. The power in her hands had also disappeared. Whether it was the drugs or the fact the entity was immeasurably weakened by opening the time gate, Nida didn’t know. The conclusion was still the same. She had nobody else to rely on. It was now completely up to her.

Chapter 8
    Carson Blake
    He didn’t stop. Nobody would let him stop. They showed him the message, and the footage of 10 United Galactic Coalition worlds being attacked by some kind of race he had never seen. It was fantastic, impossible even. Yet as soon as he thought it was impossible, he was distracted yet again.
    Distracted.
    He kept going back to that word, because everything happening to him felt like a distraction. Every time he