The Agent reached into his coat and pulled out a newspaper clipping from 1992. The headline screamed about a city block leveled by an explosion. "I found a version of him. But the closer I get, the more the trail feels like a mirror. Every step he takes is a step I remember taking, even if I haven't taken it yet."
The Agent sat down, his hands trembling slightly from the "temporal jump jitters." He placed the violin case on the scarred mahogany. "Time is relative, old man. Especially when you’re chasing a ghost that hasn't been born yet."
"You're late," the bartender said, wiping a glass that was already clean.
The bartender finally looked up. His eyes were identical to the Agent’s—tired, sharp, and laden with secrets. "Did you find him? The one who ruined everything?".
The bartender didn't look up when the man walked in. He didn't have to; he’d heard the rhythmic thump-hiss of the temporal violin case a dozen times before it even crossed the threshold. In the year 1975, the air in the bar smelled of stale beer and cheap tobacco—scents that felt like home to a man who lived in the cracks of decades.
With a sharp crack of displaced air, the stool was empty. The bartender went back to wiping the glass, waiting for the next version of himself to walk through the door. Predestination (2014) - subtitles for YIFY movies
The Agent downed the drink. The warmth didn't reach his chest. He looked at the violin case—his only companion across the centuries. It wasn't just a machine; it was a cage. "What if I just... didn't go? What if I stayed here, in 1975, and let the bomb go off?"