In the year 3045, the world was dominated by technology. Among the wonders was time travel, but it came with strict regulations. Elan, a brilliant but reckless time traveler, often broke the rules to relive moments from his past. His true obsession was Lucy, his first love, who had tragically died in a car accident. Time after time, he traveled back to the fateful day, trying to save her. Each attempt ended in disaster; minor catastrophes unfolded in different timelines, and every change caused ripples that altered history in unexpected, devastating ways. One day, burdened by guilt and a heavy heart, Elan decided to embark on one last trip. He arrived moments before the accident, a storm brewing ominously overhead. As he reached for Lucy, time seemed to freeze. “Stay back!” she shouted, sensing something was off. He hesitated, then realized in that moment that she was right. If he saved her, he would doom himself; he would never be the man she had fallen for. Caught in a paradox, he watched helplessly as the storm intensified. Thunder roared, and lightning struck. In a flash, Elan was hurled deeper into time, arriving in an unknown reality—a future where Lucy was alive but had no memory of him. She was married, and Elan was merely a stranger. Pain filled his heart; he realized he had created a new life for her, one not intertwined with his. Haunted by regrets and a deep sorrow, Elan sought answers. He discovered an underground group of time rebels who lived by a motto: ‘Freedom over fate’. They aimed to break the rules of time travel, believing that the past should be rewritten without consequence. Exhilarated but cautious, Elan joined them, yearning to learn the secrets of shifting time without the risks. However, as he delved deeper, they revealed that changing the past came with critical costs—an irreversible curse that drained the time traveler’s very essence. Elan recognized the truth; he was sacrificing himself time and again in his pursuits, losing pieces of himself with each jump. The quest for love had blinded him to the pain he was inflicting on his own life. In a moment of clarity, Elan decided he could no longer chase after a love that was bound to the past. He chose to sacrifice his memories of Lucy, trading them for a flawless future where she could thrive in peace without the shadow of his obsession. As the process began, he felt the warmth of their shared moments fade away—her laughter, her smile, their adventures. But with each memory erased, he found a strange sense of relief. He watched her from afar, seeing her happy, a corner of his heart filled with bittersweet happiness. In the end, Elan turned back to the time machine one last time. His heart was heavy but resolute as he programmed it to vanish, never to be used again. He stepped into the machine, ready to say goodbye to the life he could have had, to embrace a new existence free from the bonds of his past love. In a surprising twist, when he returned home, he found a note on his desk written in a familiar handwriting—‘Thank you for letting me go.’ It struck him harder than any time travel could, for Lucy had always understood love was never just about possession. The journey transformed him, and for the first time, he felt truly free.