Tyrancilcus Rex hated deserts.

Too much heat, not enough shade, and absolutely nowhere to buy cold water or a decent jacket. But he’d tracked the stolen relic to this place — an ancient multiversal ruin known only as the Shifting Labyrinth, buried under blistering dunes and guarded by physics that behaved like they’d lost a bet.

Rexy planted his booted foot on the cracked ground, scanning the crumbling entrance. “Great. Another cursed temple. Why do these things always smell like charred regret?”

A soft voice drifted down from above.

“Maybe because you keep showing up to them.”

Rexy whipped around, claws raised.

There she was.

Jinxie of the Multiverse leaned casually against a half-collapsed pillar, as if she’d been waiting for him. Her eyes shimmered like split galaxies — bright, dangerous, impossible to read. Silver hair fell in waves over a body that looked sculpted to ruin someone’s day (or their entire emotional history). Her smile was wicked, playful, and too confident for someone who was technically stealing powerful relics for unknown reasons.

“Well, well,” Jinxie purred, crossing her arms. “Pixel Park’s favorite apex predator. Following me again?”

Rexy narrowed his eyes. “You stole something you shouldn’t have.”

She twirled a glowing artifact between her fingers — a triangular prism humming with unstable probability. “Correction. I temporarily borrowed something fate said I could play with.”

“Fate didn’t say that.”

She shrugged. “It didn’t say no either.”

A tremor shook the sand. The labyrinth groaned like some massive creature turning in its sleep.

Rexy growled, “You opened the ruin, didn’t you?”

Jinxie winked. “I nudged the locking mechanism with a fifty-fifty chance it would open instead of explode.”

“And you gambled with the ‘explode’ option?”

“That’s the fun part.”

Before he could respond, the ground split and the temple swallowed them whole. Rexy reacted first, grabbing Jinxie’s waist and twisting mid-fall as debris collapsed around them in pixelated chaos.

They landed hard on smooth stone.

Rexy pinned her against his chest instinctively, shielding her from falling fragments. She stared up at him, breath catching for a fraction of a second.

“Well,” she murmured, “if I knew you’d react like that, I would have fallen sooner.”

He released her immediately. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

She smirked. “Too late.”

The labyrinth shifted around them — walls rearranging, floors rotating, pathways changing direction like a maze trying to outrun itself.

Rexy stood, dusting himself off. “We need to get out. That relic is destabilizing the entire place.”

Jinxie hopped up with infuriating grace. “Actually… the relic is the key. Without it, the labyrinth won’t let anyone leave.”

She lifted the glowing prism.

“But with it?” she continued, sauntering toward him, “We can escape. If you trust me.”

Rexy snorted. “I trust probability more than I trust you.”

“Lucky you,” she whispered, stepping close enough for him to feel her warmth, “I bend probability.”

The floor lurched, sending them running through corridors lined with shifting glyphs that pulsed whenever Jinxie passed. She snapped her fingers, shifting the path ahead randomly — a left turn where there had been none, a staircase appearing just before they fell into a glowing void.

Rexy barked, “Stop messing with the maze!”

“I’m not messing,” she said, dodging a falling block, “I’m negotiating.”

“Negotiating with a building?”

“It has feelings.”

“It doesn’t.”

She grinned. “It does now.”

A final chamber opened ahead — a swirling vortex of collapsing code and ancient architecture. If they didn’t escape now, the labyrinth would seal forever.

Jinxie placed the relic into Rexy’s claws.

“Break it,” she said softly. “It’ll lock the maze in place long enough for us to leave.”

He frowned. “You stole it. Why let me destroy it?”

She stepped close, fingers brushing his scarf. “Because I steal what I need… not what I want.”

Their eyes locked.

“Break it, Rexy.”

He crushed the relic in his claws — light exploded outward, freezing the labyrinth mid-collapse. They sprinted through the final doorway as the temple sealed behind them with a thunderous crack.

Silence returned to the desert.

Rexy panted. “You could have warned me the whole ruin would try to kill us.”

Jinxie smiled slyly. “And rob you of the thrill? Never.”

She reached up, flicking his scarf playfully.
“For a dinosaur stuck in one timeline, you handled the multiverse pretty well.”

He smirked. “For a probability gremlin, you didn’t annoy me as much as I expected.”

Her smile deepened.

“We should do this again sometime,” she said, stepping backward. “Next time, I’ll come find you.”

Rexy raised an eyebrow. “Should I be afraid?”

“Oh, yes,” she whispered.
“That’s what makes it fun.”

With a snap of her fingers, she vanished into shimmering stardust.

Rexy stood alone in the silent desert, a new, unwelcome warmth creeping into his chest.

“Great,” he muttered. “Now she’s a problem.”

But he smiled anyway.

Because he knew he’d see her again.