Pendulum Effect

Within the scope of BREAKDOWN, the "Pendulum Effect" is a temporal tendency to return an object or individual to its original time. It is likely named after the the "swing" of a pendulum. It is used by Dr. Ogawa to explain the phenomenon that takes hold of Derrick after having been administered the Ultra-Accelerator.

Alex enters this temporal displacement (henceforth referred to as a "Pendulum Field") along with Derrick in order to assist him in defeating the T'lan. After defeating Nexus and escaping Site-Zero, Alex becomes subjected to the Pendulum Effect. If Derrick chooses to enter the Pendulum Field, he returns to the future with Alex. This can be seen as the point of entry into the game, at which point Derrick experiences amnesia (thus requiring the use of Dr. Wojinski's machine).

As such, the game is a continuous loop in which Alex follows Derrick into the past, and then Derrick follows Alex into the future.

It can be inferred that should Derrick continue to follow this trend, he will age. This opens up the inevitability that he may simply become physically incapable of defeating the T'lan. Of course, this is a minor, potential hole in the overarching impossibility that is "Time-Travel."