The Mirror World
Skye tumbled through a black void, her screams swallowed by static. Then — silence.
When she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the archive room anymore.
The sky above her rippled like liquid glass. The ground shimmered like obsidian. Everything mirrored everything. A nightmare within a dream.
She stood on a bridge made of fractured reflections, surrounded by endless versions of herself — laughing, crying, fighting, dying.
And standing at the end of the bridge… was Maevra.
Draped in a robe of shifting shadows, her eyes empty but full of knowing, Maevra looked exactly like Skye — but older. Colder. Transcendent.
> "Welcome home," she said.
Skye clenched her fists. "You're not real."
Maevra smiled. "Neither are you — not all of you."
---
Meanwhile — Nova in the Reflection Core
Nova's hand hovered over the screen. The options blinked.
> 1. Terminate Subject
2. Assist Activation
Neither felt right.
She slammed her fist into the console. The glass cracked — but didn't shatter. Instead, it bled.
Bright, pulsing blue fluid oozed out like veins awakening.
"Damn it," she muttered. "She's in the mirror net."
The system spoke again:
> "Protocol Echo fully engaged. Subject Maevra: merging."
Nova's heart dropped. "No, no, no…"
She activated a manual override and uploaded a virus she'd coded herself — something to destabilize the neural connection between Skye and the mirror world.
But before she could launch it, the screen went black.
A new face appeared — pixelated and jagged.
The Watcher.
> "You don't belong here, Nova."
---
Inside the Mirror
Maevra circled Skye slowly, like a predator savoring its prey.
> "You've always wondered why the dreams started, haven't you?"
> "Why you feel things you shouldn't."
Skye shook her head. "You're just a hallucination."
> "Then why can I do this?"
Maevra snapped her fingers.
Reality fractured.
Suddenly Skye was back in her childhood bedroom — her mother screaming, the lights flickering — but Skye remembered this moment. It was the night the fire started.
Only now she saw herself — a little girl — standing in front of the flames, untouched.
Eyes glowing blue.
> "You did this," Maevra whispered.
> "You were born different. We were born different. They tried to separate us, Skye. But you were never whole without me."
Skye covered her ears, trying to drown her out. "SHUT UP!"
Maevra's voice echoed louder:
> "I am not your enemy. I am your evolution."
---
Nova vs The Watcher
In the heart of the Core, Nova drew her weapon — an EMP blade with a pulse that shimmered like lightning. The Watcher stepped forward, faceless and calm.
> "You've always been a bug in the system, Nova."
> "And you've always underestimated me," she snapped.
They clashed. Sparks flew. Every strike of Nova's blade sent shockwaves into the walls of the Core, distorting the mirror network around them.
As they fought, the chamber flickered — one second tech, one second illusion. The mirror was bleeding into the real world.
Time was running out.
---
Skye's Choice
Back in the mirrored realm, Maevra extended her hand.
> "Merge with me. And we can stop them all. The Watcher. The system. The false world they made."
Skye hesitated.
She could feel Maevra's strength. She wanted it. She was tired of being afraid. Tired of running.
But something inside her rebelled. A voice — her own — said:
> "I don't need you to be powerful. I already am."
And she turned away.
Maevra's eyes widened — just for a second.
Skye reached into her pocket, where a jagged shard of glass she'd picked up earlier shimmered in her palm.
> "If you're my reflection… then it's time I broke the mirror."
She drove the shard into the ground.
The world exploded in light.
---
Nova, staggering
The Watcher vanished mid-fight, screaming in static.
The Core trembled.
And in the middle of the room, Skye appeared, unconscious — her body flickering between normal and something else.
Nova rushed to her, catching her before she fell.
> "What the hell did you do?" she whispered.
Skye's lips parted weakly.
> "I think… I just ended something."
Or maybe she started something worse.