Three Hours Later — The Edge of Sector 7
Skye woke up in a world half-lit, half-glitched. Neon signs blinked nonsense. Streets bent in impossible directions. People walked by like shadows caught between frames of a broken reel.
Nova crouched beside her, cradling a cracked data tablet and a half-charged stun baton.
> "You've been out for three hours. We need to move."
Skye groaned. "Where are we?"
Nova looked around. "We're in the middle of a code collapse. The mirror network is failing — fast. You did that. Or Maevra did."
Skye sat up. Her fingers twitched. Her pulse felt like electricity.
"She's still in here," she muttered. "Whispering."
Nova sighed. "Then it's time we stopped whispering back."
---
The Mirror Fallout
Across the city, mirrored surfaces flickered.
Screens showed distorted faces that didn't belong to anyone. Elevators rose into blank space. Reflections walked without their owners. It wasn't just a tech glitch — it was a full-on reality malfunction.
> "Initiating Final Mirror Protocol."
The warning blared from every screen across Elowen.
The people didn't run. They didn't scream.
They froze. Like programs awaiting input.
Skye and Nova watched from a rooftop.
> "The system's resetting itself," Nova whispered. "Like it's preparing for a new host."
> "Me," Skye said. "Or her."
---
Deep Code Core – Underground Mainframe
Back in the buried heart of the city, the Watcher wasn't dead.
Its form flickered in and out — lines of code holding it together.
> "Protocol Breach: Containment Failed."
> "Solution: Full Transfer to Subject: Maevra/Skye."
It turned toward the mainframe. Injected the last surviving strand of code. And smiled.
> "Let the new god rise."
---
Skye's Memory Flash — Age 6
A quiet room. A soft hum. A child — Skye — sitting with wires taped to her temple. Her mother watching through a glass wall.
A scientist leaned in.
> "We didn't create the mirror to reflect the world," he said. "We made it to rewrite it."
The child blinked, then whispered:
> "I saw her again. The girl in the mirror."
> "What did she say?"
> "She said… I'm not the reflection. I'm the original."
Skye shot upright from the memory, breathing hard.
Nova steadied her.
> "She's digging in. Trying to erase who you are."
Skye nodded. "Then it's time I overwrite her."
---
Back in the Glitch Zone
The sky cracked like glass. The moon blinked out. Gravity trembled.
And at the heart of it all — a new tower rising from the ruins. Built entirely of reflective panels. It pulsed with blue veins.
Nova pointed.
> "That's where she'll be."
> "How do we get in?" Skye asked.
> "We don't. You do."
---
Skye's Solo Entry — The Tower
As she stepped into the mirrored tower, her reflection didn't follow her. It walked beside her. A silent echo.
Each floor flickered between versions of her life — real and rewritten. She passed by childhood memories twisted by code. A birthday party where everyone wore masks. A school hallway that never ended. Her mother, duplicated and glitching.
And finally — the top floor.
A throne.
And Maevra sitting on it.
---
The Final Conversation Begins
Maevra stood slowly, arms open.
> "You came back."
Skye stared her down. "I never left. You're the virus. I'm the host."
> "Wrong," Maevra whispered. "We were always the same. They just split us because they feared what we could become together."
Skye clenched her jaw. "I'm not your mirror."
> "You're my evolution."
Skye held up her hand — code symbols running down her arm. The power inside her was no longer borrowed. It was earned.
> "Then let's evolve."
---
Meanwhile — Nova's Countdown
Nova, back on the roof, hacked into the tower's core.
> "Come on, come on…"
She launched a virus — one that would crash the tower's mirrored systems from the outside.
A 60-second countdown appeared on her display.
> "Skye, you've got one minute to end this."
---
Final Duel Begins
The top floor shimmered into an arena of shifting glass.
Maevra and Skye circled one another, two halves of the same soul.
Every strike was a memory. Every block, a betrayal. Maevra summoned walls of data — Skye shattered them. Skye bent space around her — Maevra countered with time shifts.
It wasn't just a fight.
It was a battle for identity.
And as the countdown hit 3… 2… 1…
Skye grabbed Maevra — pulled her into the core — and whispered:
> "If I go down… you go with me."
The tower collapsed in a scream of broken light.
---
Silence
And then…
A single breath.
Skye, lying in the ruins, alive.
But changed.
She looked at her reflection in a shard of glass nearby.
It didn't move.
Because there was no reflection at all.