The abyss swallowed the facility whole.
One moment we stood on solid ground, the next we were falling through endless blackness, the golden woman—Anya, but not Anya—stretching her burning fingers toward me. The reflection's grip on my arm was the only thing keeping me from plummeting into the void.
"Look down," it hissed.
I shouldn't have listened.
Beneath us stretched an infinite web of glowing threads, each one a timeline, a loop, a life. And at the center, where all the threads knotted together, stood a child.
Li.
Not the heir. Not the monster.
Just a boy.
Alone.
Terrified.
The golden woman's voice echoed around us: *"You did this to him."*
The reflection tightened its grip. "No. *She* did."
The void twisted—
—and we were back in the lab.
But not *our* lab.
An older one.
Dirtier.
The walls were lined with jars holding things that shouldn't exist—eyes with too many pupils, fingers that twitched without bodies, tongues that whispered in languages no human throat could shape.
And in the center, strapped to a rusted table, was Mu.
Younger.
Screaming.
A figure loomed over her, pressing a golden tooth into her forehead.
The figure turned.
And I saw my own face staring back.
---
THE FIRST LIE
The reflection didn't let me look away. "This is iteration zero. The *real* one."
The other-me leaned down, whispering to Mu as she thrashed: *"You'll forget this. You'll think it was your idea. And when the time comes, you'll bring them to me."*
Mu's screams turned to whimpers as the tooth sank deeper, her eyes flooding gold.
The scene shifted again—
—a hospital room.
Mu, older now, holding a newborn.
Li.
She kissed his forehead, her golden tears dripping onto his face. *"My perfect heir."*
The reflection's voice was soft. "She never knew. None of them ever do."
The walls began to bleed.
---
THE SECOND LIE
We were back in the void, the golden woman still reaching, her crown of mouths howling.
The reflection shoved me forward. "You want to save her? Then *remember*."
I fell—
—into the golden woman's arms.
Her embrace burned. Not with pain.
With memory.
*Anya laughing as she pressed a knife into my hand.*
*Anya screaming as the heir tore her apart.*
*Anya weeping as she swallowed the first blue pill.*
And then—
*Anya standing over Mu's body, the golden tooth in her palm.*
*"For Chen,"* she whispered—
—and plunged it into her own skull.
---
THE THIRD LIE
I woke on the floor of the ruined facility, the reflection gone. The heir stood over me, his black eyes empty.
"You finally understand," he said.
Anya—*real Anya*—lay beside me, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. The golden woman was gone. The void was gone.
Only the heir remained.
And the scalpel in my hand.
He knelt, pressing his forehead to the blade. "This is the only way."
The facility doors creaked open behind us.
Sunlight streamed in.
And from the light, a child's voice called:
*"Dad? Mom? Are you coming home?"*
--
The heir smiled.
"Too late."
He grabbed my wrist—
—and drove the scalpel into his own throat.
Golden blood erupted, not just from him, but from *me*, from *Anya*, from the walls themselves.
The facility dissolved.
The world dissolved.
And the last thing I heard before the dark took us was Li's voice, whispering:
*"Welcome to the first day."*