The smell hit me first. Not antiseptic. Not blood. Something... biological. The kind of rot that seeps from wet leather and things meant to stay buried. I blinked, disoriented, my vision a stutter of corrupted static.
[System Alert: Rebooting... Neural Sync: 34%]
The room was white, but not sterile. The walls pulsed like something alive, twitching every time I focused. I was lying on a bed—or a slab, rather—its straps not made of fabric but flesh. Warm. Veined. Pulsing faintly.
"Subject 0 is awake," a voice said, female, clipped. I knew that voice.
"Mu," I rasped. But the figure that stepped into view wasn't her. It was a nurse. Her nametag read: Mu. Her smile was wrong.
She leaned close, and her breath smelled like jasmine and formaldehyde. "Welcome back to therapy, Chen. Let me reintroduce you to your world."
---
The world outside the door was worse.
A zoo. At least, that's what the signs said. But the cages were filled with people. Some screamed. Some sang. One sat perfectly still, eyes stitched shut, humming a lullaby.
[System Error: Cognitive Desync Detected.]
Every cage had a plaque. Names. Dates. Loop numbers.
LOOP #6: Subject E - Self-Terminated
LOOP #12: Subject X - Burned
LOOP #18: Asset D - Imploded
In the lion's cage stood a man. Naked. Wearing my face. Eyes black as oil.
"You made me," he said.
I turned. Behind me stood a boy. Li.
"This is the Skin Zoo," he said. "Where all your discarded selves live."
"What are you?"
He tilted his head. "A possibility. A failed one. Like the others. But I remember things you don't."
---
We walked past exhibits. Each one a version of Anya. Assassin. Mother. Corpse. Child. Each locked in their own loop.
Li paused by the last cage. Inside, Anya sat on a swing made of spinal cords, humming. She looked up at me, and her eyes were mine.
"This one remembers you," he said. "But only if you pass her trial."
"What trial?"
The door slammed shut behind me. The sky above flickered like a dying screen.
[System Override: Trial of the Broken Heart Initiated]
Anya rose. Her dress was woven from microfilaments and memory shards. She reached into her chest and pulled out a knife made of my old regrets.
"You left me to die," she said.
"I saved you. Again and again."
"You saved versions. Echoes. Never me."
Then she lunged.
---
The fight wasn't physical. Each blow she struck forced me to relive a loop.
Loop #3: Her death by drowning.
Loop #7: My betrayal.
Loop #13: Our wedding. Followed by her execution.
Loop #19: Her becoming Mu.
I collapsed.
"I'm sorry," I gasped. "I never knew which you was real."
She paused. Her knife hovered an inch from my throat.
"Do you know now?"
"You're all real."
She smiled. And vanished.
[Trial Passed. Shard 1 Acquired.]
Li appeared, older now. His suit had changed. Black. Executive cut. His eyes glinted gold.
"Six more shards to go," he said. "Then maybe—just maybe—you'll remember what you really are."
I looked at my hand. In it, a shard. A memory.
Anya laughing. The first time. The last time.
The zoo lights flickered. The lion roared.
And the walls began to melt.
---
I found myself walking through a corridor of mirrors. Except each mirror didn't show my reflection. They showed variations of me: a version where I died as a child; another where I became Mu's enforcer; one where I married Anya and lived in peace for exactly 41 days before being assassinated.
A voice echoed: "Choose your regrets wisely."
At the end of the corridor was a door made of my own bones. I opened it.
---
Inside was an observation room. Glass panels revealed new cages—not animals, but memories. One cage held my mother, laughing, until she looked at me with eyes full of betrayal. Another held my father. Not Lu Kang, but the man whose DNA I'd never known.
He looked like me. Exactly like me. Older. Tired. As I approached, he whispered:
"You're not the first Chen. You're the 17th. And you're not the last."
The screen glitched. Behind the glass, he vanished.
I turned.
Li stood in the corner, now wearing the same uniform as my old schoolteacher. He held a report card.
"F-minus," he said. "Too many redemptions. Not enough remorse."
I lunged at him.
He dissolved into dust.
---
The zoo began to rebuild itself, but wrong.
Cages were now upright coffins. In one, Anya stood encased in ice. Her eyes moved slowly beneath frozen lids. A keyhole was embedded in her chest. Next to her cage, a plaque read:
"Final Shard: Memory of the First Death"
A key appeared in my hand. Bone. Cold.
I hesitated.
[System Whisper: Unlocking may overwrite your original timeline.]
I slid the key in.
The ice shattered. Anya gasped, falling forward into my arms. Her skin was covered in fractal tattoos, each one a name. A loop.
She looked up at me, terrified.
"Which one are you?"
"The one who remembers."
She smiled, then screamed.
The tattoo names began to bleed. Her skin peeled away like paper.
From behind us, the lion roared.
It stood on two legs now. Wearing Mu's face. Its eyes were mine.
[System Alert: Final Phase Initiated. Reality Integrity 4%]
The ground cracked.
Li reappeared—as a teenager now. He grinned, holding two syringes:
"Pick one, Father. Save her. Or save yourself."
Behind him, the sky tore open.
The loops collapsed.