The storm had returned.
Not outside—but inside Lucien's penthouse, inside their heads, inside the walls that once felt safe.
Aria sat on the edge of the black leather couch, eyes locked on the holographic display rotating above the table. A satellite feed flickered, centered on a trainyard three states away.
K-0X was there.
Alive. On the run. And being hunted by someone else now.
Lucien stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, jaw clenched, the city lights bleeding into the room like cold fire.
"We're not the only ones after him," he said.
Aria didn't respond at first. Then: "Who?"
Lucien turned to her, his face unreadable. "A contract was issued an hour ago on the dark net. High-level black market codename: The Mirror."
Her brows furrowed. "I've never heard of them."
Lucien hesitated. Then walked over to the wall and tapped his thumb to a biometric panel.
A hidden drawer slid open.
Inside: a single glossy photo.
Aria stared at it.
Her pulse spiked.
It was a woman. Dressed in all black. Pale eyes. A scar above her right brow. Her face—
Was identical to Aria's.
"What… the hell… is this?"
Lucien's voice was low. "They made her in the same lab you were in. A clone? A twin? No records. No name. Only a directive: 'Eliminate the original if control fails.'"
Aria's hands curled into fists. "So if I survive... I'm a threat."
He met her gaze. "No. You're the key."
---
Somewhere Else – The Trainyard
K-0X leaned against a rusting train car, bleeding from his shoulder. His breath was ragged. His hands shook.
He remembered Aria's laugh. The smell of copper in the lab. Her hand pulling him through the hallway as the alarm screamed.
And now...
Now all he could see were targets. Threats. Noise.
But something inside was fighting.
He clutched the chain around his neck—a tiny piece of metal with Aria's initials carved into it, scratched by hand when they were just kids.
Suddenly, the hairs on his neck rose.
He turned.
And saw her.
The Mirror.
Dressed like Aria. Moving like Aria. But eyes colder than winter, and a gun in her hand already pointed at his chest.
"Asset K-0X," she said. "Termination order confirmed."
---
Back in the Penthouse
Aria threw on her jacket, strapping her knife holster in place. "We're going to him. Now."
Lucien blocked her path gently. "It's not that simple. You go in alone, The Mirror kills you both. You go in hot, the contract spreads and we lose him forever."
She glared at him. "Then what? Sit here and watch him die?"
"No," he said, his voice like flint. "We do what I should've done years ago—we burn the system that made all of this possible."
He placed a data drive in her hand. "This has every classified blueprint, access code, and location tied to the Orion Project. We expose them all."
Aria stared at the drive.
Expose the truth—and becom
e the most hunted pair on Earth.
She tucked it into her belt.
"Then let's start a war."