Ash stared at the report on the terminal.
It was his name. His DNA sequence. His biometric signature.
All of it matched.
But it wasn't him.
Because he was standing right here. In the bunker. With Rei and Nyx. Breathing. Bleeding. Awake.
Yet the terminal pulsed with cold, red certainty:
SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: ASH VERDAN
LOCATION: SECTOR 9. ACTIVE.
"No," Ash muttered, backing away.
Nyx leaned closer to the data feed, black eyes flickering with something sharp. "It's not a glitch."
Rei crossed her arms. "Confirmed on three separate servers. It's real."
Ash shook his head. "That's not possible. I didn't leave the sector. You were both with me."
Rei didn't move. "I know."
Nyx whispered, "Then who—or what—did?"
---
Sector 9 was a former commerce district, now mostly swallowed by growth and decay. The once-pristine AI-automated stores were reduced to shells. Security drones didn't patrol this far unless specifically commanded.
Ash kept his hood low as they entered the broken gate. The streets echoed with nothing but wind and the soft buzz of Rift exposure in the walls. Streetlamps flickered like dying fireflies.
Rei led, Nyx floated silently behind.
Ash felt the pull.
A thread beneath his skin.
Something was drawing him forward, and it wasn't just curiosity.
It was hunger.
---
They reached the ruins of an old data clinic.
Rei raised a hand for silence, then pointed.
Through the cracked glass, a figure stood in the back room.
Still. Silent. Hands resting on a console.
Ash's breath caught.
It was him.
Not someone who looked like him.
Him.
Same coat. Same boots. Same ring.
But the air around the figure was... off. Warped. Like the space it occupied wasn't fully agreeing to its presence.
Rei gripped her weapon tighter. "Visual confirmation. It's a full echo. This shouldn't be happening. Not without an anchor."
Nyx frowned. "Or unless something's forcing the mirror to stay open."
Ash stepped forward. "I need to see him."
Rei put a hand on his chest. "You sure?"
"No."
He pushed the door open.
---
The figure didn't turn as he entered.
Ash stepped closer. "Who are you?"
The other Ash raised its head.
Its eyes were black.
Not empty. Not blind. Just black. As if whatever light had once lived inside had been scraped out and replaced by something else.
"I'm the part that stayed behind," the echo said calmly. "The part that didn't run."
Ash froze. "You're not real."
The echo tilted its head. "Aren't I? You left me in the dream. You left me when you put on the ring."
Ash stepped back. "This is some kind of memory bleed. A hallucination."
The echo smiled. It wasn't kind. "Then why am I wearing your fear?"
The ring on the echo's hand glowed. Exactly like Ash's.
Outside, Rei moved toward the window, weapon still ready. "Something's wrong. It's not attacking."
Nyx floated closer. "That's not an echo. Not a memory. That's something else."
Inside, Ash's vision blurred.
The echo stepped forward.
"Do you know what they call someone who splits a timeline?"
Ash didn't respond.
"A wound," the echo whispered. "You didn't cross into this world. You punched through it. You're not a visitor. You're a virus."
The lights flickered.
The echo raised one hand—and the Rift responded.
The room shimmered.
Walls became fluid.
Reality bent.
And Ash felt himself splitting.
---
Rei shouted through the doorway. "Ash! Move!"
A pulse of static exploded from the echo's chest.
Ash dove. The wave tore through the room, disintegrating glass and metal.
Rei dragged him out just as Nyx raised a field barrier. The wave hit, then passed like a storm of heatless fire.
The clinic collapsed behind them.
And the echo vanished.
---
Back in the bunker, Ash stared at the wall, trembling.
"It spoke like it knew me," he said. "It was me."
Rei paced. "We're escalating too fast. That wasn't an echo. That was something else. Something with agency."
Nyx sat on the table, cross-legged. "We've heard of them in the oldest logs. Entities that occur when timeline tension gets too high. Reflections that stabilize themselves. Mirrored Protocol."
Ash looked at them. "You mean that wasn't just a glitch?"
Nyx shook their head. "It was a correction."
Ash exhaled shakily. "What does that mean for me?"
Rei didn't answer at first.
Then, quietly: "It means if we don't find the original break soon… the Rift will try again."
"And next time?" Ash asked.
"It won't stop at just one copy."
---
Later that night, Nyx sat beside him in silence.
Ash stared at his hands. They didn't feel like his anymore.
"You've changed," Nyx said softly.
"I know."
"Do you want to keep changing?"
Ash shook his head. "Not like this."
Nyx studied him for a moment. "You asked who I am. Or where I'm from."
Ash looked over. "Yeah."
Nyx touched the wall. "I'm not from this Rift. I don't think I was ever from any place that stayed."
Ash frowned. "Then how are you even here?"
Nyx smiled. "Sometimes things slip through. Sometimes they stick. I think I stuck. Or maybe I'm what's left of something else."
Ash's throat tightened. "I don't want to become a remnant."
Nyx looked him in the eyes.
"Then stop living like you already are."
---
Across the city, in a tower of silence and steel, Ashen Virel read the same report.
SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: ASH VERDAN. LOCATION: SECTOR 9. ACTIVE. TIME STAMP: MATCHED TO CURRENT PRESENT.
He didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Didn't speak.
The lights around him dimmed in response to his silence.
Then, without a word, he stood.
And whispered: "It's starting."
---