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Eclipsed Horizon — Chapter 5: "Through the Breach"
At first, there was only silence.
Then came the breath—the slow intake of something that wasn't air, the sound of a world trying to remember how to exist.
Cael Drayen stood in the white void, the Aether field stretching in all directions like broken glass reflecting nothing.
Fragments of Zephyr Base drifted through the air—hallways, doors, even shards of the sky itself.
And there she was.
Lyra Vance—half-light, half-memory—standing between him and the figure that mirrored his every motion.
The other Cael.
"Where are we?" he asked.
Lyra's form flickered. "Between. The breach tore through the Resonance Layer. What you see are echoes—your memories, your reflections. And his."
The duplicate turned slowly, eyes empty of color.
It moved like a puppet without strings, every step silent.
"What is that?"
Lyra hesitated. "The resonance field copies what it can't resolve. That's the version of you the system believes should exist—the obedient one."
The echo raised its hand. A Pulseblade of pure white light ignited.
Cael's instincts flared. His own blade answered in reflex, azure light sparking across the void.
Their blades met—and the world rippled.
Each strike sent shockwaves through the glasslike space, fragments of forgotten scenes flickering around them: Zephyr's training halls, the day Lyra vanished, Cael standing before the sealed chamber where it all began.
"Stop!" Lyra shouted. "Every clash fractures the breach further!"
Cael blocked another strike, voice strained. "He's not giving me much choice!"
The echo lunged—and suddenly, instead of striking, it spoke, voice toneless but unmistakably his.
> "You left her to fade."
Cael froze. "What?"
> "You disconnected the link. You chose to forget."
The memory struck like a blade through the chest.
He saw flashes—wires, containment pods, Lyra reaching for him as alarms blared, the command to terminate synchronization.
His hand trembled. "No. That wasn't me—it was—"
> "You followed orders."
The echo pressed forward, blade crackling with energy.
Lyra stepped between them, shouting, "He didn't remember because they erased it! Both of you were just pieces left behind!"
The void convulsed. Light fractured into ribbons. The two Caels were thrown apart.
Lyra's voice echoed from all around, trembling with distortion.
"They built you to stabilize the Collapse, Cael! Two halves of a single frequency—split between existence and echo!"
Cael pushed himself up, vision swimming. "Then why am I still seeing you?"
She looked at him, eyes filled with something more than code—something painfully human.
"Because you never let me go."
The void pulsed once—then cracked open.
---
In the real world, alarms blared through Zephyr Base.
Conduits burst one after another as Aether energy spiraled through the pylons.
Mireen Solis clung to her console. "Commander, his vitals are unstable—he's synced with something beyond the dome grid!"
Arden Lyss barked, "Cut the power to Core Channel Seven!"
"Already did! It's not enough—there's an external current feeding back through the breach!"
Arden slammed her fist against the console. "Then isolate him manually!"
"Ma'am—if we sever his sync, he might not come back at all."
The commander hesitated. For a long second, the façade of control cracked.
Then, quietly: "Do it."
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Inside the breach, Lyra's form flickered violently. "They're trying to cut you off!"
Cael reached toward her. "What happens if they do?"
"If they pull the link—your body wakes up. But this version of you—the part that remembers me—stays here."
He froze. "Then I'd lose you again."
Lyra smiled faintly. "You can't lose what you've already become."
The echo stood behind her now, silent, its blade dimming. For the first time, its expression shifted—not anger, but sorrow.
Then it spoke:
> "Take it back."
Before Cael could react, the echo pressed its hand to his chest. A surge of light burned through him—pain and memory colliding into one.
He screamed—visions flooding in—Lyra reaching out in the collapse, the failed experiment, the sky fracturing into a twin eclipse.
When he opened his eyes again, the echo was gone.
Only Lyra remained—smiling through tears of static.
> "Now you remember."
The void shattered.
---
Cael gasped awake on the infirmary floor, monitors sparking around him.
Mireen was shouting orders. Arden stood in the doorway, eyes locked on him.
The Pulseband on his wrist burned with new light—two rings intertwining in its glow.
Arden's voice was a whisper. "Impossible…"
He looked up, breathing ragged, and said the words that made the room fall silent:
> "She's not gone."
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Outside, above the floating city of Zephyr, the scar in the sky widened.
Light poured through like dawn breaking through glass—
and within it, for just a heartbeat, the silhouette of a girl shimmered between the suns.