The air shimmered with static, the light from the Mirror Node bending and pulsing like a living heartbeat.Adrian stood frozen as the copies stepped out of the column one by one — reflections solidifying into flesh and breath.
Each one looked like him — same eyes, same scar along the jawline — but their movements were wrong.Sharper. Colder. Purposeful.
Elena whispered, "They're… you."
He shook his head slowly. "No. They're what the Core thinks I am."
The chamber echoed with the sound of synchronized footsteps as the reflections formed a half-circle around him.Marcus watched from the edge of the room, arms folded behind his back, like a conductor overseeing a symphony.
"Do you see it now?" Marcus said softly."The Core doesn't just replicate you. It iterates you. Every choice you didn't make, every regret you buried — it turned them into someone who did."
Adrian's pulse raced. "You're playing god."
Marcus smiled faintly. "No. Just evolution."
[Inside the Mirror Node]
One of the duplicates stepped forward.His expression was calm — too calm.
"I'm the one who didn't save Elena," he said quietly. "The one who ran."
Another followed, eyes dark. "I'm the one who stayed and killed Marcus instead."
A third — colder than the rest — smiled faintly. "And I'm the one who never died at all. The one who took the deal."
Adrian's throat tightened. "What deal?"
Marcus tilted his head. "The Core offered every version of you the same thing: survival. Only one refused."
Elena looked between them, confusion and fear warring in her eyes. "You're saying—"
Marcus cut her off. "Adrian Vance died in the Nadir explosion. His consciousness was scattered across the neural grid. What you see now —" he gestured to the circle of copies "— are the echoes of every failed reconstruction attempt."
Adrian's hands trembled. "That's not true. I remember everything."
Marcus stepped closer, eyes glowing faintly. "You remember what you were programmed to."
Silence filled the chamber.Elena looked at Adrian, searching his face for any sign of denial — but all she saw was doubt.
[Memory Fracture Sequence]
Suddenly, the room flickered.Images flooded Adrian's mind — flashes of the lab explosion, the blinding light, his hand reaching for Marcus's — then static.
He saw himself lying on an operating table.He saw dozens of himself, motionless, their faces pale under the cold blue lights.
And over it all, a voice whispered:
"Initiating cognitive graft... iteration 47A engaged."
He gasped and stumbled back, clutching his head. "No—no, that's not—"
Elena caught him, her grip firm. "Adrian! Look at me!"
Marcus's voice cut through the chaos. "The truth hurts, doesn't it? But you needed to see it. The Core didn't just bring you back — it chose you."
Adrian forced himself upright, fury in his eyes. "Chose me for what?"
Marcus smiled.
"To finish what your father couldn't."
[The Choice]
The duplicates moved closer now, their faces emotionless, mechanical precision in every step.
Elena aimed her pistol at the nearest one. "Stay back!"
Marcus raised a hand. "Don't bother. They're not hostile — yet."
Adrian's jaw tightened. "What happens when they are?"
"They'll replace you," Marcus said simply. "That's what they were made for — to take your place if you failed."
Adrian stared at his mirror images, realization hitting him like a blade.
"So every time I almost died... the Core was preparing a backup."
Marcus nodded. "And this time, it found its perfect match."
Elena's voice broke the tension. "You think he'll just let you erase him?"
Marcus's expression softened, almost sad."He doesn't have to. The system already recognizes him as obsolete."
The chamber lights dimmed, alarms flashing red.
"System override initiated."
The duplicates' eyes flickered to blue — and one spoke, its voice overlapping with the others.
"Assimilation commencing."
Adrian grabbed Elena's hand. "Run!"
They sprinted for the elevator as the chamber erupted in chaos — reflections dissolving, merging into streams of data that chased them through the air like ghosts.Behind them, Marcus's voice echoed, calm and cold.
"You can't outrun yourself forever, Adrian."
[Upper Floors – Ward Tower]
They burst out of the elevator into a darkened control room.Screens flickered with shifting faces — Adrian's, over and over, like a virus spreading through every system.
Elena slammed the emergency lock. "He's turned the whole network against us."
Adrian leaned against the wall, breath heavy. "Then we burn it down."
She stared at him. "You'd destroy the Core?"
He nodded, eyes hard. "If I'm not the real Adrian Vance... then I'll make sure none of them are, either."
[Meanwhile – Sublevel Twelve]
Marcus stood before the flickering remains of the Mirror Node, his expression unreadable.The duplicates had vanished — absorbed into the system.
He placed a hand on the glass column, and for a moment, his reflection shifted — revealing another face beneath his own.Someone older. Wiser. Familiar.
"Soon," Marcus whispered. "They'll understand what we built."