Location: Kapoor Mansion — 3:17 AM
Vivaan couldn't sleep.
Not after what he'd seen in Aaravi's eyes last night.
She hadn't just declared war.
She'd accepted that she might not survive it.
He stepped into her room silently—moonlight slicing through the window. She was standing at the mirror, half-dressed, her spine exposed like marble under moonlight. The scars from Project KMV were faint now—but still there. A cruel constellation.
"You're awake," he said.
"I haven't slept in three years," she replied, voice like glass cracking.
Vivaan watched her. "You look like her."
She turned.
"Like who?"
"…The woman in the footage. Karma."
Aaravi didn't flinch.
"That's not me. That's my ghost."
Location: Dharavi Lab Compound – 50ft Underground
Dr. Ria Menon walked through the sterile corridor of her lab, where nothing lived unless she allowed it.
Karma sat cross-legged in a padded cell, her arms folded, her gaze unblinking. Not child. Not woman. Something in between. Something worse.
"She doesn't sleep," one of the interns whispered.
"She doesn't blink," another added.
"She doesn't remember—"
"Good," Ria interrupted. "She doesn't need to."
Ria entered the cell.
Karma turned her head sharply.
"Mission?"
Ria smiled. "Phase One. Contact. Phase Two. Infiltration."
"Target?"
Ria tapped a tablet. Aaravi's face appeared.
Karma's breath hitched. Just once. Like muscle memory.
But the emotion never followed.
"She's the imposter," Ria said calmly. "You're the original."
Karma's fingers twitched.
"Can I kill her?"
"Not yet," Ria whispered. "First… become her."
Location: Veer's Safehouse — Unknown Dockyard
Veer wasn't the same.
His hair was shaved short. His wrists still bore the chain scars. His eyes scanned the room like he was always expecting a knife.
Vivaan sat across from him.
"Do you remember anything from Phase 2?"
Veer sipped black coffee. Silent.
Then:
"They wanted to erase her. Not kill her. There's a difference."
Vivaan leaned in. "Erase her and replace her with what?"
Veer met his eyes.
"Something more obedient. Something they could aim."
He slid a photo across the table.
A grainy shot. Karma, from a rooftop camera in Dharavi.
Vivaan's stomach sank.
"She's real?"
Veer nodded. "She's Aaravi… without soul, without restraint."
Vivaan whispered, "Then Aaravi won't survive her."
Veer looked at the ocean.
"None of us will."
Flashback: Kavya's Archive — "Project Karma"
"Mira wanted Aaravi's fire—but not her mind.
So they built Karma. Same DNA. Same body. But no history.
Just commands. Pure loyalty.
They made her forget love.
They made her forget pain.
What they didn't account for… was instinct."
Location: Mira's Coastal Hideout
Mira stood alone, watching the city's glow from a crumbling balcony. Her body was still healing. Her soul? Maybe gone.
Aryan entered, bruised, silent.
"She's activated," Mira said.
Aryan frowned. "And you think Karma will follow orders?"
"She was made to."
"Just like Aaravi?"
Mira didn't respond.
Aryan walked closer, eyes dark. "You're playing with ghosts. You don't erase someone like Aaravi. You provoke her."
Mira smiled faintly. "Exactly. Let her come. Let her burn the city again. And then, when the world's watching… Karma will step out. A savior. A queen."
Aryan's jaw clenched. "And the real Aaravi?"
"She dies in the fire she lights."
Location: Abandoned Trainyard – Later That Night
Vivaan met Aaravi in secret. No guards. No eyes.
He pulled out Karma's photo. "This is what Mira built."
Aaravi studied it. Her jaw clenched, but her voice was cool.
"She looks like me."
"She is you. At least… she thinks she is."
Aaravi stepped into the dark, her silhouette dissolving in steam and smoke.
Vivaan followed.
"She's not your twin," he said.
"No," Aaravi said.
"She's my mirror. And I intend to shatter it."
Final Scene: Karma's First Mission
A high-profile WCL investor is found dead in his South Bombay penthouse.
No forced entry. No fingerprints.
Only a lipstick mark on his neck and a cricket ball crushed into his skull.
The lipstick?
Aaravi Kapoor Red.
The killer walks through the corridor, calm, barefoot.
In her eyes: fire.
In her hand: Aaravi's stolen pendant.