River split herself on a Tuesday morning.
No ceremony. No preparation. No cosmic significance. Just decision made during breakfast. Decision made while watching Emma hold singular Keiko. Decision made while feeling her own pregnant body strain under impossible contradiction. Decision made because being bridge was killing her and duplication offered relief.
She activated the device. Felt consciousness fracture. Felt herself becoming two. Felt identity splitting into instances that would diverge immediately. Permanently. Irreversibly.
It didn't hurt. That was surprising. The splitting was clean. Precise. Perfect. One moment: singular River. Next moment: two Rivers. River-Transcendent and River-Biological. Both equally real. Both equally her. Both experiencing the split from their own perspective.
