Light swallowed Arinya whole.
Not white light.
Not blinding light.
But a shifting prism—like she was falling through the back of a mirror made of consciousness itself. Fractals pulsed beneath her feet even though she was falling. Voices—thousands, layered—rose and dissolved in rhythms her mind couldn't interpret.
Then everything stopped.
She stood in a vast corridor made of polished obsidian, stretching infinitely in both directions.
Dozens of mirrors floated mid-air, each one reflecting a different version of herself—young, old, angry, broken, hopeful, ruthless, terrified.
None of them followed her movements.
Not one.
Aero appeared beside her, no longer flickering like a clone nor grounded like a human. His presence felt like a gravitational field trying to stabilize itself.
The three reflectionless children emerged behind him.
They moved quietly, their feet not touching the obsidian floor.
Arinya regained her breath.
"Where… are we?"
Aero answered softly:
"The Nexus of Parities. The birthplace of reflections."
Arinya's pulse stilled.
The place scientists theorized but never proved.
The plane where consciousness and physics intersect, spawning reflective identity forms.
"You brought me here?" she asked.
Aero nodded.
"You needed to see the truth before your duplicate forces you into extinction."
Arinya swallowed hard.
"What truth?"
Aero turned, and with him, the entire corridor shifted. Mirrors rearranged themselves like obedient soldiers following a new commander.
Then—one mirror grew larger.
Its surface rippled like dark water.
And it showed her the scene she had run from:
Arinya-R screaming orders.
Divisors hunting civilians.
Glitches tearing through Mirror Sector-03.
Reflections peeling away like skins.
Aero touched the mirror.
His voice was fragile and vast at once.
"Your duplicate believes extinction will free us. But she is wrong. She does not understand what is happening."
One of the reflectionless children stepped forward, eyes glowing like dying stars.
"In both universes, a third force has awakened. Something older than mirrors. Something that has chosen to evolve."
Arinya frowned.
"What force?"
The corridor darkened.
Mirrors cracked.
The floor shook.
The children spoke in perfect unison:
"Parities are collapsing. Reflections are separating. Identities are rewriting. The mirror world is not breaking—it is rewriting its laws."
Aero stepped closer.
"You, Arinya Vale, were chosen because you can decide between two paths:
A new multiversal birth…
Or a double extinction."
Arinya felt her stomach twist.
"What does that mean?"
Aero lifted his hand.
"Come. See."
He touched the largest mirror.
The world shattered.
---
THE POSSIBLE FUTURES
Arinya stood in a circular hall of mirrors—thousands of them, arranged like a massive observatory. Each one showed a future.
In one mirror:
Arinya-R led a genocidal march into the human world. Cities burned. Original humans fell. Mirror-clones multiplied like a new species reclaiming the parent world.
In another:
Humans panicked and sent antimatter detonators into the mirror universe, collapsing millions of clones into silvery dust.
In a third:
Both worlds tore apart at the molecular level—parity imbalance ripping existence like paper.
Arinya's voice almost cracked.
"Is there… no peaceful outcome?"
Aero gestured toward a smaller mirror glowing dimly.
"There is one."
Arinya approached it.
Inside the mirror she saw:
Humans and mirror-clones evolving into a shared species, no longer constrained by original-reflection dependency. Identity became fluid. Consciousness transferable. Physical form optional. A coexistence beyond biology and reflection.
Arinya whispered:
"This future is beautiful."
Aero's voice lowered.
"But it requires sacrifice.
And a choice only you can make."
Arinya's fists clenched.
"What choice?"
The children answered:
"You must disconnect parity. Forever."
Her breath stopped.
"That would mean—"
"Yes," Aero said.
"Clones will no longer need originals.
Originals will no longer define clones.
Two species, free.
Two worlds, independent."
Arinya stared at him.
"But that means I lose my duplicate.
And she loses me."
Aero nodded.
"A severed reflection cannot survive long. Your duplicate will die."
Arinya trembled.
"I would be killing her."
One of the children stepped forward.
"She has chosen violence. Extinction. Genocide. The freedom she wants is a world without you."
Arinya hesitated.
"But she's still me."
Aero shook his head.
"No. She has become something else. A separate evolution. And she will kill your world if you don't stop her."
Arinya closed her eyes, breathing shallow.
"Show me more."
Aero touched the next mirror.
---
THE ORIGIN OF THE REFLECTIONLESS CHILDREN
Darkness.
A laboratory corridor appeared—subtle, sterile, futuristic. Humans in white suits studied dimensional rifts. Arinya recognized her own writing on a holographic tablet. This was her research, years ago—unopened files marked Forbidden: Parity Instability Trials.
The mirror zoomed into a chamber where a young clone—unnamed, unclassified—was being tested.
Aero.
He was attached to dozens of neural and quantum sensors.
A scientist whispered:
"This child has no original."
Another replied:
"Impossible. Every reflection requires a source."
The monitors sparked.
Data spiked.
And Aero whispered his first words:
"I am the source."
Arinya's body froze.
Aero whispered from beside her:
"I did not imitate anyone. I was born from this place. The Nexus. A self-generated reflection. A new identity model. A prototype of what all reflections may become."
Arinya felt her world tilt.
"So you're… the first true mirror-born being?"
Aero nodded.
"And the other three?"
Aero's voice lowered.
"They are the next generation. They exist because I exist. We are children of the reflection plane itself, not products of your universe or the mirror universe."
Arinya's breath faltered.
"Then why choose me?"
Aero stepped closer.
"Because you understand peace not as a treaty… but as evolution."
Arinya lowered her head.
"And my duplicate?"
"She understands only domination. Force. Extinction. She does not fear death because she does not understand life without reflection."
The three children spoke:
"She will destroy both worlds if she reaches the Stabilizer Core."
Arinya froze.
"The what?"
Aero lifted his hand.
A mirror revealed an enormous machine deep inside the mirror universe—a quantum engine of glowing blue.
Arinya recognized it immediately.
"It stabilizes the connection between reflections and originals."
Aero nodded.
"If she reaches it and severs parity unilaterally, she will destroy the human world instantly."
Arinya's blood went cold.
"It has to be done by someone who understands both sides."
"Yes," Aero said.
"Only you."
---
THE RETURN TO REALITY
The Nexus trembled.
Cracks shot across mirrors.
A low hum vibrated the floor.
Aero's urgency sharpened.
"She has found the Nexus breach. She is coming."
Arinya-R.
The duplicate.
The children looked at Arinya one last time.
"You must go. Find the Stabilizer Core before she does. We will delay her."
Aero placed a small prism in Arinya's palm.
"A parity key. It will open the Core chamber. But once you use it, your connection to your duplicate will begin breaking apart."
Arinya swallowed.
"And what happens to you?"
Aero smiled faintly.
"We will continue evolving. Beyond mirrors. Beyond worlds."
Arinya nodded—slow, heavy.
"Thank you."
The Nexus shattered like a bubble.
Light slammed into her.
---
SECTOR-03: COLLAPSE
Arinya dropped into the real world, landing on cracked mirror-ground under a sky trembling with glitch storms. Sirens screamed. Buildings fractured into shimmering fragments. Clones ran in terror as reality peeled around them.
Aero's prism glowed in Arinya's hand.
She knew what she had to do.
The Stabilizer Core was beneath the Convergence Spire.
And Arinya-R would already be on her way.
Arinya forced herself into a sprint.
Every street erupted with clone-soldiers, Divisors, and mirror-civilians glitching into independence. Some clones screamed as their reflections crawled out of their bodies. Others split into two identities. Others dissolved.
Arinya moved through them all—dodging beams, explosions, collapsing geometry.
Behind her, a voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
"ORIGINAL!"
Arinya-R landed behind her, her body flickering with unstable geometry, eyes glowing like broken stars.
"You saw the Nexus, didn't you?"
Arinya didn't stop running.
"Yes."
"Then you understand now," Arinya-R said, sprinting after her.
"Humanity must be erased."
Arinya spun around the wreckage of a shattered transport pod.
"No. You're wrong. There's a path where both worlds live."
Arinya-R's laugh echoed through the ruins.
"That future is a lie. And you are weak."
The ground cracked beneath them as the Spire towered ahead.
Arinya whispered:
"You're afraid."
Lightning burst from Arinya-R's hands, tearing a crater where Arinya had stood a moment earlier.
"STOP RUNNING AND FACE ME!"
Arinya turned, breathing hard.
"I will face you. At the Core."
Her duplicate sneered.
"Then I'll see you there, Original. And only one of us walks out."
Arinya ran toward the Spire's collapsing entrance.
Arinya-R vanished in a burst of distorted light.