The first impact shook the entire floor.
A metallic boom rippled through the lab walls, followed by the whine of magnetic clamps latching onto the door. Loose papers fluttered. Dust drifted. The lights trembled, then steadied only because they had learned fear long before humans did.
"Elara," Calen said, "get behind the counter. Now."
The girl clung to Elara's shoulder, fingers balled into her shirt. Elara could feel her heartbeat, fast and uneven. Too human. Too familiar.
Another hit.Then a hiss as the lock mechanism began to melt.
"They're using Phase-Null cutters," Calen muttered. "They'll be through in seconds."
Elara crouched with the girl, her back pressed against the cold metal cabinet."You're safe," she whispered into the child's hair.
Calen shot her a look—half warning, half desperation.
"You keep saying that," he said. "But you don't know that. You don't know anything right now."
Elara stiffened. "She's scared, Calen."
"So am I," he snapped.
The door dented inward. A white-hot line cut across its center.
The child sat very still in Elara's arms. Too still.Her breathing slowed—too controlled for a frightened eight-year-old.
"Elara?" she whispered.
"Yes?"
"If they put me back, will I… disappear?"
Elara pressed her cheek to the girl's temple. "I won't let them."
The girl nodded once, trusting her completely.
Calen saw the exchange and something inside him buckled.
"Elara," he hissed in a whisper-sharp voice, "she isn't a kid. She's—she's something else. Look at her. She's not reacting like a child would."
"She's in shock," Elara said.
"She's you," Calen said."And maybe you're her."
Elara froze.
The door glowed orange.
Calen's Doubt Breaks the Surface
"Elara, listen to me."Calen stepped closer, voice low, urgent.
"Ever since the merge, you've had missing time.You've had memories that don't match this reality.Your reflection behaves like it's its own person."
He pointed at the girl.
"And now this fragment appears, and she's genetically you.What if she's the original…and you're the instability the Bureau wants to contain?"
Elara's breath caught.
"Don't," she whispered.
The child pressed her hand to Elara's jaw, turning her face toward hers with eerie calm.
"You feel it too," the girl said softly. "The drifting. The pulling.You're trying to stay one person, but you're two."
Calen swallowed hard. "Elara, she knows things—"
"She's a child," Elara insisted.
"No," Calen said, shaking his head. "She's evidence.And so are you."
The Door Gives
A crack split down the center of the heavy steel door.
Screams of metal. Sparks.The final fold.
The Bureau would be inside in seconds.
Calen raised his weapon toward the breach—steady hands, unstable heart.He didn't point it at Elara.But he didn't point it away either.
"Elara," he said hoarsely, "I need you to tell me the truth.Right now. Before they come in.Are you the real one?"
Elara's lips parted—no words came.
Because she didn't know.
The girl spoke instead.
"She isn't the only one," she said. "There were two adult Elaras after the merge, just like there were two nights. One chose the anchor override. One didn't."
Calen's face drained of color.
"Elara," he said softly, "which one are you?"
Elara forced the girl behind her, shielding her from the breach. Her voice shook.
"I don't know."
The door EXPLODED inward.
Bright armor. Black visors.A wall of Bureau agents flooded into the room in slow, silent formation.Their weapons glowed cold blue.A targeting grid traced Elara's silhouette.Another grid highlighted the girl with a pulsing red outline: | ANOMALY DETECTED.
Elara stood in front of the child, spreading her arms.
"Don't touch her!"
The lead agent lifted his hand, a signal for the others to freeze.
"Dr. Voss," he said through the modulated mask, "step aside."
"No."
"She is not your responsibility."
"She is me," Elara snapped.
The agent paused.
Calen stood between the agents and Elara, weapon raised."Anyone shoots her, they go through me."
The second agent lifted her visor slightly, eyes narrowing."Detective Calen Ward… are you sure about this?"
Calen's hands trembled—but his aim did not.
"I don't know if she's the real Elara," he said. "But I know she's the one I'm protecting."
His voice cracked.
"For now… that's enough."
The girl peeked around Elara's arm.
Behind the Bureau agents,every reflective surface in the room—screens, metal trays, polished tiles—lit up with a synchronized glitch.
A third Elara appeared.
The impostor-Elara.Mirror-Elara.Version-who-did-not-merge.
She stepped forward, flickering at the edges like a corrupted memory.
"Stop," she whispered. "You're all asking the wrong question."
The Bureau agents spun around.
Calen stared, horrified.
Elara felt her pulse stutter painfully.
The reflection-Elara smiled with quiet sorrow.
"You keep asking which of us is the original," she said.
She raised her hand, touching the edge of the glass.
"You should be asking which of us is still holding the world together."
The lights snapped.The air thinned.
Reality tilted.
And something deep beneath the city answered her.