Chains of our fates!

Anna did not move.

Her breath came shallow, her grip on the dagger firm—but her mind? Her mind was a storm.

Victoria stood before her, the embodiment of everything Anna had fought against, everything she had refused to become. She was supposed to be gone. Unmade. Erased from existence.

And yet, here she was. Breathing. Smirking. Waiting.

Behind her, Lucas leaned against a broken pillar, arms crossed, watching the moment unfold like it was his personal entertainment.

And Ethan?

Ethan was still missing.

Anna swallowed the tightness in her throat. "Tell me why you're here, Victoria."

Victoria's smirk deepened, but her gaze was sharp. Hungry.

"You already know why," she murmured.

Anna's pulse pounded.

"The world is unraveling," Victoria continued, gesturing around them. "You feel it, don't you? The cracks in the air, the way reality keeps… shifting. It's because he's gone."

Anna's fingers twitched.

Ethan.

The man who never should have left.

The man who tore a hole in the world just by stepping through it.

Anna forced herself to stay still. "So what? You're saying if I don't fix this, the world ends?"

Victoria let out a soft chuckle. "Oh no, dear," she mused. "I'm saying it's already ending."

The Signs of Collapse

Anna's mind raced.

She had felt it.

The unnatural silence. The flickers in her vision. The way Lucas had appeared—not as a man, but as an aftershock.

The world had been different since Ethan left.

But she hadn't wanted to believe it.

Now, she couldn't ignore it.

"Where is he?" Anna demanded.

Victoria tilted her head. "Which one?"

The words sent a chill through her veins.

"What do you mean?"

Lucas chuckled from his place by the ruins. "You really haven't figured it out?"

Anna turned to him, and for the first time, she noticed something off.

Lucas had always been a presence—a smirk, a shadow, a lingering question. But now?

Now, he was fading.

Not disappearing. Not dying.

But becoming less real.

As if the world was forgetting him.

Anna's stomach twisted.

Lucas smiled. "I was never meant to exist, Anna. I was a replacement. A placeholder. A reaction to the fact that Ethan's departure left something too empty."

Anna's breath caught.

"But now?" Lucas shrugged. "Now the world has corrected itself again. And I am no longer needed."

Anna felt it before she saw it.

A pull.

A shift.

And then—

Lucas vanished.

No sound. No struggle.

Just gone.

Anna's heart slammed against her ribs.

She turned to Victoria, her voice shaking. "What did you do?"

Victoria only sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, Anna. You still don't get it, do you?"

Anna's pulse pounded. "Tell me."

Victoria stepped forward, slowly, deliberately.

And then, in a voice that was almost gentle, she said:

"Ethan isn't coming back. And if you don't take his place, neither are you."

The Cost of Defiance

Anna didn't breathe.

The words lodged themselves in her throat like knives.

Ethan isn't coming back.

Neither are you.

Victoria continued, voice calm. "This world is built on balance. Ethan disrupted that balance when he left. Lucas was the world's first attempt at fixing the gap. But now that he's gone?"

Her gaze darkened.

"The world needs something else."

Anna's grip tightened on her blade. "And you expect me to be that something?"

Victoria tilted her head, almost amused. "Expect? No. But fate does."

Anna's vision blurred at the edges.

Because she could feel it now—the pull.

The same way Ethan had been drawn to the rift.

The same way Lucas had vanished without resistance.

She wasn't just standing in a broken world.

She was becoming part of the fracture.

Anna clenched her jaw. "There has to be another way."

Victoria's smirk softened into something almost sad.

"There always is," she murmured. "But tell me, Anna—when have you ever been the kind of person who walks away from a fight?"

Anna's chest ached.

Because Victoria was right.

She had spent her entire life fighting fate.

But now?

Now fate was fighting back.

The Impossible Choice

Anna closed her eyes.

Ethan had left.

Lucas had vanished.

And now, the world was trying to take her too.

But if she went—

If she became the balance Ethan had disrupted—

Then what was left?

What was left of her?

Anna forced her breath to steady. She opened her eyes.

And she made her choice.

"No."

Victoria blinked. "No?"

Anna stepped forward, closer than she had ever been. "I won't let this world control me. I won't be Ethan's replacement. And I won't be erased."

Victoria studied her for a long moment.

Then—

She laughed.

Low. Amused. Genuine.

"You really are impossible," she mused.

Anna didn't smile.

Because she knew—the war wasn't over.

Not yet.

The Final Stand

Victoria's expression sobered. "So. What are you going to do now?"

Anna didn't hesitate.

"I'm going to find a way to bring Ethan back," she said. "On my terms."

Victoria arched an eyebrow. "Even if it means breaking the world?"

Anna exhaled slowly.

"Maybe the world needs to be broken."

Victoria's smirk returned. "Now that," she murmured, "is an answer I can respect."

The two women stood there, facing each other, as the sky above them cracked.

Because the world wasn't done fighting them yet.

And Anna?

Anna was ready to fight back.