Chapter 25: The Hollow Reflection

Riven stepped forward.

The fractured reflections moved with him.

Twisted versions of himself, of Vera, of Vex—some with faces half-formed, others with too many eyes, too many mouths, too many wrong pieces. They stood in the void, whispering in voices that almost sounded real.

But not quite.

Not yet.

Because they were waiting.

Riven swallowed hard. His pulse was too loud. His head felt too full.

The copies weren't just watching.

They were learning.

Every movement, every breath, every flicker of hesitation—they absorbed it.

And they were getting closer to becoming them.

---

Vera moved first.

She raised her gun, steady hands betraying none of the unease she felt.

"Tell me we can kill these."

Vex's fingers twitched near his weapon. "Define 'kill.'"

"Make them stop existing."

"Then no. I have no idea."

Riven exhaled sharply. "Then we keep moving."

No one argued.

But the copies heard him.

And they answered.

"Why?"

The word wasn't spoken.

It unraveled into the air, seeping into their bones.

"Why move? Why run? You were never meant to be here."

The voices weren't just coming from the echoes now.

They were coming from inside them.

---

Riven stumbled.

Pain lanced through his skull—a split-second flicker of something breaking apart.

Images not his own.

A city that never existed.

A past that never happened.

A future that would never come.

Then—

A voice.

"You should not be."

His knees almost buckled.

Then Vera grabbed his arm. Held him steady.

"Don't listen." Her voice was sharp. Unyielding.

Riven clenched his jaw. Forced the noise out.

When he opened his eyes, the copies were closer.

No movement. No sound.

Just closer.

Vex inhaled slowly. "I hate this. I hate all of this."

Riven agreed.

Then the echoes attacked.

---

It wasn't a fight.

Fights had rules. Battles had structure.

This was a distortion.

They didn't lunge—they shifted.

Didn't attack—they unmade.

A copy of Vera blurred—one moment a reflection, the next solid. Her face was the same. Her stance was the same.

But her eyes were empty.

And when she reached for the real Vera—

Her hand passed through.

Not touching. Not grabbing.

Stealing.

Vera jerked back as something cold tore at her arm. Her breath hitched—a piece of her was missing.

A piece of her self.

Riven didn't think. Didn't hesitate.

He moved.

And the Monarch moved with him.

---

Power surged.

Not his. Not the Monarch's.

Something in between.

Something worse.

For a split second, the void bent around him.

The echoes shuddered—not in fear.

In recognition.

They knew him.

Because they were him.

The nearest copy lunged.

And Riven met it.

Their hands clashed—

And for the first time, Riven felt it.

The pull. The unraveling.

It wasn't trying to kill him.

It was trying to take him apart.

To rewrite him.

To turn him into them.

And it was winning.

---

Vex fired.

The bullet didn't hit.

It stopped.

Hung in the air, frozen in time.

Vex cursed. "Okay, that's—no. That's cheating."

Vera was already moving, reaching for Riven, but the void stretched between them—a deliberate, conscious thing.

It was separating them.

Riven barely heard them. Barely saw them.

Because the echo was inside him now.

Unraveling him.

Not just his body.

His self.

And in the last flicker of clarity he had left, he realized—

The Monarch wasn't just erasing him.

It was remaking him.

---

Something snapped.

Riven gasped—yanked back into himself.

The void trembled.

And for a single, impossible moment—

He saw everything.

Not the Monarch.

Not its power.

But what it was missing.

It wasn't whole.

It was fractured. Hollow.

It was trying to complete itself.

And it was using him to do it.

No.

He wouldn't let it.

He refused.

He didn't belong to the Monarch.

And he never would.

---

Riven pushed back.

Not with strength.

Not with power.

With will.

The void shuddered.

The echoes paused.

And in that break—

Vera and Vex reached him.

She grabbed his arm. Vex yanked him back.

And the world—

Collapsed.

---

They hit the ground.

Not the void. Not the fractured space.

Somewhere else.

Somewhere real.

They coughed. Shook. Looked around.

The echoes were gone.

The Monarch's presence was fading.

Vera exhaled sharply. "What the hell just happened?"

Riven stared at his hands.

At his reflection in the shattered glass around them.

At the lingering whisper in his skull—

"You were never supposed to exist."

He swallowed hard.

"Something worse."