Chapter 51: Mirror, Break Me

Echo froze.

The chamber pulsed in low, sickly blue.

And in front of the shard, standing tall in perfect posture—was her.

Or rather… a version of her.

Clad in silver, cold-eyed, lips curled into the same calculated smirk she once used to mask her fear.

"Hello, me," the Echo-copy said, voice pure, polished… robotic."Shall we review the cost of your rebellion?"

Echo narrowed her eyes, spinning her blade in her hand like a pen she'd long since mastered.

"I didn't come for a memory.""No," the projection said, stepping forward."You came to bury the truth."

And lunged.

As their blades clashed, the weight wasn't in the steel.

It was in recognition.

Every move the copy made was hers—Polished. Precise.

Calculated to exploit every weakness she once trained herself out of.

"I'm fighting the version of myself I tried to forget," Echo realized.

The loyal tool.The perfect second.The Echo that never questioned Specter.

Not because she was blind—But because she was afraid.

And the worst part?

She didn't hate that version of herself.She missed her.

Blades shrieked through code-light.

Each clash splintered the chamber into mirror shards, floating in midair like suspended raindrops.

Inside every shard:Memories.

Her first mission with Specter.Her laugh when he rewired the gravity to make her float.Her heartbreak when he removed his own name.

Each reflection hurt more than the last—Like walking barefoot across memories still on fire.

And yet, she didn't stop.

Because every wound the copy left on her body,Echo turned into resolve.

Blood trickled from Echo's cheek as she kicked the false version of herself across the chamber.

The projection's voice warbled."You can't kill me. I'm you—the version he loved."

Echo stepped forward.

"No."

She raised her blade, placing it against the mirror behind the copy—And in its cracked reflection, she no longer looked like either version.

She looked free.

"You were the version I needed to survive. But I'm the one who chooses to live."

And she shattered the mirror with one swing.

As light erupted—a hidden archive beneath the floor unlocked.

Specter's true memory.

And a child's voice echoed out:

"...Mother?"

To Be Continued…