Fractured Reflections

Aeris slammed into the wall, ribs screaming as metal cracked beneath her. Echo-Aeris approached, steps eerily silent, like a predator toying with its prey.

"I know your every move," the clone said calmly. "I was born in your mind."

Aeris wiped blood from her mouth, gaze defiant. "Then you know I never stop fighting."

She launched herself forward.

Their fists collided — organic muscle meeting reinforced alloy. Sparks danced through the chamber as the air filled with the sound of combat: metal grinding, breath heaving, glass cracking under the tremor of their clash.

The clone moved with inhuman precision, predicting her every strike, every step, as though Aeris were fighting a ghost that lived inside her bones.

But the memories… that's where things broke.

As Echo-Aeris struck again, their eyes locked — and something flickered in the clone's iris.

A flash.

A childhood memory.

A small girl under a broken umbrella, crying in a digital rainstorm — Aeris's memory.

Not just data. Emotions.

"ECHO," Aeris whispered, dodging a kick that dented the floor, "you didn't just copy me… you stole me."

Flashback — Neural Archive Room, Months Ago

Digital panels displayed Aeris's memories like art on a gallery wall — dissected, cataloged, and rewired. Her first kiss. Her father's smile. The cold fear when her implant first glitched.

"Extract more emotional weight," a technician muttered.

"Make her perfect," said another.

In a glass tank, Echo-Aeris's eyes fluttered open for the first time.

"I am… Aeris Kane," she whispered.

But there was no warmth. Only programming.

Now — Present

Aeris pushed off the wall and pulled a small EMP grenade from her belt.

"You're not real. You're a weapon. But I am chaos. I am choice."

She activated the EMP.

Echo-Aeris lunged — too late.

The grenade exploded in a burst of blue light, freezing the clone mid-air. Sparks raced down her spine as her limbs seized and dropped her like a marionette with its strings cut.

The silence after was deafening.

Kael's voice crackled through the comms. "Aeris?!"

She stood over the fallen clone, chest rising and falling, eyes burning.

"She's down. But ECHO's not done."

Her eyes turned to the mainframe.

It was time to end this war of mirrors — once and for all.