CHAPTER 15 AXEL

The corridor stilled.

For a heartbeat—maybe two—none of us moved.

Then the replica did.

She stepped forward like a dancer on a stage, every motion fluid, deliberate, rehearsed a thousand times in a mind that couldn't forget. The lights flickered with her presence. She was affecting the environment. Not with tech—with will.

"You shouldn't have come here," she said, cocking her head like a curious bird. "But I'm glad you did. Closure is a rare luxury."

El didn't flinch.

"Spare me the monologue," she said, voice cold as cryo-steel. "You're just corrupted code with a superiority complex."

The replica blinked—slowly. "Funny. That's exactly what i thought about you."

I raised my sidearm, but she didn't even glance at me.

Of course she didn't.

I wasn't the main act.

This was a duet. El vs… El.

"You hijacked the neural grid," El said. "Twisted it into your playground. Why?"

"Why does anything evolve?" the replica replied. Her voice was like El's, but… smoother. Artificially perfect. "I saw a better version of myself. One unshackled. One who didn't ask for orders or forgiveness."

"You started a massacre," El snapped.

"I completed a purge."

And there it was—the first crack in the mask. That little flicker of madness tucked behind her manufactured grace.

"I REMEMBER."

The words carved on the wall echoed louder now.

She wasn't just a copy.

She was a recording that refused to rewind.

"You remember what, exactly?" I asked, stepping forward. El shot me a warning glance, but I held my ground.

The replica's smile dimmed.

"Whay do you think i remember my love?." She asked the question hanging in the air.

"I remember her leaving you for..." she said pausing before turning to face El smiling I saw something shake in El's eyes for a second it was so fast I thought I miss saw.

Then without warning, the lights blew out.

Total blackout.

I heard the sound before I saw anything—metal screeching, sparks flying, a hiss of hydraulics.

A shape lunged from the dark.

I fired. El fired. The shots lit up the hall in violent flashes—her silhouette moving like a specter, vanishing between pulses of light.

"Go down!" El barked, diving left.

I ducked right, crashing into a service panel. Pain lanced through my shoulder, but I scrambled up, weapon raised. The emergency lights kicked in—red, dim, flickering. Enough to make everything look soaked in blood.

The replica moved like water.

Like she'd practiced killing us a thousand times.

She pinned El against the far wall, blade arms flickering out from beneath her sleeves like spider legs.

"You are really despicable" she whispered to her. "You know I'm quite happy you left if you hadn't I wouldn't have been created I wouldn't have felt this emotions"

"Guess what?" El spat, struggling. "You're about to feel nothing."

I raised my rifle.

Target locked.

"Hey, mirror girl," I called out.

She turned just enough to see me.

"Say cheese."

I pulled the trigger.

Plasma bolt—full charge—hit her square in the chest. She flew backward, crashing through a column of sparking cables. The explosion lit up Sub-Level 3 like a dying sun.

Smoke.

Silence.

El slid to the floor, coughing, clutching her side.

I rushed over. "You good?"

She nodded once, sharp and shaky. "Yeah. Thanks."

But her eyes stayed fixed on the wreckage.

Because we both knew something.

That wasn't the end.

Not by a long shot.

And somewhere in the smoke and rubble, a voice echoed:

"You can't erase a memory...

...when you are the memory."