Mirror in the Shadows

My heart pounds so hard I can't hear the gunship engines. I grope for a shot and the hatch behind me bangs open. There's a second figure — it's me — entering the cabin, and the shadow is crisp against the red.

Rafe's rifle swings and it catches her on the shoulder. She stumbles, but behind the trail of the wound is not blood, but smoke—her armor is synthetic, futuristic. And her face continues to be obscured by a plated helmet.

"Don't shoot the hostages!" Evelyn says, her voice warbling over the intercom. She is still half in the cockpit, on one knee next to the comm panel.

I pause — two versions of myself, one true, one hidden. Rage and confusion roil in my gut. "Who are you?" I demand, the pistol tightening in my palm.

Elyra (masked) This cracks the Elyra's head to the side. "I'm the end result you never thought of. She lifts a hand to pull the helmet off.

Her hair is pure silver, and she has identical eyes — though they shimmer like moonshine on ice. I stare, breath catching. This is not just a mere double — She looks … added on.

Down below, the city skyline twinkles, but I can't turn away. "You've been inside my head — make some use of it, and finish it." Her voice resounds, distguised as her twin.

Rafe yells, coming in between us, "Enough! Who the hell are you?"

The silver-haired self regards him. "I'm the soul they attempted to erase. I'm the ghost in your machine, Hart. The real Project Raven."

Suddenly the gunship is jolting uncontrollably—its system shutting down. Evelyn's final override attempt glitches. The engines falter; we are falling fast.

The voice of Adrian, Aleix's blind, splutters: "Structural failure. We're losing rotor pressure! Brace for impact!"

I pull the silver double out of the way, lunge for Rafe. She spins, blade flicking free. We crash—in her side the rifle butt smashes—she hisses, the blade cutting through sleeve.

Rafe and I rig her to the aft hatch. "We're going down!" I scream.

Panels of light shimmer as the port glass splinters outward. A rooftop swoops beneath us. We break through cabin doors, spill onto a steel helipad of an abandoned high-rise.

There's dust, and chips of concrete, hanging in the air. Alarms whine. The chopper keels over, its tail section tearing off. Evelyn and Adrian unclip themselves at the last second as the bird tips and crashes into the floors below.

Rafe pulls me up as we stumble back—Adrian and Evelyn trapped under rubble, coughing.

"Status?" Adrian roars.

I risk a look up at the top of the pad—silver Elyra is standing at the edge, helmet off, observing us.

"She's not alone," I realize. Light pulls back a corner—a squad of masked constructs spilling from the wreckage: featureless, identical faces behind plated armor. Dozens of them.

"Ambush!" Rafe screams, pointing at the closest. Bullets rebound; the synthetic bodies but stagger and do not fall.

Evelyn tries to crawl to her feet, pulling Adrian with her. "They made them here—copies of you, made to take the place of mistakes! She coughs, blood flecking her lips.

I swallow hard. "They created me… and you," I hiss at the silver one. "You're all just weapons—disposable."

The silver Elyra steps up, hand raised. The constructs freeze. One falls in a single motion: with a kinetic pulse — an invisible blast — she takes the closest apart. He collapses like a rag doll.

"I am not just a weapon," she says. "I am the reckoning."

And the earth rumbles beneath our feet. The skyscraper groans — its base has been weakened by the chopper's collision.

"Fall back!" Evelyn orders. "We need to take cover inside!"

Rafe grabs my arm. "You heard her—inside." He drags me toward a blown-open door that leads to the roof access shaft.

As we fall away, I look back through at the silver self, shadowed against the glare of warning lights and city. She cocks her head and grins, cool and certain.

"Tonight," she shouts, her voice riding in the wind, "Project Raven goes live. And His will shall be done, and all will kneel to the Construct."

The roof tears apart with a thunderous snap. Concrete slabs move, causing half of the helipad to plummet down. The coffins tumble down with it—whispering refrains in the smoking fog.

From the inside of the building we tear through half-collapsed hallways. Sparks rain down the walls; elevators dangle, like broken teeth. Evelyn is in the lead and gripping an emergency torch, which sends its beam slashing into the dark.

Adrian kicks open a manhole. We descend into a service tunnel below—piping hisses above, rats skitter out of the way.

"Where to?" I gasp.

Evelyn looks at her holo-pad, shaking. "Backup node–Sector D. Coordinates chipped in. We can post a kill code to each Construct, and bring them all down for good."

I clamp my jaw around fear. "Then we run."

Rafe lifts up a collapsed support beam to keep the hatch closed. "They'll follow. Five minutes, max."

We burrow through a maze of pipes and wires. There is no light save for the flicker of the torch. Every stride reverberates like a pulse.

Just beyond there, around a corner, spills forth a wave of silvery figures: constructs, dozens strong. In the middle stands the silver Elyra, arms open.

"You can't run away from your reflection," she intones.

I hold up the chip powered up holo device. "Evelyn, upload now!"

Evelyn's fingers falter. "I—I can't. The signal's locked. Only you—Hart—can activate program override."

All eyes lock on me. As the building shudders again, the corridor starts to lean.

"Me?" My voice cracks. "I'm just a copy too."

The silver sculpture nods its head. "You are the original now. Make the choice."

Out the window, the city lights blink on and off — like preparing for whatever comes next.

I hover my finger above the activation icon. There's a heavy quiet that comes over everything until at last I decide.

And suddenly the passage fills with the noiseless charge of the Construct.

My breath stops. My heart leaps.

I press the glyph.

All of the Constructs in the tunnel shudder—then fall in on themselves as one. But the Elyra in silver steps off unscathed.

She smiles, cocks her head and whispers:

"I explained it to you--only I can stop the war.