Zurich – East Wing Observation Suite, 03:19 A.M.Eva Malik stood barefoot at the window, breath fogging the glass Beyond the courtyard, she could still see herself. The other Eva stood across the way in the far wing frozen in place, wearing the same hospital gown, eyes vacant.No movement. No blinking. Just watching. Voss stirred behind her. “Eva?” She didn’t answer. Not yet. She was still deciding if he’d believe what she saw.“SUBJECT DUPLICATION CONFIRMED.”The feed from East Wing-42 displayed Eva’s doppelgänger standing inside a locked chamber yet no guards had been assigned. No staff had logged a patient transfer.Commander Rhea leaned in, expression unreadable. “Did we fail to purge the drift layer?”Her assistant hesitated. “We never confirmed her exit.”“Only that she merged. Temporarily.”Rhea stared at the screen. “Then this might be the one who didn’t let go.”Eva Makes a Move She turned to Voss. “There’s someone in the other wing.”“She looks like me.”His face went blank,

Zurich – Corridor Outside Containment, 04:02 A.M. Damien Voss stared at her, At Eva Malik. Blood on her palm. Glass in her hand. A thin smile across her lips familiar, and wrong in some unplaceable way.“It’s me,” she had said.But she hadn’t said his name, She’d always said his name.He Swallowed Hard “Eva.” She looked at him, Tilted her head, Something flickered in her eyes. Recognition?Regret? Or was he just desperate to see it?Behind the thick glass wall, the chamber had gone dark, No sign of the other Eva. No body. No blood. No proof. Only the broken chalk line on the far wall half-erased, unreadable. The logs registered a single exit. Only one. Voss tried not to shake.Commander Rhea strode into the hallway, flanked by two armed Archive agents, Her gaze locked on Eva. “I need her cleared. Full neuro resync. Now.”Voss stepped between them. “Give her space.”“She just survived a reintegration anomaly.”Rhea’s voice was colder than steel. “You don’t know which one she is.”Eva f

Red lights swam through the corridors. Alarms pulsed like mechanical heartbeats. The floor vibrated beneath every step. Archive personnel scattered. Eva Malik remained seated. Calm. Still. Unbothered. The real key sat in her palm, The fake one, the one Voss had given her, rested on the desk, cool and silent.She knew what this meant. He doesn’t trust me anymore. Good. He shouldn’t. Damien Voss pushed through a back corridor, bypassing the central lockdown grid. His pulse raced.The Archive’s override announcement echoed behind him: “Containment breach identified in Neural Thread 09-B (Malik).”“All personnel clear Level 3. Lockdown commencing.”He didn’t slow, He knew exactly where she was going. Or Where one of her was going. A long, sealed hallway. No windows. Motion-triggered lighting. At the far end: the backup safehouse hatch. Only two people in the world knew the code to open it. One was Voss. The other, He wasn’t sure anymore.Eva’s voice whispered in his mind: “If they ever cr

Zurich – Vault Core Chamber, 10:08 A.M. The room pulsed like a living thing, At its center: Eva Malik, standing between two Vosses.One, the man she just brought back: scarred, tired, raw, The other, on the other side of the sealed glass, pounding to get in: sharp, calm, reconstructed, Two men. One soul, And she had to choose.System Prompt – Final Merge ThresholdOVERWRITE IN PROGRESS – 74%WARNING: PARALLEL ENTITY CONFLICT RECOMMENDED ACTION: TERMINATE ONE THREADInside – Voss #1 (Original)The older Voss staggered, breath ragged. “Eva… you said you needed me.”“Don’t hesitate now.” She turned to him.“I brought you back because they erased what made us us.”“But I didn’t know it would feel like killing the other one.”He laughed, Broken, bitter. “That’s what choice is. It’s blood or compromise.”“Not both.”Outside – Voss #2 (Reconstructed)He watched her through the glass, Fists pressed to the barrier. “Eva, listen to me!”“That man, he’s the version who left you to die in Marrake

Zurich – Observation Wing, 3:13 A.M.The sky outside bled a deep, motionless blue, Damien Voss stood alone, palms pressed to the glass, Beneath him, the city slept, clean lines, electric veins, a beautiful lie humming at perfect intervals.But in his head, the hum was broken, A frequency just off, Just wrong, Like two radios tuned a half step apart. He closed his eyes. “I’m him.”“I should be him.”So why did his reflection sometimes blink… before he did?Eva Malik sat at the edge of her bed, A fresh page in her journal stared back, She hadn’t written since the bleeding ink last night. The phrase still haunted her. “Did you?” She’d seen the pen move. Hadn’t touched it. Hadn’t imagined it.And now every word she thought of writing, felt… shared, Not her own, As if something or someone was writing with her.Commander Rhea snapped awake in her chair, The alert hadn’t beeped, Hadn’t triggered, But something had… pulled her up. On-screen: a single line of cold static data. No header, No fi