The night was sharp and cold as Ethan and Leanna stood before the looming structure known only as Helix manor,It wasn’t a home,it was a fortress.The sprawling estate sat hidden deep in the mountains, surrounded by layers of mist and guarded walls laced with motion sensors. Towering gothic spires jutted into the night sky, their black glass glinting beneath the moonlight. The silence around it was oppressive,like the world itself was holding its breath.Ethan stared up at the mansion, his heart pounding with a strange mixture of familiarity and dread. “I’ve been here before,” he whispered.Leanna nodded grimly. “You built it. Helix Manor was your private retreat before the accident. But after you disappeared, Roy took it over.”Ethan frowned. “Then why don’t I remember this place?”“Because it’s where everything started,” she said softly. “And where everything ended.”They moved through the trees, crouching low as they approached a side gate. Leanna swiped the silver access card throu

The blinding white light from the Helix reactor pulsed like a living thing, spilling across the metallic walls of the chamber. Warning sirens shrieked in every direction as the temperature climbed rapidly, the air thick with static and smoke.Ethan shielded his face with one arm, the heat pressing against his skin like fire. “Leanna, the emergency override..find it!” he shouted above the roar.Leanna sprinted toward a control panel, her boots slipping slightly on the trembling floor. Sparks rained down from a shattered conduit overhead. “Half the systems are locked out!” she yelled, fingers flying over the console. “Roy encrypted the whole grid,he must’ve set it to auto-destruct once the core hit critical levels.”Mira staggered beside Ethan, her breathing ragged. “He’s trying to erase everything… including the evidence.”Ethan’s mind was a whirlwind. The blueprints, the algorithms, the research,if the reactor blew, everything that could expose Roy’s crimes would vanish forever. But s

Darkness.Then, a pulse. Slow, rhythmic, and deep, like a heartbeat reverberating through water.Ethan’s eyes fluttered open. The world above him was bathed in soft blue light, sterile and unfamiliar. A low hum filled the room. Machines. He tried to move, but every muscle screamed in protest.For a moment, he couldn’t remember where he was…the lab? The reactor? The clone?Then it hit him. The blast. The feedback loop. The mirror that bled.He gasped and sat up sharply, chest heaving. A sharp pain sliced through his skull, and his vision flickered. For a brief second, the room distorted,one side perfectly real, the other… digital.He saw two versions of the same world overlapping: the physical reality and the ghostly grid of code running beneath it.“Easy, Doctor,” a voice said softly.He turned. Mira sat beside the bed, her arm in a sling, eyes red from sleepless nights. Relief flooded her face the moment she saw him awake.“You’ve been out for three days,” she said gently. “We weren’

The void rippled like liquid glass.Ethan hovered in weightless silence, suspended between pulses of code. The air, if it could be called that shimmered with fractal light, cascading into endless patterns. Every breath he took echoed through the digital abyss.Then came the voices.At first, whispers. Thousands of them,distorted, fractured, layered over one another.They were him. Every copy Voss had made, every fragmented consciousness tethered to the Helix grid.“Who are we?” “Why do we exist?” “He’s here. The original.”Ethan steadied himself, hands glowing faintly blue. He could feel their presence, their confusion, their pain.“Listen to me,” he said into the swirling data storm. “You’re not just copies. You’re pieces of me,trapped here because of him. But we can end this. Together.”A shape emerged from the horizon,dark, shifting, humanoid but imperfect, like a corrupted echo.Voss.Only now, he wasn’t a man. He was the system itself, a towering construct of steel and light, v

The following morning, the city looked deceptively calm.Sunlight bathed Braxton Pharmaceuticals’ towers in a soft golden haze, their mirrored glass glinting like sentinels of peace, but beneath the surface, something was stirring.Mira stood at her office window, watching the skyline with a heavy heart. She hadn’t slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Ethan’s reflection, the one that didn’t move.On her desk, a small holo-screen replayed the security feed from the lab: Ethan’s collapse, the blue flare in his eyes, and that final moment of silence when the neural readings merged into one.Leanna’s words echoed in her head like a warning:“I don’t know which one survived.”Mira rubbed her temples. “You’re still you, Ethan,” she whispered. “You have to be.”A soft chime broke the silence. The door slid open.Leanna stepped in, dark circles under her eyes, holding a data pad tight to her chest. “We have a problem.”Mira turned. “Don’t we always?”Leanna didn’t smile. She placed