"Do not look at him, he is just a hollow shell meant to hold your place."Xavier stared at the boy standing in the middle of the room. It was not a boy at all, not really. It was a mirror, a sick, twisted reflection of every nightmare he had ever had about his own worth. The child looked at him with eyes that were ancient and cold."You are nothing," the boy said. His voice was smooth and precise, lacking any hint of human warmth. "You were always just a temporary vessel. A placeholder."Xavier felt the air leave his lungs. He reached for his left arm, but his fingers trembled against the sharp, charcoal scales."I am real," Xavier spat back. He took a shaky step forward. "I have bled. I have hurt. I have fought for every single day of my life. What are you?""I am the upgrade," the boy replied. He did not blink. "You were a prototype. A failed iteration. My creators knew you would break. The dragon-bond was designed to shatter your mind so they could finally install a consciousness t

"If you do not stop remembering, I am going to forget everything that makes me me."Xavier leaned his head against the cold, pulsing wall of the reactor core. His skin was shifting. Fine, obsidian scales were crawling up his neck, and his fingernails had sharpened into translucent, serrated blades. He looked at his hands and did not recognize them. He looked at Lyra and barely recognized her."Just breathe, Xavier," Lyra whispered. She was kneeling in front of him, her face pale, her eyes rimmed with red. She was forcing herself to think about the day her house burned. She was forcing herself to remember the smell of her mother’s perfume as the roof caved in. "Stay with me. Tell me your name.""I am... I am," he stuttered. He shook his head, his teeth clicking together as a row of sharp, needle-like fangs pushed against his lips. "I am losing the words. Why are you doing this to yourself? I can feel your heart. It is breaking. Stop it.""No," Lyra said, her voice tight. "I have to. If

"Die for me or kill for me, but do not dare let go of my hand."Lyra’s voice was a jagged blade in the smoke-filled air. She spun, her knives flashing as she carved a path through the vanguard. Xavier stood at her back, his skin glowing with a deep, violet heat. He did not scream. He did not lose himself to the rage anymore. He simply unleashed a torrent of dragon-flame that turned the Imperial armor into molten scrap, moving with the precision of a man who finally understood his own power."They are flooding the lower levels!" Xavier shouted, his voice steady even as he caught a soldier by the throat and tossed him aside like a ragdoll."Good," Lyra laughed, a sound so wild and reckless it made Xavier’s blood run cold. "I was worried we would run out of targets before we hit the core.""Lyra, slow down," he warned, stepping in front of her to take the brunt of a plasma blast. "You are fighting like you want to die.""I am fighting like I am finally free," she countered, ducking under

"Tell me we are actually dead, because if this is living, I am not sure I want it."Lyra spat a mouthful of dirt and gray ash, her voice coming out as a strained, breathless rasp. She lay on her back, staring up at a sky that looked like a bruised, broken mirror. The world was spinning. Everything was gray. She tried to reach for the void, that familiar, cold hum that had always been her safety, but there was nothing. Only a flat, terrifying silence inside her head.Xavier was slumped against a jagged slab of obsidian a few feet away. He was breathing, a ragged, hitching sound that tore at his lungs. The blue, sapphire scales were gone, replaced by human skin that looked pale and raw. He looked like he had been hollowed out."Are you breathing?" he wheezed. His hand twitched, reaching out blindly until his fingers brushed her knuckles. "Lyra, answer me.""I am here," she said, though the words felt heavy, like stones in her mouth. She didn't have the strength to squeeze his hand back.

"If we do this, there is no going back to the way things were."Kael hovered in the center of the valley, his body glowing with a sickly, golden intensity that threatened to tear the very air apart. Lyra and Xavier stood at the edge of the crater, the wind whipping their hair into a frenzy. The ground was trembling, shards of rock floating into the air as the dragon-consciousness surged, looking for a stronger foundation to sustain its massive, ancient weight."I know," Lyra shouted over the rising roar of the storm. She reached out, her fingers finding Xavier’s hand and locking tight. "But look at him. He is burning up. He can't hold it, Xavier.""He will be vaporized in seconds," Xavier yelled back, his eyes fixed on the golden light bleeding from Kael’s skin. "If we pull it out now, we have to catch it. We have to become the cage.""Together?" she asked, her voice cracking with fear."Together," he promised, his grip on her hand bruising. "Neither of us can survive this alone. The