The room was too cold.
Mira stood frozen, staring at the flickering image of the girl she had thought long dead. Arlen's eyes glowed with Riftlight, identical to her own in color, but nothing else about her looked familiar anymore.
She had changed.
Hardened.
Not the soft-voiced girl who used to braid flowers into Mira's hair at recess or sneak extra fruit from the cafeteria.
This Arlen looked older. Sharper.
Like a blade honed on betrayal.
Mira's voice cracked when she finally spoke.
"She died in the fire."
Her mother, still seated by the projection's controls, didn't answer right away.
Zeke and Lys remained near the threshold of the chamber, silent sentinels. Neither interrupted.
"Arlen didn't die," her mother said at last. "She was taken."
Mira's breath caught. "By the Rift?"
"By those who feed it."
She tapped a new switch. Another projection flickered to life: lab notes, lists of names and Shard resonance data. One line glowed brighter than the rest:
Subject 02: Arlen V. – Echo Type. Partial merge successful. Full assimilation pending.
Mira took a step back.
"She was experimented on too."
"Yes," her mother said. "But her mind couldn't resist the Rift's voice. Where you absorbed it and retained your sense of self, Arlen… became it."
The words fell like ice in her ears.
"She's an Echo?"
"No," her mother corrected gently. "She's the first Echo."
Zeke finally stepped forward. "Wait. You mean… the first successful host?"
Her mother nodded. "She was our prototype. We called her 'The Echo Seed.'"
Mira turned away, bile rising in her throat. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you were too young. And because the truth would have broken you."
"It's breaking me now."
Her mother's voice trembled. "I couldn't protect both of you. They came after me when I ran with the data. Arlen was left behind."
"Who are they?" Mira demanded. "Who keeps coming up in half-whispers and locked doors and empty graves?"
"The Syndicate," her mother said. "The ones who want to tear the Rift wide open and let what's on the other side through."
Mira felt dizzy. "And Arlen works for them?"
"She leads them."
The room went silent again.
Lys finally spoke. "So we're not just fighting the Rift. We're fighting someone who wants it."
Her mother nodded grimly. "Someone who knows every weakness Mira has, and how to exploit it."
Mira turned back to the projection.
It looped again, young Arlen standing beside her.
Smiling.
Laughing.
But now Mira knew better.
That smile was the seed of something twisted.
A future growing in secret.
She clenched her fists. "What does she want?"
Her mother hesitated.
Then whispered, "She wants you."
Later, when the projections had faded and the lab lights dimmed again, Mira sat on the floor outside the sealed room. She needed space. Zeke hovered nearby. Lys kept watch.
Her mother remained inside, decrypting more of the remaining logs.
"I thought Renna being Rift-touched was bad," Mira murmured.
Zeke lowered himself beside her. "This is worse."
"She was my sister, Zeke."
"Not by blood."
"No. Worse. By choice. We were closer than siblings." She turned her head. "And she's leading a Rift cult now."
"Do you think she remembers you?"
Mira shook her head. "Not the real me. Just the weapon they made."
They left the Depths before dawn.
Back through the tunnels, across bones and whispers. But the way felt different now—less like an escape, more like a reset.
The sky was red by the time they emerged. A Riftstorm was coming.
In the distance, thunder rolled. Not weather. Not natural.
The Rift was reacting to them.
They were getting too close.
Back at the theater base, Mira called an emergency meeting.
Zeke. Lys. Venn. Nyra. Even Taylin, who had almost defected weeks ago, returned.
They listened as Mira told them everything.
The lab. Her mother. Arlen.
She didn't cry.
Not once.
When she finished, the silence was like a verdict.
Nyra was first to speak. "So you're saying this Arlen created the Rift Echoes?"
"No," Mira said. "The Rift created the Echoes. Arlen just… helped them evolve."
Venn leaned back, arms crossed. "And now she wants Mira for what? Reunion?"
"Replacement," Mira guessed. "Maybe resonance. I don't know. But I do know she won't stop."
Taylin narrowed his eyes. "Then we stop her."
Later that night, Mira stood alone on the rooftop, eyes toward the sky.
The Rift pulsed like a heartbeat now.
She wasn't sure if it was growing… or waking.
Footsteps approached.
Lys.
"I talked to your mother."
"And?"
"She found something else. Another file. One that wasn't supposed to exist."
Mira turned slowly. "What kind of file?"
Lys handed her a folded photo.
Black and white. Distorted.
It showed a girl, barely older than Mira. Floating. Hooked into crystal.
Her eyes closed.
Her veins glowing.
Beneath it, scribbled in old ink:
Prototype 00: R—
The name was smeared.
But Mira didn't need to read the rest.
She knew the curve of that jaw. The line of those lashes.
It wasn't Arlen.
And it wasn't Renna.
It was her.
The photo trembled in her hands.
"They made me before I was born."
Lys didn't speak.
Mira didn't need her to.
She looked at the Riftlight sky again, and finally understood.
She wasn't a weapon.
She was a signal.
A message from the other side.
And Arlen?
Arlen was ready to answer.