The lab's fluorescent lights buzzed like angry wasps, casting cold glare over rows of glass tanks. Inside each floated a Lyra—or what should have been Lyra. Their faces mirrored hers, but their eyes were hollow, limbs threaded with Gideon's cobalt veins.
Lyra stumbled back, her boots slipping on slick tiles. "This… isn't possible."
Kael gripped Gideon's journal, its pages screaming truths he wished were lies. Subject L-7: Genetic splice successful. Maternal memory integration at 97%. "You're not Lira," he said hoarsely. "You're my mother's clone."
A tank cracked. Then another. Amber preservation fluid gushed across the floor as the clones stirred, their gazes locking on Lyra.
"Sister," they hissed in unison. "Come home."
Lyra's dagger trembled in her hand. "Stay back!"
The clones laughed with Gideon's voice. "Or what? You'll kill yourself?"
Kael shoved Lyra behind him, time-forged blade raised. "Run. Find Lira."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"How noble," the clones crooned. They lunged.
Kael's blade arced, severing the lead clone's arm. It crumbled to ash, but three more took its place. Their strikes were flawless, mirroring Lyra's combat style—his mother's style.
"They know your moves!" Lyra yelled, parrying a clone's dagger.
"They're you!" Kael ducked a slash, his blade biting into a clone's ribs. "Or her. Or—"
A clone's fist struck his jaw. Memories flooded him—not his own.
Gideon's hands, gentle on a woman's shoulders. "You'll be perfect, Selene."
Kael recoiled. "Mom…?"
The clone smiled with his mother's face. "Hello, son."
Lyra screamed. Across the lab, a stasis pod glowed—a woman suspended inside, her face Lira's.
"She's alive!" Lyra sprinted toward it, clones converging.
Kael grappled his mother's clone, her cold fingers digging into his wrists. "Why?"
"You were meant to save us," she whispered. "Instead, you let Gideon win."
Her knee slammed into his gut. He crumpled, blade skidding away.
Lyra reached the pod. The real Lira's eyes snapped open—violet, not amber.
"Lyra…" Lira's voice echoed through the lab. "Free me."
A clone tackled Lyra, cracking her skull against the pod. "You're nothing," it spat. "A shadow. A tool."
Lyra headbutted it, scrambling for the pod's controls. "Kael! I need—"
A hand seized her hair. Gideon's hologram flickered above her, smug. "Touching. But she's mine."
The clones froze. Then, as one, they turned to Kael.
"Beg," they demanded. "Beg for her life."
Kael rose, blood dripping from his split lip. "Never."
The clones dissolved, reforming into a single entity—a monstrous fusion of Lyra and his mother. "Then watch her die."
It lunged at Lyra.
Kael threw his blade.
The steel pierced the creature's chest. It shrieked, disintegrating, but the blade's hilt cracked—releasing a shockwave of stolen time.
The lab shook. Tanks exploded. Lyra slammed the pod's release button.
Lira fell into her arms, gasping. "You… came."
Gideon's hologram flickered. "Enjoy your reunion. It won't last."
The ceiling collapsed.