Ash sat in the backseat of a sleek hovercar, the window tinted to hide his face from the world outside. It was quiet inside—too quiet. Every bump of the road, every faint hum from the engine, reminded him that this wasn't his city.
This wasn't his world.
Rei sat in the passenger seat ahead, her eyes fixed on a tablet displaying red and blue waveforms—pulse data, Ash assumed. Nyx was curled beside her, silent, hands wrapped around their knees, eyes closed but never really resting.
No one had spoken for a while.
Ash finally broke the silence. "Where are we going?"
Rei didn't look back. "Safehouse. Underground sector. Zone 12."
"Sounds cozy," Ash muttered.
"It's not," Rei replied flatly.
He sighed, slumping deeper into the seat. He couldn't tell if his pulse had calmed or if his body had just given up reacting to stress.
It had only been—what? Twelve hours since he touched the orb? Since the world broke and folded in on itself?
Since he'd come face-to-face with the possibility that his alternate self was a god-king.
---
The safehouse wasn't much to look at—an abandoned clinic built into a defunct transit station. Hidden behind biometric locks and retinal encryptions, the place was protected by layers of outdated tech and custom software that shouldn't have worked but somehow did.
Rei led him inside, handed him a plain black shirt and coat, and said, "Don't speak unless spoken to. People in this district might believe you're Ashen. That's both a gift and a gun to your head."
Ash got the message. Act carefully—or die fast.
Inside the main room, there were five others. All young. All armed.
A wiry girl with cybernetic fingers gave Ash a hard stare. A tall, dark-skinned man flared his nostrils like he could sniff out lies. Another boy typed into a cracked interface, not even glancing up.
Ash tried to look harmless. Failed.
Rei didn't introduce him. Instead, she issued commands. "This is Echo-1. He's under my jurisdiction. Any breach of that rule is considered treason by Article 7."
The cyber-girl snorted. "Cute code name. Echo."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "What would you have named me?"
She smiled grimly. "Mistake."
---
Over the next day, Ash was kept in lockdown. Rei gave him access to only one room: a small cell with a mattress and an ancient interface terminal that only played old surveillance logs.
But he learned.
He watched Ashen's speeches. Watched how he walked, how he nodded slightly before speaking, how he touched his right wrist when nervous. It was like watching someone cosplaying a better version of himself. It made Ash sick.
What made it worse? The people loved him.
Ashen Virel wasn't just a leader. He was a symbol. Of order. Of survival. Of hope—the kind Ash had never seen in his own world.
And here he was, impersonating that man.
A fraud wearing a borrowed face.
---
Late that night, Rei brought him something—a chipped datachip and a portable screen.
She sat beside him on the mattress. Not close. Not far.
"This is the last footage we have of Ashen before his recent lockdown," she said.
The video flickered on.
Ash watched. Ashen Virel sat in a grand chamber, his voice calm, measured.
"We have seen anomalies in our border scans. Individuals phasing in and out of this frequency. My doubles—our dangers. If you see one, report it. If you are one... pray."
Ash swallowed.
"He knows," he said softly.
Rei nodded. "And he's looking for you."
Ash leaned back. "Great. A fascist me wants to murder the real me."
Rei corrected him. "Not real. Just... different."
Ash stared at the screen.
"I don't want to be him."
"You're not," Rei said. "Yet."
---
The next day, Rei handed him new clothes—dark coat, clean boots, a biometric band calibrated to let him through checkpoints.
"You're coming with me," she said.
"Where?"
"To test a theory."
They traveled through the lower districts—where the gleam of the city above gave way to rust, flickering lights, and worn faces. It looked more like Ash's world here. People didn't smile. They stared. They recognized him.
At the third checkpoint, an officer saluted.
"Chancellor Virel."
Ash's blood went cold.
Rei's fingers tightened on his arm.
Ash nodded—just like Ashen did in the videos. "As you were."
The officer stepped aside.
Ash walked through, his heart slamming against his ribs.
Rei whispered, "You're good at this."
"I hate that I am," Ash whispered back.
---
Later, in a shadowed alley behind a data archive, Rei turned to him.
"You can blend in. You have to. If we're going to figure out how to reverse the rift, you need access. And to get access... you have to be Ashen."
Ash stepped back. "You want me to become him?"
"Just enough to get inside the Core Vault," Rei said. "The answers are there. That's where it all began."
Ash stared at her. "This is insane."
"Welcome to Virelia," she said.
And then she handed him a silver ring.
"Ashen's authorization sigil. It only responds to his DNA. Or yours."
Ash looked down at it.
The metal glowed faintly in his hand.
"I'm not him," he whispered again.
Rei didn't argue.
But she didn't take the ring back, either.