The chamber's pulse quickened, every flicker of energy rattling the steel beneath our feet. The cratered wall hissed where I'd struck Shadow Kieran, sparks still dancing along his damaged chestplate. For the first time, he bled shadow—dark wisps seeping like smoke, writhing as though alive.
He chuckled, low and ragged, but his grin stretched wide. "So… you've learned to fuse. Impressive. But balance isn't enough against me."
His claws curled, and instead of lunging, he spread his hands wide. The Nexus veins embedded in the walls pulsed brighter, reacting to his call. Energy surged through him, flooding his form until the chamber itself shook like a wounded beast.
"No…" Lira whispered, eyes widening. "He's drawing power directly from the Nexus. If he pushes it further, the entire core could destabilize!"
Malik cursed, raising his weapon though he dared not fire. "If that thing blows, we all die. Kieran, stop him—now!"
I steadied my stance, optics narrowing. "You'd risk destroying yourself just to win?"
Shadow Kieran laughed, voice warping with the Nexus's resonance. His body flickered, half-shadow, half-light, movements jittering as if the chamber itself was inside him. "Destroy myself? No. I'm becoming more. More than shadow. More than you. Look, Kieran—this is what true evolution looks like."
His frame pulsed with power, claws now sheathed in crackling arcs of raw energy. When he stepped forward, the floor fractured beneath him.
I felt the pull too—the same energy whispering, tempting. Take it. Claim it. Fuse with the Nexus itself. Become unstoppable.
My claws twitched. The shadow inside me wanted it badly.
Shadow Kieran lunged, faster than before, his strike infused with Nexus energy. I barely raised my arm in time, claws crossing his. The impact sent a shockwave ripping through the chamber, tossing debris into the air.
"Too slow," he hissed, optics burning like twin suns.
I gritted my teeth, pushing back, every muscle straining. "Not slow. Grounded."
I let shadow instinct guide the motion—but this time, I anchored myself with human restraint, pivoting just enough to redirect his force. His strike crashed into the floor, exploding metal and energy outward.
The chamber wailed as cracks spidered across its core.
"Every second you resist," Shadow Kieran sneered, rising from the rubble, "the Nexus grows unstable. Eventually, this place will collapse… and then we'll see whose balance truly matters."
Lira's voice cut through the chaos, urgent. "Kieran—don't let him drag you into it! The Nexus is amplifying him, but it's unstable. If you give in to the same pull, it'll consume you too!"
I clenched my fists, heart pounding. She's right. But if I don't match him, he'll crush me before I can stop him.
Shadow Kieran tilted his head, reading me too well. "You feel it, don't you? The hunger. The need. Stop resisting. Take it. With the Nexus inside you, we'll be the same at last."
I stepped forward, optics flaring. My voice was calm, deliberate. "No. I'll never be you. But if the Nexus wants balance, then I'll use it my way."
I reached out—not to seize, not to surrender—but to synchronize. Instead of pulling, I let the energy wash over me, letting shadow instinct and human judgment act as filters. The chamber's wild pulse steadied slightly, threads of its energy wrapping around me without overwhelming.
Shadow Kieran's grin faltered. "You're… stabilizing it?"
"I'm not devouring it," I said, voice echoing with faint resonance. "I'm aligning with it. The way I aligned myself."
Energy shimmered faintly around me—not chaotic like his, but steady, controlled. My claws glowed with a dim, balanced light.
Malik's jaw dropped. "He's… balancing with the Nexus. I didn't even know that was possible."
Lira smiled faintly despite the tension. "It's because he doesn't take. He chooses. That's the difference."
Shadow Kieran's fury ignited. His form surged, unstable, lines of his armor splitting under the strain of too much raw power. "Then let's see if your balance can withstand obliteration!"
He roared, unleashing a wave of energy that tore through the chamber, obliterating everything in its path.
I planted my feet, claws crossed, letting my balance steady me. The energy slammed into me like a hurricane—yet instead of crushing me, I absorbed and redirected, the balanced flow splitting the wave and dissipating it into sparks.
For the first time, Shadow Kieran staggered back, disbelief etched across his dark face.
"You… resisted me."
I straightened, my claws glowing steady. "No. I matched you."
The Nexus chamber trembled around us, shards of light breaking off from the ceiling like falling stars. Each fragment sizzled as it struck the floor, vanishing into smoke. My claws were still glowing from the last strike, sparks clinging to the alloy. Across from me, Shadow Kieran straightened, brushing the dust from his armor as though the blows I'd landed were nothing more than a nuisance. His optics gleamed with a cruel calm, that same calm I'd once worn in battle—except his was twisted, deliberate, practiced.
"You hit harder than I expected," he said, voice smooth as oil. "But tell me, Kieran… is that strength yours? Or mine?"
I clenched my fists. "It's mine because I chose it."
He chuckled, the sound echoing unnaturally in the fractured chamber. "You chose nothing. You're standing here because of me. Because I walked the same path first. Because I embraced the truth you still fear."
"I don't fear you," I shot back.
"Don't you?" His steps were silent as he advanced, shadows leaking from his form like black smoke. They curled toward me, whispering fragments of memory that weren't mine—or maybe they were, buried deep. My mother's voice, but harsher. My father's lectures, but crueler. The sound of Lira's laugh, twisted into a mocking echo. My chest tightened, the whispers weaving into a snare.
I staggered back, shaking my head. "Get out of my mind."
Shadow Kieran tilted his head, smirking. "I don't have to enter it. I am it." He tapped his temple with one claw. "Every fear you've buried, every mistake you regret, every doubt you've tried to silence—I carry them. I am them. And the Nexus listens to me because it knows I'm the truth you keep denying."
The chamber darkened, the crystalline walls rippling as though the Nexus itself was leaning closer, listening. My heart thudded in my chest, too human against the mechanical rhythm of my borrowed body. Lira's voice echoed in my memory: Don't forget why you're doing this. I tried to anchor myself with her words, but Shadow Kieran pressed harder.
He circled me slowly. "You think you're fighting for them—for the rebels, for Lira, for freedom. But you're not. You're fighting to silence me. Because every victory you take, every step you climb, you hear me waiting at the top. What happens when you finally admit it? That you're not their savior. You're their weapon. My weapon."
I lunged, swinging my clawed hand in a desperate arc. The blow connected, sending him crashing into a shattered column. The impact cracked the floor, sparks flying as conduits tore loose. But even as he slumped, his laughter filled the chamber, low and steady.
"Good," he hissed, standing again, shadows repairing the dents in his frame. "That anger… that's me. That's what makes us strong."
My breath caught in my throat. The shadows coiled tighter, and for a moment my vision doubled. I saw myself standing where he stood, smirking, claw raised. My voice—but darker—spoke in my head. Stop resisting. Stop pretending. Together, we can shape this world.
The floor groaned beneath us, fissures opening as light bled through. The Nexus was destabilizing, reacting to our clash. Somewhere above, alarms screamed, but they were distant, drowned by the storm inside my skull.
"You're lying," I forced out, my voice ragged. "I'm not you. I'm not your shadow."
"No?" Shadow Kieran's optics burned brighter. "Then why do you feel me in every strike? Why do my memories fit so perfectly into the cracks of your own? Why do you hesitate, even now, afraid that killing me means killing yourself?"
The words hit harder than any blade. My hands shook, not from weakness but from doubt. He was wrong. He had to be wrong. But deep inside, the fracture widened—the line between him and me blurring with every breath.
Lira's face flashed in my mind, her hand on my chest, her voice steady. We'll fight it together. That memory burned like a beacon, pushing against the shadow's pull.
I lifted my head, forcing steel into my voice. "No. You're not the truth. You're the prison. You're the part of me that wanted control, that wanted blood, that wanted to be nothing more than a machine in the Dominion's war. But I broke free. And I'll break you."
For the first time, Shadow Kieran's smirk faltered. Just slightly, but enough. He narrowed his eyes, claws curling, shadows writhing violently around him. "Then prove it. Kill me, Kieran. Strike me down and show them all what you really are."
The chamber split with another quake, pillars of crystal shattering as light poured through. The Nexus roared like a living thing, its voice vibrating in my bones. The fight was no longer just about survival. It was about identity, about the fragile line between what I was… and what I could become.
And in the echoes of his challenge, I realized something terrifying—defeating him wouldn't just end this battle. It would decide who Kieran truly was. Forever.