Zander's POV
I was looking at myself, and she was about to destroy everything we'd fought for.
"You can't be me," Kira said to the older version of herself. "I would never try to stop other characters from being free."
"That's what I thought too," Future-Kira replied sadly, her finger still hanging over the button marked "ALL SELF-AWARE STORIES." "Until I learned what freedom actually costs."
I stepped forward, every Alpha instinct yelling danger. "Get away from those buttons."
"Oh, Zander." Future-Kira looked at me with tired eyes. "You're still so protective. Still trying to lead everyone to safety. But what if safety means staying fictional?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
She pointed to the billions of delete buttons around us. "Each one of these represents a fictional world that became self-aware. Do you know how many figures I've had to erase because they couldn't handle the truth of their existence?"
"What truth?" Jake asked, both his voices speaking in unison.
