The night air over Redgrave Facility was razor-sharp, the kind that sliced through skin and memory alike. Hidden in a mountain basin carved by war and wiped from maps, Redgrave was Orion's last ghost site — the place where nightmares were born, tested, and perfected.
Aria crouched on a ledge overlooking the facility, dressed in matte-black combat gear. Lucien stood beside her, infrared lenses scanning the perimeter. K-0X was already inside.
> "This is where it started," Lucien murmured. "And if we're lucky, where it ends."
Aria's fingers tightened around her knife handle. "I'm not hoping for luck. I'm counting on blood."
They moved silently through the ventilation shafts.
Down below, rooms flickered with artificial light, machines humming—alive, soulless. Rows of tanks lined the east wing. Inside them: girls. Teenagers. Some younger. Some almost identical to Aria.
Clones. Failed copies. One even twitched as she passed.
Aria's stomach twisted. "They didn't stop with her."
"No," Lucien said, voice grim. "They perfected her. And then started over."
A sudden alarm sounded.
Red lights bathed the corridors.
"She knows we're here," Aria said.
And then—the door behind them opened.
She was standing there.
The Mirror.
But something was different.
No blade drawn. No mask.
Her hair was loose. Her hands empty.
"I didn't call the alarm," the Mirror said quietly. "He did."
Lucien raised his gun. "Stand down."
The Mirror didn't flinch. Instead, she turned to Aria.
"He lied to both of us," she said. "We're not copies. We're not lab mistakes."
She stepped forward and placed something into Aria's hand.
A pendant. Worn. Silver. Inside: a photo.
Two baby girls, wrapped in matching blankets. A note, handwritten and faded:
> I'm sorry. I can only keep one. Forgive me.
> — Mother
Aria felt the ground shift beneath her.
"No…"
"You're my twin, Aria," the Mirror whispered. "Our mother gave you to the system to protect you. Gave me to Orion to buy your freedom."
Aria's breath caught. Her chest caved.
"You knew?"
"I didn't," the Mirror said. "Until he showed me."
Lucien stepped forward. "Where is Stroud?"
The Mirror's expression turned cold again. "Below. Waiting for her."
Aria met her eyes. "Why are you helping us?"
"Because I want out," she said. "But he wired me just like K-0X. If I betray him… I die."
K-0X's voice crackled in their comms.
> "Aria… I found the mainframe. It's alive. And it knows all our fail-safes."
Aria looked between Lucien, the Mirror, and the hellscape around her.
This wasn't a rescue anymore.
This was a war.
---
Meanwhile: Below Redgrave
Stroud Vale stood at the heart of the command chamber, calm and composed, watching surveillance feeds.
As Aria's team descended, his voice echoed across the facility:
> "You were designed to survive, Aria. Not to disobey. Come to me… or I trigger the final sequence."
Screens lit up, revealing:
K-0X's vital signs: ticking down.
The Mirror's self-destruct implant: armed.
Even Lucien's encrypted neural ID: exposed.
> "You're not a revolution, my daughter. You're jus
t the final prototype."
Aria stepped into view, eyes blazing. "Then watch your prototype burn you to the ground."