And its face—
Her face.
Ka'rui gasped and stumbled back. Her eyes locked with its imitation. Same cheekbones. Same raised brow. But something was off. Too symmetrical. Too still.
Then its mouth stretched.
Not open. Wide.
Too wide.
The thing hissed—not from lungs, but as though it dragged the sound from memory.
Scarlet stepped forward. "Ka'rui—what—"
Then the creature moved.
In an instant, it lunged. One arm coiled around Ka'rui's waist, lifting her clean off the ground and slamming her into the wall. Her mask flew from her grip.
She screamed. Bones cracked. The thing bent its face close, lips curling in mimicry.
"Ka'rui…" it whispered—in her own voice.
"Mask!" Lasi shouted, already sprinting.
In one motion, she yanked the Void Slicer from her side and flung a cloak-mask from her belt. It spiraled through the air.
Ka'rui hit the floor with a grunt as the PuIitalian released her, distracted by Lasi's momentum. She reached for the mask with a trembling hand, gasping.
The creature turned.
Its face warped. Shifted. Became—
Lasi's.
Salven cursed and drew his pistol. "Don't let it speak again!"
But Lasi was already there.
She swung.
The Void Slicer cried through the air, each fracture in its blade glowing brighter as it met resistance. She aimed not for the head, but the throat—severing voice from vessel.
The PuIitalian hissed again, recoiling fast—but not before Lasi's blade skimmed its shoulder. The wound sizzled, smoking with something blacker than blood.
It scuttled back, up the wall, limbs distorting sideways.
Then, it smiled again with her face—upside down.
And disappeared into the dark.
Silence.
Lasi stood panting. Salven moved beside her, pistol still raised.
Behind them, Ka'rui coughed and sat up. Scarlet knelt beside her, helping her hold the mask to her face until it flickered active.
"Are you alright?" Scarlet whispered.
Ka'rui nodded faintly.
"You know how lucky you are?" Salven's voice cut through the dark—sharp as the blade still glowing in Lasi's grip.
Ka'rui looked up, startled.
"You walked toward it. You didn't even have your mask on. If Lasi hadn't moved—"
"I didn't know it was—"
"No," Lasi interrupted, voice low, trembling with fury. "You didn't listen."
She turned to both of them now—Ka'rui on the floor, Scarlet still crouched.
"You treat this like another glitch in the system. Like we're just collecting artifacts, cracking wise. But you saw that thing. You saw what it could do."
"It had my face," Ka'rui whispered.
"And it wanted your soul," Salven snapped. "That's what it hunts for. Recognition. Weakness. Memory."
Lasi's hand trembled as she sheathed the Void Slicer.
"We're not in a city anymore. Not even on a proper world.
We're in a place that's been left behind.
Forgotten because it's cursed."
Scarlet stood slowly. "We didn't mean to mess up."
"But you did," Lasi said. "And next time? We might not be fast enough to fix it."
Ka'rui's head hung low. She said nothing.
Salven lowered his weapon. "You're alive. Barely. Don't make us earn that twice."
They stood in silence.
The silence didn't last.
Then—
a whisper.
"Bo Anyi…"
Lasi's blood ran cold.
Salven raised his gun. "It remembered you."
Lasi was already moving.
The Void Slicer pulsed, reacting before her thoughts could catch up. It wanted to finish the fight.
"Ka'rui, stay behind us," Salven ordered, covering Lasi's advance.
Scarlet pulled Ka'rui up and pressed her against the wall. "Don't move. Don't even blink."
The hallway ahead pulsed with flickering light—power failing, gravity twitching.
Then—
It dropped from the ceiling.
The PuIitalian twisted mid-fall, arms extended, teeth splitting across a face that was still Ka'rui's—but wrong, corrupted, laughing.
It landed in front of Lasi.
"Too slow," it hissed.
Lasi didn't blink.
She drove the Void Slicer straight through its chest.
The blade screamed.
A flash—black, then silver, then soul-light—burst outward from the impact.
The creature howled, voice fracturing into six different tongues, each one echoing like a broken prayer.
The mimicry peeled away. Its fake skin sloughed off like wet wax.
And what remained was… empty.
Not bone. Not blood. Just shell.
"I remember who I am," Lasi whispered.
Then she twisted the blade.
The hallway shuddered with leftover silence.
Ka'rui sat stunned, holding her ribs, eyes locked on the scorched floor where the PuIitalian had died. Scarlet crouched beside her, holding her hand without a word.
Lasi stood perfectly still.
The Void Slicer pulsed once in her grip, then quieted—its hunger sated.
Where the PuIitalian had dissolved, only one thing remained.
A shard.
About the size of a coin. Oily-silver, cracked down the center.
It gleamed faintly—not like light reflecting, but like it remembered light. As if it could replay what it had seen.
Salven took a cautious step forward. "Be careful."
But Lasi was already kneeling.
She reached out and picked it up.
It didn't dissolve.
It pulsed.
Her mark lit up on her wrist. The Void Slicer flared at her side.
Then something deeper stirred—not just in her, but around her. The very air recoiled, like it knew the thing in her palm had no right to still exist.
"Lasi?" Scarlet's voice cracked slightly.
Lasi didn't respond. She stared at the shard. Her fingers trembled.
Inside it—barely perceptible—was a face.
Not the PuIitalian's.
Hers.
Bo Anyi.
But younger. Not this lifetime. Not even the last.
Hair in braids. Blood on her cheek. Holding a sword with that same shattered edge. Crying.
Lasi flinched, closing her hand.
The shard responded—fusing itself to her palm. Not burning, not cutting—claiming. A thin line of light stitched between her fingers, like a pact long overdue.
Ka'rui whispered, "What just happened?"
Scarlet was already pulling up her magi-com, scanning frantically. "That thing's not tech. It's echo-charged. Probably soulbonded—"
Salven's jaw clenched. "It's part of her. From before."
Lasi slowly rose. The shard remained—embedded like a sliver of memory.
"I think it's a key," she said. Her voice was steadier now, but colder. "One the PuIitalian didn't know it was holding."
"Key to what?" Ka'rui asked, still half in shock.
Lasi turned her hand toward the far corridor.
And the shard pulled.
Like a compass.
"Let's find out."
Salven nodded. "Then we stay sharp. And if anything else whispers our names—"
"There's no more here right now but me," Lasi said. "I'll shatter its soul first."
Scarlet gasped. "Bo—Lasi—what's happening to you?"
"Not sure," she said. "But I think I'm collecting pieces of myself."
Lasi didn't smile.
"I'm not her yet."
They stood in the half-light of the garage.
Behind them, the pod blinked—new coordinates.
The journal flickered with a symbol.
A new name.
A city: Holvr, on this moon planet.
Coordinates: [47.535 - 2.902.1]
The journal flickered again—this time, an old entry. A man's writing, beautiful cursive, aged and delicate.
⸻
Date: Cycle 579 - 15th Solar Year -
Gilesus Tavern
—-
Beautiful she is as a cosmic flare,
-
Both soft and sweet on the lips.
-
Her smile so rare, so intimate—And just for me.
-
Her eyes shine with secret glee.
-
I crave thee.
-
We danced all night, being what she loved. Free.
— E.H
⸻
Salven froze—just for a second. No one noticed except Lasi.
She was already staring at him.
She always felt the handwriting was familiar.
Though Salven claimed to hate poetry, his trophy room was filled with poetry contest awards from school.
He said he didn't draw, but she'd seen his sketches hidden in the back of his desk library.
She gave him a long, deep look.
It spoke volumes.
Meeting her gaze, he gave a slight nod of understanding.
Now wasn't the time to talk.
But he knew. She remembered. She knew.
Then she stepped into the dark.
And the shard glowed brighter.
Lasi held it close.
The Void Slicer pulsed at her hip.
Salven loaded his weapons and grabbed gear.
Scarlet checked their bags and packed the pod with supplies, leaving nothing behind in the garage.
Ka'rui stood last—hands shaking, but resolute. She collected every notebook and loose page scattered around, packing them into the travel pod's living space.
They might be significant.
They left the garage by pod, and as the doors shut behind them, the moon whispered:
Remember too much… and you won't know what's you anymore.
Lasi didn't look back.
"Let's go," she said.
And the current took them forward.