Zero was breaking apart. And so was I.
The air shimmered with distortion, a fractured illusion collapsing in on itself. The ground beneath my feet wasn’t stable, wasn’t real—cracks rippled through the concrete like the city itself was trying to reject what was happening.
And in the center of it all, Zero knelt on the ground, his entire body flickering like a corrupted file.
His face twisted, shifting between his own features and something else. Something familiar.
Something I had seen in mirrors my whole life.
The breath hitched in my throat. My pulse pounded in my ears like war drums.
This wasn’t possible.
It wasn’t.
A slow, rhythmic clap echoed through the ruined sector.
And then, she appeared.
Kane.
She stepped through the distortion, effortlessly graceful, her silver coat bi
