The exit tunnel twisted into another ruined sector.
Kairo could feel it before he saw it —the distortion.The subtle wrongness in the air.Like two versions of the world were fighting for dominance.
Astra walked ahead, scanning with her resonance reader.
She frowned.
"Two signals."
Kairo tensed.
"Two?"
She nodded.
"Both... you."
The corridor split into a wide atrium — a collapsed transit hub lined with shattered glass and dead transport nodes.
And standing at its center…
Was him.
Not a corpse.
Not a vision.
A living, breathing Kairo.
Same face. Same scar.But different posture.
Confident.
Cold.
Armor patched together from scavenged drift tech.
A heavy blade at his back.
Eyes sharp — like a man who had seen too much and trusted nothing.
The Echo Kairo spoke first.
His voice was rough, jagged from too much yelling or not enough hope.
"Took you long enough to find me."
Kairo stepped forward.
Astra stayed back — tense, hand near her drift knife.
"Who are you?" Kairo asked.
The other Kairo tilted his head.
Mocked him with a smile.
"I'm what you would've been if you'd stopped pretending you were the hero."
The words hit harder than they should have.
Kairo tightened his grip on the spiral sigil around his neck — grounding himself.
"I'm not pretending anything."
The Echo laughed bitterly.
"Then why are you still carrying that?"
He pointed to the sigil.
"Only failures cling to their anchors."
Astra stepped forward.
"He's not your enemy."
The Echo Kairo ignored her.
Focused entirely on Kairo.
Eyes burning.
"You're a fracture that shouldn't exist.""You're a walking memory leak.""Every second you survive, you destabilize more Layers."
He took a step closer.
"You think the Core hunts you because you're dangerous?""They hunt you because you're a mistake."
Kairo felt it again.
The whispers from the Voice Loop.
This version of himself…was right in some timelines.
But not here.
Not now.
Not this Kairo.
"I don't care," Kairo said, steady."I didn't survive just to become you."
The Echo's smile faded.
A slow, deliberate hatred filling the space between them.
He drew the heavy drift blade from his back.
It shimmered — vibrating with corrupted resonance.
A weapon made for one thing:
Deleting Echoes.
"Then die like the others."
Astra reacted instantly — stepping between them.
Her own knife drawn.
Kairo put a hand on her shoulder.
Shook his head.
"No."
"This is my fight."
The Echo Kairo raised his blade.
Kairo mirrored him — drift knife humming.
The ground under them pulsed.
Reality frayed at the edges.
Memories leaked between seconds.
Somewhere in the distance,another glitch flower bloomed.
Another version of this fight — already lost.
Already mourned.
Already forgotten.
But not this one.
Not this time.
Kairo took a deep breath.
Anchored himself.
Stepped forward.
And met himself —not with hate.
Not with fear.
But with the will to exist.
Because this body wasn't his Echo's anymore.
It was his.
He chose it.
He earned it.
He would fight to keep it.