The world around Hana stilled.
The figures stepping from the shadows moved with unsettling synchronicity five of them, clad in black, their faces obscured by masks that gleamed under the alley's dim lights. No logos. No identifiers. But their presence was military, rehearsed, and surgical.
Hana's instincts screamed at her to run.
"Who are they?" she asked, breath shallow.
Lucien didn't answer. Instead, he took a step forward, positioning himself between her and the encroaching strangers. The chill in the air turned razor-sharp.
A soft mechanical click echoed.
Guns. Silencers.
Lucien didn't flinch. "Still want to make your choice alone?" he said under his breath, lips barely moving.
"This isn't about choice anymore!" Hana hissed.
One of the masked figures stepped closer, voice modulated. "Target confirmed. Hana Ji-woo. Extraction authorized."
"Who sent you?" Lucien snapped, his voice suddenly laced with authority and venom.
The man ignored him.
Lucien's eyes flicked over the squad, calculating. "Ten seconds," he murmured.
"What?"
"You have ten seconds to decide if you trust me, or you run and probably die."
Before Hana could speak, the figure raised a weapon and pointed it directly at her chest.
Her body moved on instinct. She dove sideways as a suppressed gunshot cracked the air. A potted plant exploded beside her head.
Lucien was faster. In one fluid motion, he pulled a compact blade from inside his coat and threw it. The weapon embedded itself in the shooter's shoulder with surgical precision. The man dropped to his knees, groaning.
Another gunshot followed but this one came from the far end of the alley. A shadowed figure stood atop the adjacent fire escape, sniper rifle smoking. One of the masked men dropped instantly.
"Backup," Lucien muttered. "Finally."
Hana's ears rang. Her heart hammered in her chest as chaos erupted. Two masked attackers rushed toward her. Lucien intercepted one, disarming him with a twist of the wrist and sending him crashing into the alley wall.
The other closed in on her.
She had no training at least, not in this life. But something inside her surged.
Muscle memory she shouldn't have had.
As the attacker lunged, she stepped aside, catching his wrist midair and twisting hard. He screamed as his shoulder popped.
Her hand trembled.
What... what did I just do?
Lucien saw it. The corner of his mouth curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "You're remembering."
Before she could question it, the last masked figure tossed a smoke bomb at their feet. In a burst of white haze, the attackers retreated, dragging their wounded.
Within seconds, the alley emptied.
Silence descended like ash after a storm.
Lucien extended a hand. "We have to go. Now."
Hana stared at it. Her mind reeled. What she had just done what she had felt wasn't normal. It was reflexive. And not from her life as a marketing strategist or university graduate. It came from something else.
From before.
But she took his hand.
They slipped down another alley and emerged into a quieter street where a matte-black car waited. A woman leaned against it, dressed in a tactical coat, a long braid over her shoulder, eyes scanning for threats.
"You cut it too close, Lucien," the woman said, climbing into the driver's seat.
"I like dramatic timing," he replied, pulling Hana into the back with him.
The car sped off.
Hana sat rigid, knuckles white.
"What the hell was that?"
"A retrieval unit," Lucien said, voice calm again. "One of the many factions that have been watching you since the moment your pendant fractured."
She turned to him sharply. "You said this was about us. Reincarnation. A bond. You didn't say anything about people hunting me."
Lucien didn't flinch. "They've hunted you in every life. You always forget. I never do."
The car took a hard turn. Hana leaned against the door, the weight of those words crushing.
Every life.
They had always come for her.
"You really believe all of this," she whispered. "Reincarnation. Shared past lives. Destiny."
Lucien turned to her, eyes cold and strange. "I don't believe. I remember."
She looked away, struggling to breathe. Flashes in her mind shadows of something ancient tickled the edges of her consciousness. The way her hands had moved. The recognition in her gut when she looked at Lucien. Something was waking inside her.
"I need to show you something," Lucien said. "It's the only way you'll start to understand."
The car pulled up to an underground facility a building disguised as an abandoned medical clinic. They moved swiftly down corridors until they entered a sealed room.
Inside was a wall filled with photographs.
Hana stepped closer, brows furrowing.
The images were worn, some centuries old. But every photo contained her. Or rather, women who looked like her. Across centuries. Cultures. Clothing styles. One painting from the 1700s showed her in a royal hanbok beside a man who looked like Lucien.
Her breath caught.
"I've found you in every life," Lucien said behind her. "Every time, you died before remembering me."
She turned, heart racing. "And now?"
"This time," he said, stepping closer, "we break the cycle."
She stared at the wall again, numb. There was no logical explanation for what she was seeing but it all felt too precise, too personal, to dismiss.
"What happens now?" she asked, her voice small.
Lucien's eyes burned with something fierce. "Now, you remember who you were. And what they took from you."
A screen on the wall lit up with a map. Glowing red dots pulsed across Seoul, and others around the world.
"Multiple factions are moving," the woman from the car spoke up. "They know she's awakened. We've got limited time."
Hana stepped back, head spinning. "This is insane. I'm just..."
"No," Lucien cut in, voice quiet but firm. "You are not 'just' anything. You are the key."
"To what?"
"To the cycle," he said. "To the truth. And to everything they're trying to bury."
The lights dimmed as the wall screen switched to a surveillance feed.
A man in a white suit stood at a window somewhere high above Seoul. He watched traffic pass below, but it was clear he wasn't interested in the city.
He was waiting.
And then he turned.
Hana gasped.
Because the man had her face.
No, not quite. But close enough. Feminine features sharpened into masculine edges. The same eyes. The same aura.
Lucien tensed.
"They've activated the Mirror Clone Protocol."
Hana turned to him, horror dawning in her eyes. "What is that?"
His gaze was stone.
"A version of you. Created to replace you. If you die before you remember everything, they use it to rewrite history."
She backed away.
"And if it finds you first…"
Lucien said nothing.
But she already knew the answer.