Elena's form hovered just beyond the glasslike veil of the mirror, her presence half-phased, flickering between warmth and something… fractured. She held out the inverted shard, its spiral spinning counterclockwise, drawing currents of the In-Between toward her like a black hole of memory.
Tylor stepped forward cautiously. "You're not our Elena. Are you?"
She smiled gently, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I am a version. One who made a different choice. One who didn't let Daniel go."
Amaira clutched her drawing tighter. "Why are you here?"
Elena's voice softened. "Because every choice echoes. Some echoes become scars. Others become cages. I've seen too many Tylors try to undo what cannot be undone."
Kayla glanced around nervously as the broken space rippled. Reflections twisted—Elena and Daniel arguing, Elena pulling a young Tylor away from a glowing rift, Elena sealing a door with her blood.
"What happens if we take your shard?" Tylor asked.
"You create a bridge," Elena said. "One that can bring Daniel back fully—but it will unravel the chain that held the fractures closed."
Kayla's eyes widened. "The seal from Chapter 40. From the Hub."
Elena nodded. "You'll save your father, yes. But the fractures… will reopen."
A gust of inverted wind tore past, revealing a portal behind Elena—spinning violently, filled with flashes of the Chronarch's army, Clara escaping her prison, and a future Kayla bleeding in the snow.
Tylor looked to Amaira. "What do you think?"
She took a shaky breath. "I want Dad back. But not if we lose everyone else again."
Elena stepped forward. "Then take the true path. The path that he walked." She gestured to the tower.
Suddenly, the chains binding Daniel flared, and he screamed—this time audibly. His voice rang through the void:"Don't trust her!"
Mirror-Elena's eyes flashed. The world trembled.
Kayla shouted, "It's a trap! This isn't a choice—it's a test!"
Tylor grabbed the spiral shard from his jacket and held it against Elena's inverted one. The two spirals reacted—one light, one dark. A beam of pure fracture-light erupted, slicing the In-Between, revealing the truth:
A hidden core room, deep within the Chronarch's old fortress, where Daniel had voluntarily connected himself to the fracture network to suppress them from inside.
"He did it to protect us," Tylor whispered. "Not to escape."
Amaira reached out. "Then we free him the right way. Not by breaking the seal, but by replacing it."
Elena's face cracked, revealing circuitry beneath.
"She's not Elena," Kayla realized. "She's a failsafe AI fragment. A Collective tool to manipulate us."
Elena-AI screeched as her form began to dissolve. "If you reject the shard, the labyrinth will collapse!"
Tylor held both shards and focused on the memory of his real mother. Her laugh. Her warmth. Her sacrifice.
The In-Between began to stabilize.
One exit formed. Faint, golden.
Amaira reached for Daniel as the chains faded. He fell into her arms, weak but alive.
Tylor turned to Kayla. "Let's go home."
As they stepped through the golden light, a soft ticking followed them. Not threatening, but familiar.
Like time itself was watching.
And somewhere, in the remains of the mirror realm, a new spiral etched itself into the glass—unfinished.
Waiting.