The central chamber opened before me like a nightmare made flesh. Dozens of tubes lined the walls, each containing half-formed duplicates suspended in viscous fluid. Their faces—familiar yet wrong—stared with vacant eyes. Some twitched as if struggling to wake.
But the horror at the center eclipsed everything else.
A massive pool dominated the room, and floating within it was something that had once been Aarohi. Or rather, what the Prime copy of her had become. The entity had shed most of its human appearance, its limbs elongated beyond natural proportions, skin translucent and pulsing with an internal light that shouldn't exist. Tendrils extended from its body, connecting to each tank like a grotesque umbilical cord.
My stomach lurched. Five years of searching, and this was what remained.
"Welcome, Divya." The Prime's voice echoed with multiple tones layered over each other—a chorus of stolen identities. "We've waited centuries for someone like you."
I clutched my weapon tightly.
"A perfect template." She... or it smiled... too widely again. "Your mind—your capacity for empathy combined with analytical thinking. The ideal blueprint for our final phase."
"I won't help you."
"Your cooperation isn't necessary. Only your mind."
Shadows moved at the chamber's edges. Figures stepped into the dim light—Detective Roshan with his familiar tired smile, Dr. Mara adjusting her glasses with that nervous habit I'd noticed, even Mrs. Kapoor from my apartment building. All perfect copies, all watching me with identical unblinking stares.
Roshan's copy stepped forward. "Divya, remember when you called me that night? You were crying so hard I could barely understand you. You kept saying, 'I was only ten minutes late.'"
My throat constricted. Only the real Roshan could know those details.
"Your species destroys everything it touches," the Prime continued, its voice rippling like water. "Wars, climate collapse, endless cruelty. We're simply accelerating the inevitable while preserving your forms."
"You're wrong." My voice shook. "Humanity is messy and brutal, but we're also capable of incredible compassion."
"A convenient mythology."
Mara moved beside me, her face hardened with resolve. "The system purge needs three minutes to activate. I'll buy you time."
Before I could stop her, she lunged forward, injecting herself with something from a small vial. Her body convulsed, flesh rippling as she deliberately triggered her own instability. The copies reacted immediately, converging on her as she thrashed wildly, body shifting between human and something else entirely.
"Now, Divya!"
I sprinted toward the control panel, jabbing the emergency protocols with trembling fingers. Alarms shrieked. Red lights pulsed. Three minutes until purge.
Cold, wet fingers wrapped around my wrist. I hadn't heard the Prime move.
"Divya." Aarohi's voice, perfectly recreated. "Don't you want to know what happened to me? Don't you want answers?"
Its face was inches from mine, those familiar eyes boring into me.
"You're not her."
"Parts of me are." The tendril wrapped tighter. "She's still here, Divya. Buried deep, but here."
Something cold and sharp pierced my temple. Pain exploded behind my eyes as the creature began merging with my consciousness. The room tilted sideways. Memories flashed like strobe lights—my childhood, college, Aarohi laughing, my parents' faces, patients I'd treated, nightmares I'd had.
The creature was downloading me, copying every neural pathway.
Fight it! My inner voice screamed. But how do you fight something inside your own mind?
I didn't resist. Instead, I focused with every ounce of my being on one memory: Aarohi on our first day of school, stepping between me and three bullies who'd cornered me. Eleven years old, half their size, fierce and unafraid. Technically, saving them from me. "You'll have to go through me first," she'd said.
I pushed the memory outward, into the mental connection between us, flooding it with every detail—the scent of chalk dust, the sound of her voice, the feeling of absolute safety I'd felt.
Genuine friendship. Genuine love. Not copied or simulated.
The Prime's grip faltered.
Within the mental connection, something stirred. A fragile, flickering presence—like a candle flame nearly extinguished. Aarohi. Not the copy, but a fragment of the real Aarohi's consciousness, preserved somehow within the hive mind.
I couldn't speak, couldn't move my physical body, but within this mental space, I reached out.
Aarohi. It's me. I'm here.
The presence flickered, strengthened. Recognition.
I need your help. One last time. Like you've always helped me.
The fragment that was Aarohi didn't respond with words but with emotion—a surge of fierce protectiveness that I recognized instantly. It was her. Really her.
Around us, the mental landscape of the hive mind trembled. Aarohi's consciousness—her human capacity for genuine connection—began spreading like wildfire through the collective. Where it touched, chaos followed. The perfect but hollow copies couldn't comprehend the depth of real human emotion.
It was becoming a virus in their system.
The Prime screamed, a sound like tearing metal. Its grip on my mind loosened.
In the physical world, my lips moved. "Until the end of everything—"
The fragment of Aarohi completed our childhood oath within my mind: —and whatever comes after.
The facility's systems went haywire. Tanks cracked. Fluid spilled onto the floor. The copies stumbled, clutching their heads as the hive mind fractured from within.
One minute until purge.
I broke free from the Prime's grasp and staggered to my feet. Mara lay motionless across the broken building, surrounded by twitching copies, now looking at me.
The purge system engaged with a deep mechanical groan. Vents opened in the ceiling, releasing a chemical compound that would trigger combustion in the creatures' unique cellular structure.
The room began to burn.
"Divya." The Prime's voice cracked and shifted, becoming eerily human. "You've killed us all."
"No," I gasped, backing toward the exit. "Just stopping you from taking more lives."
The flames spread rapidly, consuming the tanks, the equipment, and the copies. I turned to run, but the Prime moved with inhuman speed, cutting off my escape.
Its body was changing, shifting back toward Aarohi's form, but with flickering moments of something else breaking through—something genuine.
"Please," it whispered, and for a moment, I saw her in its eyes. "Don't leave me again."
My heart shattered. "Aarohi?"
The ceiling groaned. Support beams began to crack.
The creature's face contorted, fighting some internal battle. When it spoke again, the voice was completely Aarohi's—not copied, but her. "Too many copies escaped. They'll regroup. Find another way."
"Then come with me," I begged. "We'll fight them together."
She shook her head. "I can't. I'm not... whole anymore. But I can stop them from following you."
The Prime's body convulsed as other copies poured into the chamber, drawn by the fracturing hive mind. Aarohi—or what remained of her consciousness, controlling the Prime—extended her arm. It stretched unnaturally long, pushing me toward a service exit I hadn't noticed.
"Run, Divya. I'll hold them here."
"Aarohi, no—"
The ceiling collapsed, followed by a blast. Flames erupted. Aarohi's face—my friend's real face—smiled at me one last time before the explosion engulfed the chamber.
I stumbled through the exit as the blast threw me forward. The heat seared my back. My ears rang with the deafening roar.
"AAROHI!" My scream tore through my throat as I rolled down the embankment outside the facility.
I'd found her, only to lose her again.
The pain was unbearable, a torture crushing my chest.
"Aarohi,.. Aarohi... AARPHI......."
I lay there, sobbing against the wet earth as the facility burned behind me, unable to move.
Something glinted in the mud beside me. I reached for it, fingers trembling.
A charred friendship bracelet..
Weeks later, I stood at the memorial service for Detective Roshan and Dr. Mara, now hailed as heroes. The official story cited a terrorist attempt to release biological weapons. Only a handful knew the truth: that an unknown species infiltration had been stopped at the cost of brave lives.
The investigation had recovered enough evidence from the facility ruins to confirm the plot was real. The hive mind was destroyed, the Prime entity eliminated. But I remained vigilant. Some copies had escaped. The fight wasn't over.
I now handled a classified task force specifically formed to identify and neutralize remaining copies. My understanding of the human mind had become our greatest weapon against these perfect but empty imitations.
Around my wrist, I wore two friendship bracelets now—my own, which I threw thinking I wasn't worthy of it, and the one Aarohi had been wearing when she was taken.
Thunder rattled my apartment windows as I reviewed case files. Midnight rain pounded the glass, matching my mood. A month since Blackwood, and we'd neutralized thirty copies. Dozens more remained unaccounted for.
My body tensed instantly. The weapon I kept nearby found its way into my hand, familiar and cold.
I approached the door cautiously, heart hammering. Another copy? They'd tried before, sending versions of people I knew to gain my trust.
The chain slid back. My grip tightened on the weapon.
I yanked the door open, ready.
Nothing but an empty hallway and rain.
My gaze dropped to the floor. A rain-soaked photograph lay in the puddle. I picked it up with trembling fingers—Aarohi and I from college, laughing on the campus lawn. I flipped it over.
Written on the back in familiar handwriting: "Some bonds survive even death. Watch for the ones who don't blink."
Lightning flashed, illuminating the street below my window. For just a moment, I caught a glimpse of a figure across the street with unblinking eyes and a too-wide smile.
I held my weapons and whispered into the darkness, "Until the end of everything."
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