Underground Facility – Location Unknown
The room was cold. Not from temperature—but from something deeper.
Kael stood beside an ancient machine covered in wires and red lights, humming like a living thing.
"This is called the Mirror Chamber," he said. "Built using blueprints taken from the first failed shadow experiment—before Dominic."
Elias looked at the chair in the center.
It looked like an electric chair—except for the dozen black cables connected to its base, twitching like veins.
"What does it do?" he asked.
Kael stared. "It shows you the version of yourself that would let go."
---
ENTERING THE MIRROR
Strapped in, electrodes on his head, Elias closed his eyes.
The machine hissed.
Then—
Silence.
Then—
A heartbeat.
Then—
He opened his eyes.
---
INSIDE THE SIMULATION
He stood in a broken version of the world. Burnt trees. Floating debris. Ash falling like rain.
Then, he saw himself.
No armor. No restraint.
Just Elias, but hollow-eyed and grinning wide with blood on his fists.
"You know why I'm here," the Mirror-Elias said. "Because you're still afraid."
"Afraid of what?" Elias asked, stepping back.
"Afraid to let the shadow speak."
Mirror-Elias lunged.
---
BATTLE IN THE MIRROR
Fist to fist.
Shadow to shadow.
The Mirror-Elias moved like liquid darkness, impossible to predict. His armor wasn't shaped like Elias's. It flowed, constantly shifting—like it wasn't being worn, but growing from within.
"You're weak because you're trying to control it!" he roared, punching Elias through a pillar of memory.
"You're wrong!" Elias screamed back, his own armor crawling to his shoulders.
He stood, breathing hard.
"I'm not trying to control it. I'm trying to understand it."
He charged.
And this time, he landed a punch.
A hard one.
---
BACK IN REALITY
His body jolted in the chair.
Kael grabbed his arm. "Pull him out—NOW!"
Maya stood in the corner, fists clenched. Her own shadow had been acting strange ever since the simulation started—slithering without her permission.
Then suddenly—
Elias screamed.
Not from pain. But from clarity.
The black veins in his neck receded.
The shadow gauntlets on his arms reformed—not jagged, but refined.
Like he had finally earned them.
---
Meanwhile — Maya's Shadow Cracks
In her sleep, Maya whispered.
"Don't... open it…"
But her shadow didn't listen.
It peeled away from the wall behind her, moving on its own. Watching her. Studying.
Then it whispered back:
> "I'm already open."
---
Final Scene – Dominic Approaches
Somewhere in the slums of Pasig, Dominic walked through burning wreckage. Dead agents in black lined the street. None of them had drawn a weapon in time.
His eyes glowed faint violet now. Faint ripples of darkness spread from his footsteps like ink in water.
Behind him, his own shadow had a face now.
And it smiled.
> "We're almost there," it whispered.
Dominic didn't respond.
But inside his mind, something answered:
> "Elias is waking up."