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"What the hell is this?" The voice didn't come from my throat. It came from three feet to my left, vibrating through the humid air of the pit.
I froze. My claws dug into the concrete floor, scraping sparks. I looked left. There was another thing—a mirror image of my own nightmare. Same grey, slick skin. Same jagged ribs pushing through the chest. Same desperate, bloodshot eyes.
"You're me," I rasped. My voice sounded like grinding gravel.
"I'm not you," the other thing spat, lunging forward. It didn't attack; it just stopped inches from my face, its breath smelling like copper and old bleach. "I'm the one who survived the first loop. You're just the glitch."
Above us, the intercom crackled. Dr. Vivian's voice dropped into the room, smooth and cold, like a blade sliding into silk. "Observation Log 42. Subject Kane has achieved a spontaneous cellular duplication. Or perhaps a psychic fracture. Let's see which one screams louder when the other dies."
"Shut up!" I roared at the ceiling, but the other Kane was already moving. He didn't go for the exit. He went for my throat.
He slammed me against the reinforced glass wall with a wet thud. His fingers—too long, too many joints—clamped around my windpipe. The power imbalance was instant. He was heavier, denser, and he knew exactly where to press to make me gasp for air.
"You think you're special?" he hissed, leaning in. I could feel the heat radiating off his skin, a feverish, unnatural warmth. "You're just a spare. A backup copy. In this place, there's only room for one Apex. I'm not letting some copy-paste version of myself take my ticket out of here."
I clawed at his wrist, my nails digging into the grey flesh. "I don't... want... your ticket," I managed to choke out.
"Too bad," he grinned, showing rows of needle-teeth. "The Doctor only opens the door for the winner."
He threw me back, and I skidded across the floor, my stomach sliding over the slime. I scrambled up, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. Every movement felt doubled. When I stepped forward, I felt a ghost-echo of his movement in the back of my mind. It wasn't just a twin; it was a tether.
"Stop talking and fight!" I yelled, launching myself at him.
We collided in a mess of grey limbs and guttural snarls. It was like fighting a reflection that knew my next move before I did. I swung a heavy claw at his ribs; he ducked and drove a shoulder into my gut, sending me sprawling.
"Is this all you've got, glitch?" he mocked, circling me. "No wonder she keeps resetting you. You're pathetic."
"I'm not a failure," I spat, tasting blood. "I'm the one who remembers."
"Remembers what?" He paused, his head tilting at an unnatural angle. "The pain? The smell of your own skin burning? Newsflash, sweetheart: that's the only thing this place teaches."
I didn't answer. I lunged again, but this time I didn't aim for him. I aimed for the gap in his stance, sliding low and slamming my weight into his ankles. He went down with a crash, and I pinned him, my claws hovering over his eyes.
"Tell me how to get out," I snarled.
"Kill me," he laughed, a wet, bubbling sound. "Kill me and take the shard. That's the rule. Devour or be devoured. You know it. You feel it in your gut, don't you? That hunger?"
I hesitated. My vision blurred. For a second, I didn't see a monster. I saw a man. A tired, broken man who just wanted to go home. The tether between us pulsed, a rhythmic throb that matched the beating of two hearts in one soul.
"We can both leave," I whispered.
"Liar," he snapped. "Look up."
I glanced at the observation deck. Dr. Vivian was leaning against the railing, her white coat pristine, her eyes wide with an almost erotic level of curiosity. She wasn't disgusted. She was fascinated. She looked at us like we were a particularly interesting set of petri dishes.
"So touching," Vivian purred into the mic. "The glitch wants to share. How quaint. But the biological limit is absolute, Kane. Two bodies, one consciousness. The system can't sustain the paradox. In sixty seconds, the instability will peak. Either you merge, or you both liquefy."
"Merge?" I yelled. "How?"
"Simple," Vivian replied. "One of you has to stop existing. The other absorbs the mass. It's a hostile takeover. Who's going to be the boss, and who's going to be the meal?"
The other Kane didn't hesitate. He surged up, slamming his head into mine. Stars exploded in my vision. He gripped my shoulders, his fingers bruising the skin, pulling me close until our foreheads touched.
"I'm not becoming a snack," he growled, his voice vibrating through my skull. "I'm the original. You're the mistake."
He tried to tear into my shoulder, but I caught his wrist. The physical contact triggered something—a surge of static electricity that made the hair on my neck stand up. I could feel his thoughts. Not words, but images. A dark hallway. A needle in the eye. The feeling of being disassembled piece by piece.
"You're not the original," I gasped, pushing him back. "Neither of us are. She broke us both."
"Doesn't matter!" he screamed, his face twisting into a mask of rage. "Only one gets out!"
He lunged again, but this time he was slower. The 'instability' Vivian mentioned was kicking in. His skin began to ripple, like water under a breeze. A hairline crack appeared on his forearm, leaking a glowing, iridescent fluid.
"What's happening?" he yelled, staring at his arm. "What is this?"
"The clock's ticking," I said, though I could feel the same crack opening on my own chest. A sharp, searing heat bloomed behind my sternum. It felt like someone had poured molten lead into my lungs.
"I can't... I can't feel my legs," he whispered, his voice suddenly small. He collapsed, not in defeat, but because his body was literally forgetting how to hold itself together.
I tried to stand, but my own knees buckled. The world started to glitch. I saw the room flicker—one moment we were in the pit, the next I was seeing a blueprint of the lab, then a flash of a surgical table.
"The merge is beginning," Vivian's voice sounded delighted. "The cellular rejection is exquisite. Look at the way the tissue sloughs off. Absolutely beautiful."
I looked at the other Kane. He was shivering, his grey skin peeling away in long, wet strips, revealing something raw and pulsing underneath. He reached out a shaking hand toward me.
"Help..." he groaned.
I didn't know if I wanted to save him or eat him. The hunger was there, a screaming void in my stomach that demanded completion. If I took him in, I'd be stronger. I'd be closer to being human again. Or maybe I'd just be a bigger monster.
I reached out, my fingers brushing his. The moment our skin touched, a bolt of white-hot agony surged through my spine. It wasn't a touch; it was a weld.
"Scream for me, Kane," Vivian whispered.
Suddenly, a loud, wet *crack* echoed through the room. I looked down. The fissure in my chest had split wide open, and the one in his arm had mirrored it. We weren't just touching—we were fusing. The skin began to knit together in a jagged, violent seam, pulling us into a suffocating embrace.
"Wait!" I tried to pull away, but the suction was too strong. It was like being swallowed by a living shadow.
"Too late," the other Kane gasped, his voice merging with mine, creating a terrifying, layered chord. "We're... we're..."
Just as the two bodies slammed together into a single, convulsing mass of flesh, the heavy steel doors at the end of the hall hissed open. A new sound entered the room—the heavy, rhythmic thud of something much larger than us.
"Oh," Vivian whispered, her voice dripping with anticipation. "The Scavenger is early. Let's see if the new hybrid can survive a real fight."
I tried to scream, but my mouth was still fusing shut, and the first roar of the Scavenger hit me like a physical wall.