Day in the story: 12th December (Friday)

Although the distance we'd covered couldn't have been more than 800 feet—the typical height of this building—it felt like miles. We weren't even close to the halfway point of our climb, yet nearly twenty minutes had passed. Some kind of space-dilation had to be at work. That was the only explanation that made sense. Still, every apartment we stepped on seemed occupied.

I was the first to notice him. Of course I was.

The connection pulsed through me the moment my aura brushed against the necklace. Jason.

He was there, but not quite. Somehow embedded in the back of an Unreflected, he was held fast by a grotesque cage of ribs sprouting from the creature's spine. And worse—they weren't even inside the building. They were traveling within the glass itself, gliding like shadows behind the reflective skin of the skyscraper.

They were swimming through the mirror.

And they weren't alone. Four more Unreflected moved alongside the one carrying Jason.

"Oh hell no. You're after the Unreflected?" said the Chinese guy. "Not so sure you're worth sticking with anymore."

"You were never invited," I replied.

"You're scared of them?" Nick asked. "Usagi here," he nodded at me—I appreciated the proper use of the nickname, "punched one back on Earth and it ran like the wind."

The Unreflected that weren't carrying Jason circled us like undersea predators. We kept pressing forward, closing in on the one with Jason on its back.

"Back on Earth is different. Here, they're stronger," the man muttered. "They'll call the Shattered, and you'll be done. Bye, bye." He turned on his heel and tried to run.

He didn't make it far. The circling Unreflected lunged from the glass like sharks breaching the surface. Unlike in our world, their emergence here was sudden and violent. They came fast, aiming straight for us.

"Zoe, eyes on the field!" Nick shouted, slipping naturally into the lead. "Usagi, get Jason!"

Fishbones sprouted from Nick's arms, sharp and twitching, ready to fire. "Me, Peter, and Echo will handle these."

The boys fanned out to block the oncoming creatures. I reached out and grabbed Peter's hoodie, just for a second, channeling my intent into the loose fabric.

"Put the hood on, Pete," I said as I released him and turned to run after the fleeing Unreflected. "You'll be my eyes!"

Without hesitation, he pulled the hood over his head and took off behind me.

Malik's case as a person was interesting. When I put my prejudices aside, he always turned out to be more than the sum of each first impression. So when I watched him fight through Peter's hood, I shut up and just gasped in wonder at the golden and purple masterpiece he was painting through the rain.

He was facing two of the creatures at once. One lunged at him with claws extended, longer than they should have been, but all they managed to reach were inches. An electrically empowered punch Malik had delivered a moment earlier, aimed at the other creature, somehow rippled into the path of this one's attack, disrupting it completely. Broken nails shattered like glass, caught in a shockwave of purples, blues, and golden shadowlight mixed with electricity that created a clean bubble of air in the middle of the storm.

The next slash came fast, aiming to cleave him in half. But no.

He moved just enough—barely an inch—and the Unreflected struck only an echo of where he had been. The resulting force slammed the creature backward, stunned.

Malik didn't hesitate. He followed up with a rising knee to its jaw, caught the lolling head with his hand, and repeated the motion. Shadowlight burst with the impact, and the creature's skull cracked open. Gore and brain matter rained down with the water droplets, purple and gold flashing through the mist.

Another echo lashed out beside him, striking the second Unreflected just as it tried to circle around. A coordinated hit and kick followed, driving the shadowy attacker down toward the surface of the glass in an attempt to reposition.

Malik didn't chase blindly. He paused, checked his surroundings, and waited for the next move with calm precision.

"Echo, help Peter!" Zoe shouted.

He moved without hesitation, but not in the way most would expect. Instead of going directly to Peter, he rushed toward the escaping shadow. In his place, an echo of his past self appeared beside Peter just in time to intercept an attacking Unreflected. It blocked the incoming strike and snapped the creature's arm with a brutal, wet crunch.

Peter used the opening. He emerged through the burst of violet and gold light with a punch that shattered the creature's teeth. The black suit amplified his strength, and the impact sent shards flying across the slick surface. As the creature slashed in retaliation, Peter wove through its movements like a practiced fighter, redirecting each blow with effortless precision.

He grabbed it, shifted behind its back in one fluid motion, pushed off with both feet, and tore the head free. The limp body fell forward. Peter flipped and landed beside Nick, who was already in the middle of another fight.

Nick's fishbone spikes extended from his arms, plunging into the shadowy enemy with brutal efficiency. Strike after strike found its mark until the creature collapsed on the rain-slicked glass, its body full of holes and twitching in silence.

That was when Peter saw him. The Chinese guy.

He wasn't moving.

Something was wrong. His stance had changed. He looked frozen, completely paralyzed. He had been uneven somehow, lacking something.

The creatures had seen it. And they used it.

Maybe it was the absence of real human connection. Or maybe it was something deeper.

It didn't matter.

The creature's back split open, its reversed rib cage flaring like a grotesque flower, and it snatched the frozen man without hesitation. Its arms twisted unnaturally at the elbows as it tried to stuff him inside the cavity.

Peter didn't let it.

He sprinted forward and slammed his fist into its stomach with such force that the creature buckled. Before it could recover, he delivered a second punch straight to its head. The impact drove it to the glass beneath them, but the surface held firm. These weren't normal windows. Maybe it was something about the building itself, some unnatural property from becoming a bridge between cities, but the glass didn't shatter easily.

Peter kicked the creature straight in the knee, forcing it into another unnatural bend that made it collapse and drop the Chinese guy. Then, a fishbone shot by Nick from just a few feet away pierced the shadow's skull like a knife through butter.

Peter grabbed him then and dragged the unconscious man to safety.

While they fought their demons, I focused on mine.

I stayed on the tail of the Unreflected carrying Jason, my mind running through options. I'd tried reaching for him as we passed a section of window, but my fingers hit only cold, wet glass.

I couldn't just punch through and hope. If I shattered the wrong part, I could kill the creature and Jason with it.

But maybe, just maybe, I could break the glass around it. Force it to emerge.

Especially since more of those things were already coming from ahead, slipping out from the mirrored surface like fish through black water.

Time was running out.

I grabbed a set of sound cards, thinking—sound waves combined with steel would give me the best shot at shattering the glass. I infused them with both identities and began hurling them toward the window panes in front of me and the creature's path.

Each impact sent glass exploding outward in a spray of shards, some flung out into the rain-soaked void, others crashing into the apartments beyond. The creature's movement halted. With no medium left to swim through, it began to emerge, slow and awkward, dragging itself from the fractured surface. It was sluggish, probably weighed down by Jason's unconscious body strapped to its back.

But the shattered windows drew attention.

Shadows stepped out from nearby apartments. Some screamed. Some cursed. A few raised phones to call the police. We didn't care. I didn't even look. My eyes were locked on the Unreflected now pulling itself into our world.

Jason was right there. Almost close enough to reach.

That was when the others struck.

"Watch out, Pete! Nick!" Zoe's warning came at the same moment as mine.

They turned just in time.

Two more Unreflected had already broken free.

One of them lunged at Nick with a vicious vertical slash. He had just finished crushing the skull of the last one he fought with a salt-hardened fist when he turned and tried to dodge. But he wasn't fast enough. The claws caught him square on the arm and in the next heartbeat, it hit the ground beside him with a wet slap.

Nick dropped to his knees, clutching the fresh stump in his good hand, gasping in shock.

Peter moved fast. He dropped the guy he had just saved and dove sideways to avoid the other ambusher. The suit helped.

I didn't hesitate.

I sprinted toward the creature attacking Peter and hit it with a full-force kick to the head. Bone cracked. It reeled and tumbled off the edge, crashing down the side of the building and disappearing into the darkness below.

Malik was already on the second one. The one that had taken Nick's arm. He struck it again and again, each electrical punch followed by bursts of repeating electrical outbursts with purple and gold shadowlight. The echoes flashed through the falling rain like strobe lights. He was a storm of fists, weaving through the downpour, his fury uncontrolled and beautiful.

Peter came back to my side and together we went after the creature I had kicked. I slashed at it with my steel claw. Three sharpened cards held together like talons. My strikes met its claws in sparks, each parry pushing it back. Peter slammed into its leg with a brutal kick, and the knee gave way with a loud crunch. The thing dropped low, almost collapsing.

I stepped in and carved into its face. The blade sliced deep, exposing muscle and tissue under the sleek, black skin.

Peter ducked under my slashing attack and punched the creature in the stomach. Then he rushed the fallen creature, seized one of its arms, and dropped to the ground with a practiced move that locked the limb tight. With his legs wrapped around its upper body, he applied pressure to its neck using the soles of his feet. A moment later, the spine gave out with a sickening crack.

I glanced at the window again. The Unreflected that had Jason trapped was still emerging slowly. Jason remained lodged in the protruding ribcage on its back. Nearby us, the Chinese guy, lay waiting, unmoving.

I turned my attention back to Nick, who kneeled crumpled on the window surface, clutching his bleeding stump. Echo was still fighting, keeping the Unreflected at bay. Through Peter's eyes, I could now see him moving to assist Echo.

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"Nick, can you regenerate the arm?" I asked.

"Yes, but for now I've only stopped the bleeding." He said and I saw the salt that covered his stump, it must have hurt like mother-fucker to do it this way, "I think I already digested my eggs. I have more in your Domain. I will eat them later."

"I can send you now."

"No, I will fight." He said and with gritted teeth, stood up.

I turned back to the battlefield.

I saw more of the Unreflected emerging all around us, both through my own eyes and those set within Peter's hood. Their slick, black forms shimmered in the downpour, skin glistening as the rain slid off them like oil on water. Every movement looked wrong—too smooth, too fast.

I didn't wait. I sprinted toward the unconscious guy, touched both him and my Travel Grimoire, and sent him away in a blink of a shadowlight. He'd land near the wall by my University. Hopefully, that would be safe enough for now.

No time to be sure.

I turned toward one of the Unreflected closing in. No hesitation.

The first card flew, aimed at its face. A second followed immediately. The edges glowed with infused intent—steel and force and fire. Rain evaporated around them as if the world itself was stepping back. I ran through the chaos, boots slapping against wet glass, wind howling in my ears. I was gaining ground.

The creature hissed, all jagged motion and flickering limbs, but I was already on top of it.

I charged, swinging with all I had. Behind me, Echo, Nick and Peter fought side by side under Zoe's guidance. Four more Unreflected were coming toward them, while the ones they'd already killed lay motionless nearby, oozing their strange dark fluids and blood into the wind-slick glass.

My first strike was a wide, horizontal slash with my claw. I followed instantly with a kick from my left leg in the opposite direction. The creature blocked the claw with one hand, stopped the kick with the other, then leapt back with unnatural grace. It howled, mouth full of jagged teeth, and the sound scraped through the air like glass dragged across glass.

Moments later, more of the creatures followed, howling without hesitation, not caring that their actions opened them up to counterattacks.

The one in front of me got its throat slashed by my claw. It stumbled, gurgling, clutching at its neck with spindly hands before collapsing. It thrashed for a moment on the slick glass surface, then went still.

I turned and sprinted back toward the Unreflected carrying Jason. It had fully emerged now, its reverse rib cage still wrapped tightly around him. It was already retreating, heading for a patch of unbroken windows in a desperate bid to escape into the mirror again.

That's when three things happened almost at once.

First, through one of the eyes I had placed on Peter's hood, I saw cavalry approaching, actual cavalry. Policemen on horseback, and the horses were enormous, hulking things, rippling with muscles where horses shouldn't have muscles. As soon as they appeared, the officers opened fire with their pistols. The Unreflected hissed in pain, twisting toward this new threat with rage.

Second, the creature carrying Jason gave up on submerging and just continued running. It bolted toward the mirrored city in the distance, Jason still imprisoned on its back.

And the third? I decided to follow.

My team soon untangled themselves from the fight. With two shadow forces now locked in battle, Unreflected and the cavalry's, they joined me in the chase.

"I'm almost done," Malik said calmly. He really must have been, considering how many echoes he had used in such a short time.

"I'm quite okay," said Nick. He was missing his left arm and clearly in a lot of pain, but of course, he downplayed it like always.

"You look fine to me," I called back as I pushed myself to run faster. He grimaced.

"I'll get him," said Peter. Apparently, even without magic, the suit alone still made him faster than me. The wonders of gender differences, I guessed.

He moved like a predator, each step smooth and powerful. He sprinted ahead in his black suit, panther-like, and finally caught up. With a powerful leap, he tackled the escaping shadow creature, breaking its stride and slamming it to the ground.

Of course, we couldn't have an easy win.

She appeared.

A blur of silver and black shadowlight twisted into a mass of broken glass and reformed into the shape of a woman. She was naked, tall, with long black hair that clung to her body in the rain. Her figure looked like that of a Native American warrior, honed and sharp. Shadowlight radiated from her eyes, which were cracked through the center. Most of her glow came seeping from those breaks.

She moved before I could react. A blur. She grabbed Peter's wrist mid-strike, twisted it, and flung him aside like a toy. Then she snap-kicked me straight in the stomach. The force launched her off me and sent me tumbling backward across the slick glass.

I flung a card at her mid-fall. She caught it from the air and crushed it like it was nothing.

Then she smiled.

Echo attacked next. Despite saying he was almost out, he moved like he had energy to spare. His first punch was caught with ease in her palm, but then his echo appeared inside her arm. The shockwave shattered bone and flesh in one brutal moment, sending a blast that pushed the rain aside.

Part of her arm clung to Malik's wrist, but he didn't hesitate. He swept in with a horizontal kick, smooth as a capoeira master. As the echo of that kick followed with a concussive wave, he dropped low, trying to undercut her legs.

She flipped over both attacks with ease.

Her broken arm shimmered black as shards of windows' glass flew to her, reattaching like living armor. Then she lunged at Echo.

He leapt back, leaving an echo behind for her to face, but instead she dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding it.

That was when Nick stepped in. Fishbone quills launched in rapid succession from his arm. She blocked the first, then the second, then twisted and sprinted away. She ducked low and vanished into the nearest windowpane.

We all scanned the battlefield, trying to understand what would come next. I was already moving toward Unreflected holding Jason, when something struck me from below and threw me aside. She had appeared right underneath me.

Before I could react, she reached behind and tore Jason from the Unreflected's ribcage. His body hung limp and unconscious as she slung him over her shoulder like a trophy.

She let out a shriek. Sharp. Alien. It sounded like wind tearing through shattered glass.

The distant windowpanes rippled in response.

More Unreflected began to emerge.

And the ones who had survived the fight with the horse-mounted police also howled and began charging toward us.

Without another glance back, she turned and ran. Jason bounced lightly over her shoulder, and the shadowlight trailing from her back lit up the rain like silver fire.

I ran after her without hesitation. My stride quickened, boosted by both the suit and shadowlight. I moved like wind over the glassy surface, each step faster than the last. I would have caught her, If not for the sudden clawed arm that burst from the window I had just stepped on.

It grabbed my ankle, just for a second, but that was all it needed. I lost momentum and fell hard, crashing through the glass. My body strengthened by armor and shadowlight broke the glass and dropped into someone's apartment, and the second I passed the threshold, gravity flipped.

I slammed into the floor, that once was my ceiling. Apparently I was past the middle-point now.

I rolled once, twice, and came to a stop at the feet of a middle-aged pair of Shadows. They were watching a flick on a massive flat-screen. The woman screamed like she'd just seen a demon, the man jumped up and grabbed a wooden stool, ready to strike.

He would have, if the Unreflected hadn't appeared at that very moment, peering in through the shattered window.

If it can be called peering without eyes.

I inhaled, steadying myself. Then I launched forward, ramming into the creature's midsection and pushing it away from the apartment. As we tumbled through the open window, gravity shifted again. We were now pulled toward the skyscraper's outer wall as we spun in midair.

While we tangled, I drove a card straight into its stomach. This one was infused with fire and steel, and I left it there, feeling the heat spread as the card began to boil its insides.

Then I launched off of it, leaping back toward the bitch who had taken my ex-boyfriend.

I landed on the window panes again, my steps steady. I picked up speed, scanning the unfolding chaos through the eyes on Peter's hood.

They were also running toward me.

Nick launched a barrage of fish-bone projectiles at any Unreflected that dared get close.

The heaviest lifting, though, came from Malik. He was farthest back, yet still managed to tear through them. He'd created two echoes of himself, just illusions of him running and when one of the creatures collided with it, its own momentum shattered its form against the immovable wall of shadowlight.

Peter moved fastest of all, steadily closing the distance between himself and what I could only guess was the Shattered.

"You good?" he asked.

That's when I noticed what I saw once before, blue shadowlight leaking from his right eye, a thin streak like mist. More of it coiled along his suit. It wasn't mine. It was blue and watery, vaporlike.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, narrowing my focus on our target. The bitch was still a good quarter mile ahead, moving fast. This building had to be way longer than it looked from the ground. "Peter… you know you're emitting shadowlight, right?"

"I've noticed," he replied, keeping pace. "But this isn't the time to talk about that."

He steadied his breath and surged ahead.

Through the eye on the left side of his hood, I saw two Unreflected gliding inside the windows beside him, swimming like sharks beneath the surface.

"On your left, Pete!" I shouted.

One of them burst from the glass like an orca breaching the ocean, landed on all fours, then snapped around with a clawed arm that stretched far longer than it should have.

Peter was ready. He leapt over the slash and hit the ground running without losing momentum.

I threw two cards at the creature. One infused with fire and steel directly into its body, the other packed with rotors beneath it, meant to launch it off the building's side. It didn't fly off, but the first card hit hard. It shrieked in pain.

That's when Nick got to it.

With increased strength he grabbed it by its grotesque head and smashed it into the steel window frame, dragging it along the ledge until its face was nothing but a smear of black pulp.

Oh Reality, I loved that.

Meanwhile, the second Unreflected tracking Peter moved beneath him, preparing to burst upward. Peter read the moment perfectly and jumped to the next window pane just in time, dodging clean.

Before the creature landed, I met it midair with a steel claw slash across its ribs. It shrieked and turned just in time to see me run past. Then Malik hit it with a jab that carried enough force to shake the air. A moment later, his echo followed, ripping through the thing's side in a burst of violet and gold, tossing rain aside in a stunning cascade of shadowlight.

Zoe was struggling to keep up now. The wind and rain were turning against her, but she fought through it, slicing the air with pure grit.

That's when Peter caught up to the strange woman. He repeated the move he used just minutes before and slammed into her legs like a linebacker, taking her down and smashing the glass in front of her. Jason was thrown forward, tumbling into the apartment beyond.

Peter tried to grab her again, but her body shimmered with silver shadowlight. In the blink of an eye, she shattered into a thousand shards of mirrored glass. He fell through her, cutting himself on the fragments. Then she reformed like liquid steel knitting back together.

I didn't want to wait and see what she'd do next. I dove straight for the apartment where Jason had landed.

But through the eyes on Peter's hood, I saw her glance away from him and focus on me instead. She raised her hands, and they began to glow with that black and silver energy. I stopped immediately, instincts flaring. That move wasn't for show.

Stalactites of jagged glass sprouted from the window frame, wrapped in her shadowlight. If I'd kept going, they'd be in my stomach. I froze just in time.

"You aren't going to take him away from me," she said.

Then another Unreflected burst from the apartment, grabbed Jason, and folded him back into its twisted ribcage.

Peter struck again—driving a jab toward her midsection. She blocked and countered with slashes from claws made of newly-formed glass. Peter weaved between the strikes, dodging with sharp precision and returning blows of his own. Some actually landed, and with force. His muscles surged, every hit backed by something more than just the suit. Her skin cracked like glass under the pressure.

Malik and Nick arrived then, backing him up, their attacks synchronized, seamless. I on the other hand was chasing the Unreflected carrying Jason, sprinting over the building's slick surface.

We were approaching the base of the mirrored city now.

As Peter and the others kept her busy, she suddenly exploded into shards again. The pieces fell into the building's glassy surface, disappearing.

I watched the ground beneath me with intense focus.

Of course, just seconds later, she returned—shooting up through the glass like a spear from the deep. She didn't attack me this time. She flew past with terrifying speed, like an Unreflected that had learned a new trick.

Then she did it like they did, but better.

Bursting out of the mirrored wall like a dolphin breaking through the water, she intercepted the Unreflected, ripped Jason off its back, and kept running. Her form blurred into a streak of silver and black shadowlight, carrying Jason toward the Mirrored City, now just ahead.

More of the Unreflected burst from the window panes and charged at us. There were too many now, more than we could count. I couldn't leave my group behind, not like this. Malik was nearly out of breath. Nick was still fighting with only one hand. Zoe floated above, trying to keep up, but she wasn't built for combat. Only Peter still looked ready, his movements sharp and focused.

I exhaled hard, trying to steady myself.

"It's over," I said. "I'm taking us home."

Malik looked at me, tired and heavy-eyed, then turned to Nick and wrapped an arm around him. He reached out and grabbed me too, nodding once.

But Peter didn't stop. He looked at the incoming tide of Unreflected, his jaw set with quiet rage.

"No," he said, voice low and steady. "It's not."

Then he launched himself forward at full speed, heading straight for the wall of creatures blocking the path to Jason.

"We'll fight them off. You go grab Jason, please!" he shouted, and both Malik and Nick, without any hesitation, moved to join him.

"He's right," Nick said. "We'll kill them."

"Can you even do this?" Zoe flew past my face, the only reasonable voice among us.

"I don't know, Zee," I said, as I looked up. In this place, that meant sideways, and I watched the rain curving toward the creature escaping with Jason.

"Well, wish me luck," I muttered, just before doing something incredibly stupid. It was the only thing that came to mind.

I dropped to one knee, and like a coiled spring, launched myself as high as I could.

I soared into the air, rain slapping against my face, until I passed the line where gravity shifted. I felt it change the moment I moved too far from the building. Soon I was falling, fast and uncontrolled, straight toward the mirrored city below.

I passed the others in a blur. Peter, Malik and Nick were down there, fighting like berserkers in the middle of the horde. But I was already past them, falling like an arrow toward the shining surface.

Then I saw her. She was ahead of me, running along the mirrored wall with Jason slung across her shoulder.

But she was too far.

If I kept going this way, I would miss her or die on impact.

I grabbed my wind rotor cards. Three in each hand. I gripped them tightly.

Become the strongest wind rotors you can possibly be.

The shadowlight responded. Power surged into the cards.

A violent gust erupted from my palms, twisting me wildly. I braced against it and adjusted my hands, forcing the wind to steer my body. I angled myself to push back into the building's gravity field, aiming to intercept her.

Closer now.

I shifted my hands again and hurled myself toward her.

The strange gravity snapped me back in, dragging me with brutal force. I was no longer falling but flying, faster than a human body was meant to.

I aimed my legs at her.

She was right there.

I was going to hit.

But at the last possible moment, she turned and saw me.

Then she shattered.

Not from impact. By her own choice.

Her body broke apart into fragments of glass, scattering through the air. I shot through where she had been, too fast to stop.

I slammed into the glass wall.

I skidded across its surface, hit hard, and tumbled. My head struck the pane. The world spun around me.

I saw pieces of my mask flying into the rain.

And then everything went dark.

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