Vera looked at her doppelganger standing in front of her in the lightless void. She looked identical to herself, save for an exhausted and worried expression that told of lament. Before Vera could say anything, the doppelganger did.

  “There’s no need to make everything so complicated. Arden said that the longer he was here, the more anomalies would show up. I’m one of them.”

  ‘It wasn’t Arden that said that,’ Vera thought. ‘It was his doppelganger. Judging by her words, she is connected to that Arden.’

  “The longer he and I stay here in your reality, the worse off it will be.”

  “Why are you here?” Vera asked. “The other Arden claimed that he watched his world end, and that he was the sole survivor. What does that make you then?”

  “It’d be best to see me as a spirit, I guess. I don’t have a physical body. Only you can interact with me, and you are the only one I can interact with.”

  “That’s why you’ve only talked to me. You haven't done anything more because you can't.”

  “Right.”

  “What is it you want here?” Vera asked. “Other-Arden is only here for my Arden’s weird power. And without a physical body, I doubt you’d be able to take it.”

  Other-Vera nodded.

  “The Legacy of Eternity is a godly treasure, no doubt. But it is only the vestiges of a waning entity. It’s sealed. I don’t want it, and neither does my Arden anymore. Even if it was somehow restored, I wouldn’t want it. I want what you want: To protect Arden.”

  Vera’s eyes narrowed.

  “My Arden or your Arden?”

  “Both. It was a mistake to drag this world into our mess. You, your Arden, and the rest of the people here shouldn’t have ever crossed paths with us. The only way to make things right is to make it so there is no more paradox.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My Arden exists in the same timeline as your Arden right now. Fundamentally, they are the exact same being. But the world cannot handle that. It’s paradoxical. It goes against the flow of reality and causality.”

  “But now you’re here too,” Vera said. “We’re in the same boat.”

  “Exactly. The flow of causality has already been disrupted. Celestials traveling here through stargates can weaken reality, sure. And the Blight preventing people from awakening cracks it a little too, but nothing shatters existence like a paradox.”

  “Wait, how do Celestials and the Blight play into this whole thing?”

  “I can’t tell you that. If that knowledge came from me, it would be paradoxical in and of itself as it came from an impossible being.”

  There was a moment of silence and Vera’s stomach started glowing green, the unmistakable hue of life energy. Other-Vera continued, speaking at a faster clip than before.

  “We don’t have much time. The paradox must be resolved. If it isn’t, reality itself will break. Remember this: Only one of each of us can exist at any given time. The world has already initiated some corrective measures to make sure only one Arden can survive. Unfortunately, something else has also made its move making things much harder.”

  Vera ignored the mention of the corrective measures and the something else. Knowing how to resolve the paradox came first.

  “Then how do I get rid of you?” she asked. “This whole operation will be useless if doomsday arrives because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the ghost.”

  “When the time comes, you’ll know.”

  “Give me something concrete, please. I hate it when things are left purposefully vague.”

  Before Vera got a response, Other-Vera disappeared. The void fell apart, and Vera was stirred from unconsciousness.

  *****

  Vera lurched forward in her hospital bed and gasped for breath. Cold sweat ran down her face as she recalled the conversation with her other self. She hoped it was just a strange dream brought on by hanging around strange people, but a notification from her Status said otherwise.

  Paradox in progress.

  With a thought, she dismissed the message, along with the Status. This was something she needed to tell Arden and Sya. Thankfully, it wouldn’t take long to find them.

  She looked around the infirmary she was in and saw Sya sleeping in a chair against the wall. Arden had pulled up a chair next to her bed and was sitting in it with his upper body resting on the bed next to Vera’s legs.

  Vera smiled. Affection was an emotion that was unfamiliar to her, having been raised as what was essentially a child soldier. It warmed her heart to know that there were people who cared about her to this extent.

  “I knew you could do it,” she said quietly.

  Arden stirred in his slumber hearing the familiar voice. It only took a few seconds for lucidity to fully return to him. The first thing he did when he was fully conscious was wrap his arms around her. He buried his face into her shoulder for a few moments before breaking away.

  “Sorry,” Arden said, with a light blush. “I was just really happy to see you awake.”

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  “I could tell,” she said with a smile.

  The smile fell from Arden’s face. Vera wondered what happened to him when he spoke again.

  “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that you ended up like this.”

  “Don’t worry about it. People get hurt in a fight. If you swing a sword, you have to expect that someone will cut you as well.”

  Vera rubbed her stomach where she was cut. It was a little sensitive but was otherwise fine.

  “I just didn’t expect it to be with my own sword,” she continued. “But it is undeniable that you made an awful mistake during the fight. Going all in like that shouldn't be done unless you are a tank. And Arden, you are definitely not a tank.”

  Arden nodded. Just like when Sya told him off, Vera was also correct. She continued.

  “Actually, this brings me to something I wanted to talk to you about since the Mausoleum.”

  Vera looked hesitant to bring the topic up. But she decided that it needed to be said.

  “What is it?” Arden asked.

  “I want to talk about your fighting style. At first I thought you were just a fast learner and a good fighter. And you are, don't get me wrong, but when I saw you fight with me against all of those skeletons, I realized why you are. And honestly, I'd be lying if I said it didn't worry me.”

  Arden waited for Vera’s next words.

  “Your healing power. It's as much a curse as it is a blessing. Your ability heals you whenever you get hurt. Because of that, you developed a way of fighting that is a double edged sword. It is extremely effective but also very dangerous. You fight without fear of pain, or even fear of death. That makes you incredibly lethal, but you have to remember that you aren't built for this yet. You're still just mundane. If a fight goes wrong for you, it's over. You have no second chances.”

  “I understand what you're saying,” Arden said. “It's a crutch. I rely too heavily on it.”

  “Right. Would you have done the same thing against Frozhe if you didn't have the healing power?”

  Arden shook his head.

  “No. I would have played it safe.”

  “The worst thing that a fighter can do is become arrogant. That power is making you do so.”

  “Do you want me to stop using the power?”

  Vera shook her head.

  “No. It's part of you. I just want you to be more careful. Don't rely on it in a fight. Rely on your skill, not your power. That's the mark of a great Starborn, remember? The powers always mattered less than the skill of the one wielding the powers. The troubling thing about this power in particular is that we don't know what it actually is. If you were to lose it somehow, you'd be dead in the water if you continued to rely on it like you did today.”

  “Yesterday,” Arden corrected.

  “Yesterday. Anyway, that's what I needed to tell you. Just be careful. You and Sya are the only people who I love. I don't want to lose you guys.”

  There was an uncomfortably long silence in the infirmary after she said those words. Eventually, Arden found the words to continue their conversation.

  “I don't want to lose you either. I also don't want to leave. In only a few weeks you've already become someone we can't live without.”

  For the first time, Arden saw Vera blush. He blushed as he said the words himself, but his heart was immediately put at ease seeing her normally clear face go red.

  ‘So even gods bleed…interesting.’

  There was another, albeit shorter period of silence between the pair of mundanes. This time, Vera was the one to break it while not meeting Arden’s gaze.

  “So it's been a day? What’s happened since you beat Frozhe. Was he locked up in our place?”

  “...Not exactly. He didn’t make it that far.”

  Vera instantly knew what he meant by that. It wasn’t very subtle, and it was something that a solid chunk of Starborn had to come to terms with at some point.

  She was no exception.

  “Are you alright?” she gently asked. “I know it's a hard thing for most people to come to terms with.”

  Arden leaned back in his chair and looked up with a calm expression on his face. It looked almost contemplative.

  “I…don’t really feel anything despite being the one to do it. It was, I don't know. Easy? I don’t feel guilty at all. That worries me more than actually having killed the guy. It was so simple. I’m scared that it will become routine to me.”

  Vera shared that same fear. When she was trained by her family, she was told how to kill with merciless efficiency. By the time she completed the deed, she was horrified. Not because she killed someone, but because of how easy it was, and how nonchalant her family was about it.

  “Remember what I said when I taught you about golden stargate?” Vera asked, after a slight pause. “I said that you have to do whatever it takes to survive. What happened was just an extension of that. You wanted to keep me alive so you killed the person who put my life in danger. Killing is an ugly thing, but you went through with it to save a life. So no matter what anyone says, what you did was a noble act.”

  Arden didn’t know how to respond to that. Murdering people was hard to justify, and was something that he wanted to avoid. Justification made it easier to repeat the act in the future.

  Still, he couldn't deny that it was a necessary act to protect Vera.

  “You’re not a bad person, Arden. If you were, you wouldn’t be worrying about this. It's easy for Starborn to become heartless as they grow stronger. They become numb to the killing after a while. The best Starborn are the ones that retain their humanity. They don’t stray away from killing when they have to, but they don’t let it define them.”

  “Seems there are a lot of qualifications to be one of the best Starborn.”

  “It’s a hard job, but it's rewarding. From everything that I’ve seen and learned, it is the best job in the world the vast majority of the time. Exploring cool places, fighting monsters, saving people, using superpowers. But there will always be the times where you realize it isn't all fun and games. I imagine the Starborn helping out with the cascade are learning that as we speak.”

  “I hope so,” Arden said. “I hope they learn from this and come back stronger. Hell, I hope they come back at all.”

  “What? What does that mean?”

  Arden sighed.

  “There were forty Starborn stationed here before. One of them is dead now. Two of them are holding down the fort. The rest of them disappeared.”

  “Were they killed?”

  Arden shook his head.

  “Cirai and Podren doubt it. The Starborn with the Association have something to monitor vital signs from home base. The weird thing is, the missing Starborn aren’t being displayed as dead or alive. For all intents and purposes, they're just gone. It’s the five of us against the world now.”

  “Against the world…” Vera repeated. Her expression hardened and she continued. “Wake Sya. I need to tell you two something.”

  “Should I get Cirai and Podren as well?”

  “Do they know about your evil twin?”

  “No.”

  “Then leave them. This is between us now.”

  “What is?”

  Vera showed her Status to Arden. He gasped when he saw the familiar message.

  “You’re not the only one with a doppelganger anymore.”