Chapter 8:

Chapter VIII: Eclipse

ÆnigmaVerse (ACT I)

Unknown Location, Unknown Time.

Fire, ashes, and smoke choke the air, suffocating vision and breath alike. Collapsed buildings loom under a bruised sky. Holograms that once sold dreams now flicker with distorted, broken light over overturned cars littering ruined streets.

Somewhere beneath the wreckage, a woman hovers between consciousness and oblivion—trapped in the fog of pain, held back only by faint, panicked voices echoing in the void.

“Remy! Help me get her into our car!” a woman orders.

“Okay! But... oh god, that looks bad. Will she be okay?” the man responds, voice tight with fear.

“No internal bleeding. Fractured arm, cracked ribs, and a concussion—that’s what’s keeping her unconscious. We just need a hospital.”

“Where? How? The city’s in chaos. Under quarantine. Hospitals might be crawling with those... THINGS! I say we leave her and find a way out!”

“That’s exactly what we’re doing. Look at her badge—it’s a NIX Administrator insignia. She’s our ticket out. But not like this. Think, Remy!”

Suddenly, a third voice interrupts—calm, clinical.

“Excuse me, do you need a doctor?”

Bartholomew Buchanan steps into view, eyes narrowing as he sees the unconscious woman.

“...Eva?”

And then, the world fades to black.

Alice gazes at a giant art poster hanging on the cracked wall of the rendezvous building. It proclaims:

“Gazing Into Tomorrow by Gerald Morgan—The Greatest Masterpiece of the 23rd Century!”

The image shows people looking out toward distant stars and nebulae.

“What are you thinking?” Schrödinger asks, his infernal frame mirroring her contemplative stance.

“The colours are vibrant but hollow,” Alice replies coldly. “They're trying too hard to evoke something—anything—from the viewer. The people aren't gazing at the stars with wonder. They’re posing. Like they stepped out of a fashion spread.”

She sighs.

“Let’s just hope the artist lacks imagination, not emotion. If it’s the other way around... well, that’s a tougher problem to solve.”

She walks away, disinterested. Schrödinger gives the art one last glance before following.

They climb a mountain of rubble. In the distance, the mirror-world floats above: a labyrinthine city suspended in darkness, glowing faintly like a constellation viewed from orbit. Below them, the late sun casts a 45-degree light—two realities moving in perfect sync. A two-way mirror. Both artificial. Both real.

Alice frames her fingers like a camera, winks one eye shut, and “snaps” a photo. A glowing polaroid manifests between her fingers—alive. She hands it to Schrödinger and captures more.

“What is this?” he asks, confused.

“Our first time outside since we were trapped in the box,” Alice replies. “Might as well collect bright moments in this dull place. I want it to last.”

The demon stares at the living images, unsure whether to call her mad or brilliant. He stores them inside his incorporeal self.

Suddenly, they freeze. A hooded figure appears a few feet away—face hidden behind a mechanical mask. The lips glow red, serpentine, mocking.

Alice’s body seems relaxed, but her feet are ready to spring.

“I didn’t sense them until now. How did they do that?” she asks Schrödinger telepathically.

“Likely a NIX countermeasure. Remember, they can only see you. I’m invisible.”

“Before they learn what I’m capable of, I need to—”

“Eliminate them,” Schrödinger offers.

“No... they’re too dangerous,” Alice whispers. And then, she bolts.

The stranger gives chase.

Alice sprints across fractured ground. She spots a skateboard—likely left behind by a student. Grabbing it mid-run, she kicks off and soars down the slanted facade of a broken building. Her pursuer stays close, gaining.

She weaves between debris, dodging rubble and twisted beams.

Ahead: a gaping hole. Alice narrows her eyes, pivots sharply, and flips the board in a backflip. The skateboard slams into the masked stranger’s face, momentarily dazing them, and launches Alice through the gap.

She crashes through desks, furniture, and broken walls—alerting dormant creatures now stirred by the commotion.

More enemies. More problems.

She grabs a steel rod and continues boarding, using it as a vault pole to leap down a corridor. The stranger is on her tail—now running on all fours, swiping through walls, tearing through monsters just to catch her.

“Creepy little stalker,” Alice mutters.

She crashes through a window, lands in reverse on another slanted rooftop, skating backward. Her eyes scan the surroundings.

A flash of recognition. Five blocks away, she spots an SUV—Bartholomew inside, tending to a woman in the backseat. The vehicle approaches a junction near her location.

She flips the skateboard around and accelerates.

Behind her, the stranger closes in.

Alice pulls out the SDN prototype from her pocket, types a few commands, and tosses the badge behind her.

“Better luck next time, Creepy,” she says with a smirk.

The badge beeps.

She vanishes just as the masked stranger leaps. The badge detonates on contact. The building collapses—imploding into nothingness.

***

The map of the city hadn’t changed—yet the roads bent now like overgrown vines, twisting into curves and makeshift bridges. Eva had regained consciousness from a combination of concussion and severe fatigue. Bartholomew had finished tending to her wounds, his expression grim.

“You’re unfit for any physical combat duties for at least a week,” Bart concluded. “Even with the Medibots Regeneration Bandage, you’ve overexerted yourself. You need rest to adapt with time.”

Eva clenched her jaw in frustration but nodded in reluctant agreement.

“So... you both are NIX Administrators?” Ramona interjected.

“Correct,” Bart confirmed. “I’m Administrator of the Medical Sector. Eva’s the Administrator of Intelligence.”

“Sweet! Jackpot!” Remy thought to himself, barely hiding his excitement.

“How many Administrators does NIX have?” Ramona asked.

“Seven. Research, Medical, Security, Intelligence, Military, Treasury, and... Administration.”

“Administration?” she echoed, puzzled.

“The Administrator who oversees all the other Administrators,” Bart clarified, his tone carrying subtle weight.

Suddenly, an explosion erupted at the building where Bart had arranged to meet his friend. Before anyone could react, Eva activated her Aether Gizmo, a sleek, swirling holographic device shaped like an atom, projecting interface menus mid-air. She tried connecting to Tetsuo, Lucy, Newt... and Sasha.

“WOAH!” Ramona gawked.

“HOLY SH!T! WHAT IS THAT?!” Remy screamed.

Startled by his shout, Eva snapped, “Eyes on the road!”

Remy turned back just in time to see a woman standing calmly in the middle of the street—expression unreadable, yet piercingly disappointed. The SUV barreled toward her at 78 mph. But just before impact, something surreal happened.

Suddenly, the woman was in the driver's seat. Remy now sat in the passenger's seat.

Everyone froze.

“ALICE!” Bart gasped, his breath caught in his throat.

Alice gave a casual shrug, her voice soft but deliberate.

“Yo. Sorry for scaring you. Didn’t plan on being roadkill today.”

“That was close,” Schrödinger’s voice echoed in Alice’s mind, dripping with dry sarcasm. “Let’s recap, shall we? Escaping from the assassin. Daredevil building-surfing. Nearly eaten by Voids. Seat-hopping teleportation trick. You're definitely... evolved, but still clumsy as ever. You nearly gave me a non-existent heart attack.”

In the driver’s side mirror, Schrödinger’s eerie eyes gleamed, observing Alice’s faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

“Your heart is intangible,” she replied in her thoughts.

Did... something go wrong at the rendezvous?” Bart asked, still trying to calm his heartbeat.

“Let’s call it... an admirer. One I didn’t invite. Plus a few overly eager ‘paparazzi’ dying for a piece of me. Handled it,” Alice replied dryly.

“How the hell did you teleport into the car and swap seats with me?” Remy finally burst.

Alice only smirked.

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” she teased. “But here’s a riddle for your troubles:

‘I vanish in an instant, yet time bends to my will,
In a blink, I travel far, though I seem to stand still.
I’m here and I’m there, in a moment I’m gone,
Yet never in two places, but always moving on.’”

Remy blinked. “Okay. So... you teleported. Sounds like one of those freaks.”

Alice’s expression turned cold—daggers in her eyes.

Bart interjected quickly, piecing it together.

“You used the SDN Equipment I brought. But... how did you move someone else?! That shouldn’t be possible.”

“You're right. It shouldn’t,” Alice said. “But it worked. Just once. After that, the device disintegrated.”

Eva’s mind raced. “The prototype malfunctioned in her hands, but instead of killing her—it obeyed. Rewrote the laws.”

“What’s SDN Equipment?” Ramona asked.

Eva tapped on her Aether Gizmo. A holographic display projected the specs: Spatial Distortion Navigation Equipment, a revolutionary teleportation system allowing for non-linear displacement across four-dimensional space.

Remy and Ramona sat slack-jawed.

Alice, meanwhile, thought privately: I switched the faulty one with Bart’s. Lucky for me, it didn’t vaporize me... just reality-bent a bit.

“You’re so thoughtful,” Schrödinger chuckled inside her mind.

“I call it careful,” Alice replied.

“What do you mean ‘those freaks’?” Eva snapped.

Remy looked uneasy. “There have been sightings... people doing things that don’t make sense. At first, it was conspiracy theories. Now? It’s chaos. Entities are everywhere. And—sorry, but—Alice’s eyes freak me out.”

Alice turned to face him fully. Her once-bored eyes now glowed unnaturally—iridescent, shifting. Schrödinger’s own gaze reflected in them like fractals.

“You look like Sailor Moon turned man-eater,” Remy muttered.

“Good,” Alice deadpanned.

Remy recoiled, terrified. He quickly changed the subject and pulled out a 14.6-inch tablet. The group watched nightmarish footage: massive entities laying waste to Manhattan—buildings crumbling, people vanishing in flashes of light, Voids consuming all.

“Voids,” Eva whispered.

“You know what they are?” Ramona asked.

“It’s our job to kill them,” Eva answered, her voice low.

“Great job with that,” Remy said bitterly.

Breaking the tension, Alice asked abruptly, “I want everyone to answer at the same time. What year is it?”

“What?” Ramona frowned.

Alice’s voice sharpened. “Answer. Now.”

The car fell silent.

They all answered:

“2023,” said Remy and Ramona.

“2203,” said Bart and Eva.

Confusion rippled through the car.