Darkness swallowed Clyde once more.
But this time, he wasn't floating in a void. He could feel the cold surface beneath him, rough and metallic. A faint hum vibrated through his bones, like the entire world around him was a machine running just beneath the surface.
Then, the voice...
"You weren't supposed to wake up."
Clyde's eyes snapped open. He gasped, sitting up, his breath ragged. The room around him was dimly lit, screens flickering on the walls like restless ghosts. The man—the scientist—was nowhere to be seen. The only company he had was the terminal in front of him, its display flashing erratic strings of code.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE: PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL.
ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED USER DETECTED.
"Unauthorized?" Clyde's fingers twitched. "Then why am I still here?"
Something moved in the shadows.
A flicker. A distortion. Like a glitched-out reflection in a shattered mirror. Clyde froze, his pulse hammering in his ears.
And then... He saw it.
A figure emerging from the darkness.
It wasn't the scientist. It wasn't even human.
It was him.
Or rather, a twisted, corrupted version of him.
His own face stared back at him—except this version of him was wrong. Its skin was covered in static, shifting between different expressions as if it couldn't decide what to be. Its eyes were hollow, filled with endless lines of unreadable code.
"This is impossible," Clyde whispered, stepping back.
The glitching doppelgänger tilted its head. Then, in a voice that sounded like a thousand fragmented whispers layered together, it spoke:
"I am the reset. The rewrite. The true version of you."
Clyde shook his head. "No… No, you're not real. You're just—"
The entity surged forward.
Clyde barely had time to react. A surge of static crackled through the air as the doppelgänger's hand shot toward him. He dodged, barely avoiding the attack, but the energy rippling from the entity burned against his skin.
"This thing… it's part of me… but it's trying to erase me."
He had to move. Now.
Clyde lunged toward the terminal, his fingers flying across the keyboard. He didn't know what he was doing, but his instincts screamed that he had to override the system again—before the entity reached him.
ACCESS DENIED!!!
ACCESS DENIED!!!
ACCESS DENIED!!!
"Come on, come on!" Clyde growled.
The doppelgänger's form flickered closer, its body glitching violently.
Then—
OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.
A surge of light erupted from the terminal.
The doppelgänger let out a distorted, inhuman shriek as its body cracked apart, fragments of glowing data scattering in all directions. The room shook violently, as if the very fabric of reality was being rewritten.
Clyde barely managed to stay on his feet. He shielded his eyes from the blinding light—until, finally, everything went still.
When he opened his eyes, the doppelgänger was gone.
The terminal screen flickered. A single message remained:
"This is only the beginning."
Clyde exhaled sharply. His hands were still shaking. His mind raced with questions.
What had just happened? What was this project really hiding? And most importantly…
If that thing wasn't the real Clyde… then who was he?