The words settled between them like a slow-moving disaster.
You found out what I really was.
Luna stared at Ethan, unable to breathe properly for a moment. Around them, the archive continued shaking with alarms and distant chaos, but none of it felt real anymore.
Only him.
Only that sentence.
"What does that mean?" she whispered.
Ethan didn't answer immediately.
And somehow—
That silence frightened her more than anything else tonight.
Gunshots echoed again somewhere deeper in the building. Closer now.
But neither of them moved.
Luna stepped toward him slowly, her chest tightening with every second. "Ethan."
His eyes finally lifted to hers.
Tired.
Guarded.
And for the first time since she met him—
Afraid.
Not for himself.
For what she would think of him after this.
"I wasn't supposed to meet you," he said quietly.
Luna frowned slightly, confused.
"What?"
"That night ten years ago wasn't random." His voice stayed calm, but she could hear the strain beneath it now. "Neither was the contract."
The air left her lungs slowly.
Another fragment flashed through her mind.
A file stamped CONFIDENTIAL.
Ethan's name underneath.
Her younger self reading it with trembling hands.
"You lied to me…"
Luna grabbed the side of the desk sharply as pain spread through her head again.
Ethan noticed instantly. "Luna—"
"You were watching me."
Not a question.
A realization.
Silence confirmed it.
Something inside her cracked quietly.
"How long?" she asked softly.
Ethan's jaw tightened. "From the beginning."
"That's not possible."
"It is."
The hidden room suddenly felt too small.
Too suffocating.
Luna stepped back from him instinctively.
"You knew who I was before the contract?"
"Yes."
"And you still acted like we were strangers?"
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
"I needed you safe."
"That's not an answer!"
Her voice echoed sharply against the walls.
Emotion finally broke through the fear.
Anger.
Real anger.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
Ethan looked at her for a long moment before speaking.
"…I worked for the organization chasing the drive."
Silence exploded.
Luna felt her heartbeat stop completely.
No.
No, that couldn't—
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
Another memory slammed violently into her mind.
Dark suits.
Hidden meetings.
A symbol on a black screen.
The same crescent mark.
And Ethan standing beside it.
Cold.
Untouchable.
Watching her.
Luna staggered backward.
"You were one of them…"
Ethan didn't deny it.
Her stomach twisted painfully.
All this time—
The danger.
The secrets.
The fear.
He had been connected to all of it from the very beginning.
"Then why help me?" she whispered.
Ethan's expression shifted slightly then.
Softer.
More human.
"Because I was supposed to use you."
That hurt more than she expected.
But before she could react, he continued.
"And I couldn't."
Silence.
Luna's chest tightened painfully again.
Because the way he said it—
The regret in his voice—
Felt real.
Too real.
"I was assigned to monitor you after you found the drive," he explained quietly. "At first, I thought you were just another witness."
Another flash hit her instantly.
Ethan standing outside a café years ago.
Watching her through the window.
Noticing her before she noticed him.
"You approached me on purpose…"
"Yes."
"And the relationship?"
Ethan looked away again.
"That part wasn't supposed to happen."
The honesty in his voice nearly broke her.
Because she believed him.
That was the worst part.
Even now—
Even after learning all of this—
Part of her still trusted him.
And she hated herself for it.
"You lied to me for ten years," she whispered.
"I protected you for ten years."
"That doesn't erase it!"
"No," Ethan said quietly. "It doesn't."
The hidden room fell silent again.
Luna looked at the wall covered in photos and notes.
SUBJECT TWO ACTIVE.
DO NOT TRUST HIM.
Now the message made horrifying sense.
The other version of herself—
The fearless one—
Had known the truth before she forgot everything.
And she had tried warning her.
Luna wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
"So she wasn't protecting me from danger," she whispered.
Her eyes slowly lifted toward Ethan.
"She was protecting me from you."
That line hit him visibly.
But he didn't argue.
Because he couldn't.
Before Luna could speak again, the lights flickered violently overhead.
Then footsteps echoed directly outside the hidden room.
Fast.
Multiple people.
Ethan's expression changed instantly.
"We're out of time."
Luna didn't move.
Not this time.
"How much of this was real?"
Her voice broke slightly now.
"The contract?"
Silence.
"You caring about me?"
Ethan looked at her immediately.
And whatever emotion existed in his eyes this time—
It wasn't fake.
"Luna," he said quietly, "you were the only real thing in my life."
That answer hurt more than a lie would have.
Because she could hear the truth in it.
And right now—
She didn't know whether she wanted to believe him or not.
The footsteps outside stopped abruptly.
Then—
A familiar female voice echoed through the doorway again.
"Touching."
Luna froze instantly.
The other her.
Ethan's posture hardened immediately.
The woman continued calmly from outside the room.
"But this is why I told you not to trust him."
The hidden door slowly slid open.
And for the first time—
Luna saw her clearly.
It felt like staring into a mirror.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same voice.
But colder.
Sharper.
Dangerously calm.
The woman leaned casually against the doorway, dressed completely in black. A gun rested loosely in her hand like she'd held one a thousand times before.
Luna couldn't breathe.
Because it wasn't just similarity anymore.
It was her.
"Impossible…" Luna whispered.
The woman smiled faintly.
"No," she replied softly.
"Just forgotten."
Ethan stepped protectively in front of Luna instantly. "Stay back."
The woman laughed quietly.
"That's cute coming from you."
Her eyes shifted toward Luna again.
And suddenly—
The softness disappeared completely.
"You need to decide now," she said.
"Before they get here."
Luna's pulse pounded violently.
"Decide what?"
The woman's gaze flickered briefly toward Ethan.
Then back to her.
"Which one of us you're going to believe."