What is my purpose? Two thought to herself as she floated in an endless sea of golden light - or was she the light itself? Why was I born?

There was no response.

Where is this place? She thought. Where's Three? Where's Gabrielle?

"Two?" Two!" One shouted her name as he tore a hole in spacetime far above the sea. He dove through it and straight into the ocean of gold. "You're still here," He continued. "Thank the heavens."

"Oh. Hey, One," Two replied. "I'm… something else now. Aren't I?"

"You are. You've got power like you wouldn't believe," One said. "And you're the most powerful Operator that's ever lived. You're not yourself right now but you can be. Trust me, Two! You need to control the power if you want to live!"

In the office which One had just vacated, a glowing doorway appeared.

"Why?" Two asked.

"Because Zero is awake. And she's breaching the simulation."

Zero. The name dropped into Two's consciousness over and over like rain. Isn't that me?

Then the realisation hit, bringing Two back to her senses. The sea of light flared even brighter. "One," Two gasped, "What the fuck did you do?!"

"The only thing I could have done. The simulation was dying. You'd have died too. I'm not letting you die here, damnit!"

"What about you?" Two replied. Her memories were scattering across the sea; her perception of herself fractured and spun away. "Who am I?"

Back in the office, the doorway opened to reveal a glowing red figure behind. It stepped towards the open door; every flammable surface in the office burst aflame.

One reached out and grasped Two's hand. "Remember who you are!" He yelled. "Remember who you are!"

"My name is…" Two began. Her neurons strained to capacity in a last-ditch attempt to save their host. A lone synapse fired; then another, and another, until Two's brain was afire with activity, and the one thing Two needed she remembered.

"My name is Two," she echoed, in a voice that boomed across the golden sea.

The simulation shrieked and twisted in on itself as Two reasserted control; back in the office, One and Three were flung through the doorway. One emitted a shout of fear as the figure he recognised as Zero took a step into the office.

Three started to stir. As they noticed One, they snarled, "What the fuck did you do?!"

"I saved Two's life, you bastard!" One replied. "Don't you see what's in front of you? Run!"

Three sat up and turned towards the glowing red figure. Their face went white. "What- Zero-" Three managed to say before their resolve shattered; they scrambled to their feet then sprinted through the now-charred doorway.

One got to his feet then backed away from Zero. She regarded him with mild curiosity as she advanced on him.

~~~

"Wouldn't you be?" Gabrielle yelled. "If you realised nothing was real? If everything you lived for was a lie? How would that make you feel? Huh?!”

Two blinked. I'm back here, she thought. I… I reversed time. No. More than that. I was dead. The simulation was destroyed. I reversed entropy. This is my second chance.

The air around Gabrielle took on a strange quality.

No, Two thought. Don't fight her this time. She reached out to Gabrielle with her mind and, as gently as she could, calmed the storm of rage within the woman.

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Two's eyes shone gold; both her and Gabrielle were transported across spacetime in an instant. They hovered above an ocean out of which a group of curious dolphins watched.

"Does it matter?" Two said, so quietly that Gabrielle barely caught the words. "Gabrielle, does it matter whether you're real or not?"

Am I real anymore? Two thought. What am I?

"...what?" the human replied, discombobulated. She glanced nervously down at the sea before meeting Two's eyes once more.

Two knew everything about Gabrielle. Two was the simulation; Two knew everything that would ever be known. But Two, at the core of her newly-divine being, was the same she had always been.

"You're here, right?" Two said to Gabrielle. "You're breathing. You're alive. You've suffered. It doesn't matter who or what created you. Your suffering was real to you." Two's eyes shone gold again, and then both Operator-turned-divinity and human-turned-Operator were orbiting a sun collapsing in on itself.

"It doesn't matter how big or small you are compared to the rest of the universe," Two intoned, her eyes as bright and sad as the dying sun beneath. "What you went through was awful. To you, it was the universe. That’s what matters."

Everything matters, Two thought. I have to keep her safe. Keep this place safe. Keep myself safe from what I’ve become.

Gabrielle stared at Two, eyes wide in shock, before looking down at the spectacle below her. "You… you're not trying to delete me?" She asked.

"No. Of course not," Two replied. The landscape around them changed again; this time, both hovered far above Earth itself. "You're different from other humans. That's true. It doesn't mean you're broken or insane or whatever. You were born with something that other humans don't understand. That's all."

Gabrielle tentatively raised a hand, and then the pair of them were standing on a snowy mountaintop. "Different," she echoed. "I can change things. Just like you."

"Yeah." Two smiled. Well, she thought, you're like what I used to be. "Three told you one true thing: you're the first human to know you're in a simulation. I won't tell you what to do with that knowledge, but I don't think you'd be happy if you tore this place apart." Two rotated her arm to show the jagged scar persisting from palm to shoulder. "That's what Three did to me. Just before they egged you on. Conclude from that what you will."

Tears formed in Gabrielle's eyes as realisation dawned on her. "I just wanted someone to believe me. I just wanted someone to care."

"I believe you," Two replied. "And I care. You've done nothing wrong in reacting how you did."

With that, Gabrielle stepped forwards and embraced Two in a smothering hug. Eventually Two drew back.

"Come with me," Two said. "If you want to. I can't guarantee you'll be happy. But you might find some answers."

~~~

One held back pure terror as Zero walked towards him. He felt his back hit a wall; he could move no further away.

Then out of the golden doorway stepped two figures. One was human; the other, radiating golden light, was something far more. The figure radiating light blinked across the room to where Zero was standing and placed a hand on her shoulder; then Zero simply vanished, as if she had never existed at all.

The golden light dissipated to reveal One's oldest friend.

One nearly fainted on the spot. "Two! How- you- what did you do?"

"Zero’s gone now," Two replied. "Only I remain. It's like you said, One. I'm the most powerful Operator to ever exist. But I've become more than that since I took Zero's power. Something far greater."

One was awed into silence.

"I breached the simulation," Two continued. "And I'll breach this one too."

One blinked. "We're… in a simulation."

"'fraid so," Two replied.

"So you're as real as I am," Gabrielle added. "Weird to hear, isn’t it?"

Two looked up towards the charred office ceiling. "There's layers upon layers of simulations,” she said. “I plan to breach every single one 'till I find the one that started it all. And then we'll know who Zero really was. And who started this cycle. Come with us, One. There's nothing left for us here. Not anymore."

"I'd listen to her," Gabrielle piped up. "You can trust what she's saying." She walked across the destroyed office then leaned against the burned doorframe. "I'm still angry,” she continued, “but not at you lot. We need to find whoever started all this so I can take it out on them instead."

"You're-" One began, barely registering Gabrielle's presence. "You're still Two… right?"

"Of course," Two replied. She broke out into a smile. "I'm breaking every goddamn fucking rule ever made. Just like you told me to. So let's go break some more." She offered a hand out to One then pulled him into a tight embrace.

One grinned. It's her, he thought. It's still her. I succeeded. "What rule do we break next?" He asked into her shoulder.

To this, the first doorway disappeared, and a new one lined in gold appeared in front of One.

"The one where we're not allowed to leave," Two replied.

As the trio walked towards the doorway, Two spared one last glance at the universe that was once her home.

Who were you really, Zero? She thought to herself. And why did you hide yourself here?

The doorway vanished as the last of the trio stepped through. Left behind them was a shattered office in which a single holo-display had been left intact. The same phrase was displayed across it, over and over and over:

BREACH.

BREACH.

BREACH.

BREACH.