I had to hold the blade with both hands as power beyond measure crashed into it. It was as if the very universe had ripped asunder: light bloomed, darkness heaved, and a deafening wrongness ripped outward, only to be sucked back into the cold dagger, which gained a sudden, densely packed weight.

Soul-severed, the thing that had worn the body of a man collapsed lifeless to the floor, the huge gun he carried chipping the concrete as it landed heavily beside him. I looked up at my double-self, who stood only a few feet away, seeing sweat glisten on her forehead just as I felt on my own skin. She lurched forward, and I mirrored the move. Where our hands touched we merged, flesh rippling at the joining. As she slipped within me, I took her dagger, noting that it had the same strange heft as mine.

And then I was whole, and I gasped, the feeling of completeness engulfing. I took a moment to center my thoughts, my mind, my body, turning what seconds before had been two awarenesses, into one.

Stolen story; please report.

The building lurched, and I was tossed to the right. Three quick steps saw me through the window, and there I hovered, watching as the structure came crashing down.

Shots whistled around me, and I dove through the air, wings of energy unfolding from my back so that I might steer. I snapped into an alley, narrowly missing another volley. The daggers were slowing me. I twisted right and left, but it was no good, their newfound heaviness pulled me in all the wrong directions.

Before I could compensate, a round of fire punctured my wing, sending me spinning, and then a large weight slammed into my back, driving me down.

I hit the uneven ground hard, knocking the wind from me and nearly breaking my bones. Something sharp punched through my spine and I screamed, both from the pain and because it was pinning me to the ground. I twisted, hands clamped around my weapons but unable to strike from where I lay. I felt something equally sharp part my hair, tickling my skull—

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