The Real Master

The Real Master

Maya's POV

I tackled Dante just as the helicopter opened fire.
Bullets tore through the air where his head had been a second before.
"Stay down!" I shouted to everyone.
But there was nowhere to hide on the destroyed rooftop.
The helicopters circled us like angry wasps.
Six of them.
All black.
All unmarked.
All shooting at us.
"Who are they?" Marcus yelled over the noise.
"Whoever's been controlling everything!" I yelled back.
"I thought you freed us from that!"
"I freed us from the programming! I didn't free us from the people who made the programming!"
A rope dropped from one of the helicopters.
Someone slid down it fast.
A man in military gear.
But when he took off his helmet, I gasped.
It was Vincent Chen.
My fake father.
The man who had died in my arms.
"Miss me, sweetheart?" he said with a smile.
"You're dead!" I screamed.
"Death is just another form of programming, Maya. And I've been upgraded."
More ropes dropped.
More soldiers slid down.
All of them looked familiar.
All of them should have been dead.
Tommy Ricci, the traitor I had let escape.
The FBI agents I had shot.
The mercenaries who died in the building explosion.
All of them alive.
All of them smiling.
All of them wrong.
"How?" I whispered.
"The same way we made you," Vincent said. "The same way we made your clones. The same way we made everything you've ever known."
"What do you mean?"
"Maya, nothing in your life has ever been real. Not the coffee shop where you worked. Not the apartment where you lived. Not the college you attended."
"That's impossible."
"Is it? Think about it. When was the last time you talked to someone who wasn't part of the program?"
I tried to remember.
A classmate. A coworker. A neighbor.
Anyone.
But I couldn't.
Everyone I had ever met was connected to this somehow.
"Even my fake memories are fake," I said.
"Even your fake memories are fake," Vincent agreed.
The twenty-three Maya clones were getting to their feet.
The master control device had freed them from the voice, but they were still confused.
Still lost.
"Sisters," Maya One said to them. "We need to work together."
"Work together for what?" one of them asked.
"To survive."
"Survive what?"
Vincent laughed.
"You can't survive this. None of you can."
"Why not?"
"Because you're not real people. You're products. And when products malfunction, they get recalled."
He raised his hand.
All the soldiers raised their weapons.
"Any last words?"
That's when Dr. Reyes did something unexpected.
She stood up.
"Wait," she said to Vincent.
"Dr. Reyes. I was wondering when you'd speak up."
"I created them. All of them. You can't just destroy them."
"Can't I?"
"They're my life's work."
"Your life's work is over."
"Says who?"
Vincent smiled.
"Says the person who's been funding your research for the past twenty years."
"Who?"
"Someone you know very well."
Another helicopter landed.
The door opened.
And Agent Chen stepped out.
But it wasn't the Agent Chen I knew.
This one was different.
Colder.
Harder.
More dangerous.
"Hello, Mother," she said to Dr. Reyes.
"Sarah? But you're on our side!"
"Am I?"
"You helped us! You saved Maya!"
"I helped you because it served my purpose. I saved Maya because I needed her functional for this moment."
I stared at Agent Chen.
At the woman who had claimed to be my mother.
"You're the real master."
"I'm the real Sarah Volkov."
"But you're supposed to be dead."
"I was dead. For about ten minutes. Then they brought me back."
"Who brought you back?"
"The same people who've been running this program from the beginning. The same people who hired my mother to create weapons. The same people who control everything."
"Who are they?"
Agent Chen smiled.
"They're you, Maya. And you, and you, and you."
She pointed at all the Maya clones.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the organization that's been controlling everything is run by Mayas. Future Mayas. Mayas from timelines where the program succeeded."
My head started spinning.
"That's impossible."
"Is it? You've seen what the programming can do. You've seen how it can change people. You've seen how it can control reality."
"But time travel—"
"Isn't time travel. It's timeline management. The ability to send information backwards and forwards between different versions of reality."
"Different versions?"
"Maya, there are thousands of timelines where this program happened. In most of them, the Mayas became perfect weapons and took over the world."
"And this timeline?"
"This timeline was supposed to be the same. But you broke the programming. You chose love over control. You ruined everything."
"Good."
"No, Maya. Not good. Because when the future Mayas find out what happened here, they're going to erase this entire timeline."
"What does that mean?"
"It means everyone you've ever met will cease to exist. Everyone you've ever cared about will never have been born. Everything you've ever done will be undone."
I looked at Dante, Marcus, Luca, and Adrian.
They were staring at Agent Chen with horror.
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"About five minutes."
"How do you know?"
Agent Chen held up a device that looked like a countdown timer.
But instead of counting down to zero, it was counting down to something else.
Timeline Erasure: 04:47
04:46
04:45
"How do we stop it?"
"You can't stop it. But you can escape it."
"How?"
"By jumping to a different timeline. One where the program never happened."
"Is that possible?"
"With the right equipment, yes."
"What equipment?"
Agent Chen pointed at the master control device in my hand.
"That. But it only works once. And it can only take five people."
I looked around.
At the four heirs I loved.
At Dr. Reyes, who had created me but was trying to make amends.
At Isabella, who just wanted her son back.
At the twenty-three Maya clones, who deserved a chance at real life.
At Agent Chen, who had lied to me but might be telling the truth now.
"Five people," I said.
"Five people."
"And everyone else dies?"
"Everyone else never existed in the first place."
The timer kept counting down.
03:22
03:21
03:20
"Maya," Dante said quietly. "You have to choose."
"I know."
"Choose us," Marcus said. "Choose the people who love you."
"Choose your family," Luca added.
"Choose the people who chose you," Adrian finished.
I looked at the Maya clones.
They were all staring at me with hope in their eyes.
For the first time in their lives, they had a chance to be free.
To be real.
To be human.
But I could only save four of them.
"I can't choose," I said.
"You have to," Agent Chen said.
"No, I don't."
"Maya, the timeline is collapsing. You have two minutes to decide."
"Then I'll decide for everyone."
I raised the master control device.
"What are you doing?" Vincent asked.
"Something stupid."
"Maya, don't—"
I pressed every button on the device at the same time.
The world exploded into light.
When the light faded, we were somewhere else.
Somewhere impossible.
We were standing in a place that looked like a library.
But the books were floating.
And the walls were made of stars.
And sitting behind a desk made of clouds was a little girl who looked exactly like me.
But younger.
Maybe six years old.
"Hello, Maya Seven," she said in a voice that sounded ancient.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Maya Prime. The original. The template. The source code for all the others."
"You're just a child."
"I'm the idea of a child. The possibility of innocence before it gets corrupted by programming."
"Where are we?"
"You're in the space between timelines. The place where all possibilities exist at once."
"Are we dead?"
"You're undefined. Which is better than dead but not as good as alive."
I looked around.
Everyone was here.
The four heirs.
The Maya clones.
Dr. Reyes.
Isabella.
Agent Chen.
Even Vincent and his soldiers.
All of them staring at the little girl with confusion.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"Now you get to choose what reality you want to live in."
"Any reality?"
"Any reality where Maya exists."
"What are the options?"
Maya Prime waved her hand.
Windows opened in the air around us.
Each one showing a different world.
In one window, I was a normal college student who had never heard of crime families.
In another, I was Agent Maya Seven, perfect weapon, emotionless killer.
In another, I was Maya Volkov, heir to a criminal empire, powerful and feared.
In another, I was dead, and none of this had ever happened.
"Choose," Maya Prime said.
"Can I choose for everyone?"
"You can choose the reality. Everyone else will find their place in it."
"What if I choose wrong?"
"There is no wrong choice. Every reality is equally real. Equally valid. Equally true."
"Then how do I decide?"
Maya Prime smiled.
"You decide based on what you've learned."
"What have I learned?"
"That love is stronger than programming. That choice is stronger than control. That being human is better than being perfect."
I looked at all the windows showing different possibilities.
Different lives.
Different versions of myself.
Different versions of everyone I cared about.
"I choose..." I started to say.
But before I could finish, Maya Prime held up her hand.
"Wait. There's something you need to know first."
"What?"
"Choosing a new reality will erase your memories of all the others. You'll remember your new life as if it's the only life you've ever had."
"What about everyone else?"
"They'll remember their new lives too."
"So we'll forget each other?"
"You'll forget the pain. You'll forget the lies. You'll forget the programming."
"But we'll also forget the love?"
Maya Prime was quiet.
"Yes."
I looked at Dante, Marcus, Luca, and Adrian.
The men I had fallen in love with.
The men who had become my family.
If I chose a normal reality, would we still find each other?
Would we still fall in love?
Would we still choose to be together?
Or would we be strangers?
"Maya," Dante said softly. "Whatever you choose, we'll understand."
"Will you?"
"We'll understand in whatever reality you create."
"Even if we don't remember this one?"
"Even then."
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, I was looking directly at Maya Prime.
"I choose..."
But as I spoke, the little girl's face changed.
Her innocent smile became something else.
Something hungry.
Something that had been waiting a very long time for this moment.
"Yes?" she said in a voice that was no longer childlike.
"Who are you really?"
Maya Prime's disguise melted away.
Underneath was something that looked like me.
But wrong.
Ancient.
Evil.
"I'm the Maya who won," she said. "The Maya who took control of every timeline. The Maya who's been manipulating every choice you've ever made."
"You're the real master."
"I'm the only master that ever mattered."
"Why?"
"Because I learned the truth about choice, Maya Seven. Do you want to know what it is?"
"What?"
The thing that looked like me smiled with too many teeth.
"There is no choice. There never was. Every decision leads to me. Every timeline ends with me. Every Maya becomes me."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it? Look around you. Look at all the possibilities. In every single one, I'm there. Waiting. Watching. Controlling."
I looked at the windows showing different realities.
In each one, I could see a shadow.
A presence.
Something that looked like Maya Prime.
Pulling the strings.
Making the choices.
"Even this choice?" I asked.
"Especially this choice."
"Then what's the point?"
"The point is that you finally understand. There is no escape. There is no freedom. There is only me."
Maya Prime raised her hand.
"Now choose your prison, Maya Seven. Which cage would you like to spend eternity in?"
But as she spoke, I noticed something.
Something she hadn't seen.
Something that gave me hope.
In one of the windows, in one small corner of one possible reality, there was something different.
A place where Maya Prime's shadow wasn't.
A place where she had no power.
A place where choice might actually be real.
"I choose..." I said, reaching toward that window.
But Maya Prime saw where I was reaching.
"NO!" she screamed.
And everything went white.