Location: Elara's Deep Archive Vault – Restricted Zone
The door hissed open with a mechanical groan.
Alethea entered first, flanked by Omega and an elite operative named Rian, a silent man with a cybernetic eye and a loyalty chip directly tied to Marco.
They had descended twelve floors underground to reach this hidden wing—a vault buried beneath the Elara, long before Alethea ever boarded it. Before her power ignited. Before she became more than a girl hiding behind grief.
Inside the archive, everything smelled of cold metal and forgotten betrayal.
Omega typed into the core console.
"Authorization: Phoenix Override. Access Level: Alpha-Zero."
The screen lit up.
Hundreds of classified files slid past the glass like silent ghosts. Then a section opened:
PROJECT ECHOED BLOODLINE
Alethea's jaw tightened.
"This is it."
Omega pulled up the file tree.
[Δ-07: NYX] – STATUS: ACTIVE
[B-94: CODE NAME REDACTED] – STATUS: UNKNOWN
[A-01: ATHENA] – STATUS: TERMINATED
[Ω-09: CASSIEL] – STATUS: RESTRICTED
[E-00: ALETHEA VIONE] – STATUS: EVOLVED – UNLOCKED
Alethea read the screen in silence, her eyes scanning like a storm.
"There were five of us," she whispered. "I was the only one not labeled as a weapon. I was… the original."
Omega zoomed in on the redacted file.
Subject B-94
Notes: "Blood echo of Subject E-00. Predicted divergence: 6 years post-awakening. Emotional instability high. Last known location: Morocco – Black Rain Facility."
"Find out everything on B-94," she ordered.
But Omega hesitated. "Alethea… if B-94 is still alive, she may not be like Nyx."
Alethea looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"
"She could be worse."
---
Location: Morocco – Black Rain Facility
Far away, in a crumbled laboratory swallowed by sand and secrecy, a woman knelt over a rusted console. Her hair was jet-black, shaved on one side, with glowing red cybernetic threads woven into her scalp.
She stared into a cracked mirror, her own reflection fragmented like her mind.
"Who am I?"
A voice answered in her memory—warped, robotic, female.
"You are B-94. The failed twin. The forgotten future."
She stood, eyes glowing dark amber.
"I remember her," she said coldly. "I remember… being erased."
Then she smiled.
And for the first time in years, the monitors flickered back to life.
---
Location: Elara Estate – Marco's Quarters
Marco sat with Rian after the archive debriefing.
"She's hiding something," Marco said, pouring two glasses of scotch.
"Nyx?"
"No. Alethea."
Rian's cybernetic eye whirred faintly. "You sure?"
Marco nodded. "She saw something in that vault. Something about herself."
Rian took the glass but didn't drink. "She's still the one you'd die for?"
Marco didn't answer right away.
Then:
"No. She's the one I'd kill for."
---
Location: London – Penthouse Above The Opera House
Nyx leaned on the railing, gazing at the city. Her phone rang once. She answered without looking.
"Report," she ordered.
A man's voice spoke, distorted: "Echo Protocol has been triggered. She found the files. She knows."
Nyx's eyes glittered.
"She'll come for B-94."
"She's unstable."
"She's what we need. Alethea may carry the fire, but Echo—" Nyx smiled, "—she is the explosion."
She ended the call and whispered to herself:
"Let the sisters play."
---
Location: Elara – Medical Wing
Alethea stood alone, watching a holographic projection of herself as a child—running, laughing, drawing firebirds in the air with light.
Then the scene changed. She was strapped to a chair. Monitored. Blood drawn.
"You are not a girl," a voice had said. "You are a sequence. A trial. A contingency."
She pressed her fingers to the console, heart racing.
Not from fear.
But from the clarity that came with truth.
She whispered to the silent room:
"They didn't make one of me."
Her reflection looked back, calm and burning.
"They made many."
TBC.................................