Darkness wasn't just the absence of light in Sector C.
It was alive.
Ava's ears rang with the sound of shattering glass, her flashlight spiraling across the floor as something massive collided with Kaela, sending her flying against the far wall. Sparks rained from a torn junction box above, illuminating brief flashes of movement—a silhouette, too fast, too brutal.
"Ava—stay back!" Kaela's voice was a guttural cry through the chaos.
But Ava had already drawn her sidearm, palms slick with sweat. She aimed at the flickering shadows—but there was no target. Just the echo of heavy breathing. Of metal scraping against metal.
Then… silence.
A sudden, eerie silence that made the back of her neck prickle.
Kaela stood slowly, blood trickling from her brow, eyes scanning the room with animal precision. The girl—the younger Kaela—was crouched in the corner again, trembling, eyes wide with terror.
"He's here," she whispered. "The one they made before you."
Before Kaela?
The realization dropped like a weight in Ava's chest.
Kaela turned, her voice barely audible. "They told me I was Prototype One. The first successful hybrid."
The girl shook her head slowly. "You weren't. You were the first stable one. But he… he was the first weapon."
The silence shattered with a sharp clang as something slammed into the observation chamber door from the outside. Bent steel, inhuman strength. A red light blinked on the emergency panel: Containment Breach – Subject R0
Ava felt the dread rising in her throat.
"Who is R0?"
Kaela's jaw clenched. Her eyes were locked on the door. "They called him Revenant. My predecessor. My shadow."
From the other side of the bent door came a slow, deliberate knock.
Once. Twice.
Then a low voice, gravelly, metallic.
"Hello, Kaela. Ready to remember who you were?"
Kaela's blood ran cold.
She knew that voice.
From her nightmares. From the forgotten flashbacks in her sleep. From the fragments of war she never remembered waking up from.
The door split down the center with a metallic groan—and through it stepped a man tall as death, face hidden behind a cracked mask, body laced with cybernetic veins glowing faintly blue. His presence filled the room like a stormfront. Silent. Sure. Unstoppable.
Kaela raised her weapon, fingers steady—but her heart wasn't.
"You don't belong here," she said through clenched teeth.
He tilted his head. "I made here."
Ava backed up, eyes wide. "Kaela… what is he?"
Kaela didn't answer.
Because she wasn't sure anymore if he was a clone—
Or her creator.