Location: SilvyrTech Private Vault
Lucien stood before the biometric scanner, blood dripping from a split on his brow, hand pressed against the cold steel plate. Behind him, Aria and K-0X waited, silent. The leak had sent shockwaves through every corner of the globe—and now the ghosts were crawling out from the ruins.
The vault opened with a hiss.
Inside were rows of data cylinders, some glowing, others dark. But in the center sat a single, rusted file box—analog. Untouchable by firewalls or AI.
Lucien reached inside and pulled out a leather-bound folder.
> Project: ECLIPSE
Status: Terminated – Archive Locked
Subject: L. Vale | Classification: Inheritor
Aria tilted her head. "Inheritor?"
Lucien stared at the page. "My real name... isn't just Lucien Vale."
He turned to her, eyes haunted.
"My full name is Lucien Stroud Vale. My father was the architect of Orion."
Aria stepped back.
Stroud.
The man who ruined her life. Who ran the labs. Who created the Mirror. Who left a trail of corpses in the name of progress.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I spent my whole life trying to erase the blood in my veins," Lucien whispered.
---
Flashback: Thirteen Years Ago – The Original Lab
Lucien was seventeen.
He had just walked into a room where children were being trained like soldiers. Hooked to machines. Starved of affection.
And in the middle of it, a girl with wild hair and bleeding knuckles stood over a boy who'd been hurt.
"I said leave him alone!" she'd shouted.
Lucien had frozen.
Aria.
He watched as her fire lit up a world built to kill it. That was the moment he knew: She wasn't an experiment. She was a revolution.
But he wasn't strong enough then.
He turned his back—and ran.
---
Back in the Vault
"I tried to destroy the files," Lucien said. "But Orion wasn't just a lab. It was a legacy. And my father... he never died."
K-0X stepped forward, something unreadable in his eyes. "Then where is he?"
Lucien closed the folder. "We'll find him. Because he's not hiding anymore. He wants us to come."
---
Elsewhere – Unknown Location
The room was dark, the walls pulsing with blue tech. At the center sat a man in a black suit, fingers laced, eyes cold.
Stroud Vale. The father. The myth. The monster.
He watched the footage of Aria fighting the Mirror.
A small smile curved his lips.
"She's ready," he said to the woman beside him.
The Mirror stood at his side, healed now. Her expression still blank.
"
She chose survival," he continued, "but soon she'll choose power. Just like her sister."