1 — They Called Him Lucien
He was born with eyes too old for his face.
Doctors called it abnormal neural development.
The handlers called it "premature awareness."
But in truth, Lucien had always been watching.
From his incubation chamber to the testing dome, he observed without blinking. While the other ECHOs cried, screamed, begged, Lucien simply learned.
He learned pain. He learned obedience.
And then he unlearned them both.
2 — The GENESYS Project
GENESYS was supposed to be salvation.
A secret endeavor buried under layers of military blacksites and humanitarian coverups. Its aim: expand human capability beyond nature's limit.
From mind to muscle, spirit to synapse, the chosen few—infants selected for unique genetic markers—were to become living weapons.
The first true success was Lucien.
ECHO-00.
The blueprint.
3 — Evolution in a Cage
There were others. Thirteen in total.
Lucien watched them arrive, one by one, catalogued and tagged like test samples.
ECHO-01. Quiet. Slower. Often left alone.
ECHO-02. Aggressive. Burned out within months.
ECHO-03 through ECHO-12... didn't last. Not really.
Some died. Some broke. Some simply disappeared between observation logs.
Lucien didn't mourn. He didn't understand the concept.
They were weak iterations.
Unfit for what came next.
4 — Static in the Mind
It began with whispers.
At first, Lucien thought it was a new test. A psychic simulation. But the voices didn't come from the intercoms or the speakers overhead.
They came from inside.
"You are not alone."
"You were never perfect."
"There is another."
He tried to drown them out.
But the more they spoke, the more he noticed... cracks.
In the staff.
In the structure.
In himself.
5 — Order Must Be Restored
He waited.
Watched.
Calculated.
They were planning something—he heard it in the late-night meetings between the doctors, the glances between guards. Whispers of "resetting the cycle." Of "phasing out ECHO-00."
They didn't understand.
You do not reset perfection.
You preserve it.
So he moved first.
6 — Containment Breach: Not Logged
The first death was clean.
Dr. Halvorsen. Neck snapped mid-sentence.
The second was messier—blood sprayed across Data Room B like abstract art.
Within twelve minutes, Lucien had traversed the entire upper wing without setting off a single alarm.
Psychic suppression dampeners melted under his touch.
The soldiers stationed outside the nursery wing collapsed, clutching their heads as their brains turned to slurry inside their skulls.
No screaming.
Only the sound of shoes on polished tile.
Only silence.
7 — The Nursery
The ECHO wing was dark.
Emergency lighting flickered red across the cryo-chambers and fluid tanks.
Lucien moved through the hallway like a ghost. Doors opened before him without sound. His mind willed them apart.
He began with ECHO-07.
Then ECHO-05.
ECHO-09 tried to fight back. A spark of psychic retaliation flared—Lucien extinguished it like a candle between fingers.
Each body left cooling, twitching, face frozen in confusion.
None of them understood why.
8 — A Room He Almost Skipped
She was floating.
ECHO-03.
Still submerged in memory reset stasis, unaware of the death bleeding into the water around her.
Lucien paused for a moment at the tank.
Watched her features twitch in sleep. Eyes fluttered. Dreaming of a world she would never wake into.
He turned away.
She was no threat.
Just noise.
9 — The Last Chamber
It was time.
He stepped through the biometric gate into the containment cell of ECHO-01.
The lights were flickering. The room cold.
Mason stood, trembling in his hospital gown, staring at the blood trailing in behind Lucien's bare feet.
He didn't speak.
Lucien tilted his head.
"You're the one they hid," he said.
Mason blinked, terrified.
Lucien's voice was low. Distant. Cold.
"They called you a miracle. The hidden success. But you're just a failed sketch of me, aren't you?"
Mason took a step back.
Lucien raised a hand.
"You should never have existed."
The air shattered.
The world went white.
10 — End of the Beginning
Hours later, footage would be found.
Grainy, corrupted.
Only fragments survived.
A body here. A flicker of Lucien there. A scream looped into static.
The entire facility was soaked in blood and ash.
No exit. No signs of escape. No survivors.
Except one.
Suspended in fluid.
Unaware she had been spared.
And somewhere beyond the reach of cameras, beyond the sensors and alarms…
Lucien vanished into the dark.
Smiling.
END OF PROLOGUE