The silence that followed Aris's revelation was deeper than anything they'd experienced before. The urgent need to survive had given way to a dizzying sense of dread. They weren't just being invaded; they were being used. The enemy had a plan, and that plan made them even more frightening.
Rostova broke the silence, her voice lacking its usual strength. Though she remained professional, a hint of fear crept in. "We need to be sure," she said. "A vision isn't enough, Thorne. We need proof from someone else who's seen what you've seen."
Kaito, still looking shaken, spoke up. "There's only one other person who might know. Subject Gamma. Julian's… experiment. OmniGen's files say the subject is at 'Epsilon Site.' It's a hidden lab, separate from the main facility. It might still be intact."
Finding Epsilon Site wasn't about investigating. It was more about piecing together the clues they had. Felix used the last bit of satellite data to track Julian's encrypted shipment logs. Just before the systems completely crashed, he located a plain geological survey station twenty kilometers to the north, hidden in a desolate valley. It was the perfect place to conceal something horrible.
They drove in a beat-up, EMP-protected vehicle. The landscape outside was a blur of dying plants. No one spoke. Aris held the tephra stone tightly, its familiar hum now silent. Lily sat next to him, occasionally touching the faint, silver burn on his palm from the sphere.
Epsilon Site was a bunker built into the side of a hill. The entrance was a blast door disguised as part of the rock. They used Julian's security codes, which Rostova had gotten from a captured OmniGen person. The door opened with a hiss, and stale, cold air rushed out.
Inside was a lab where twisted experiments had taken place. The main room was sterile, but the focus wasn't on the equipment. It was on a prison.
Subject Gamma was suspended in a thick, nutrient-rich liquid inside a clear cylinder. Cables and strange, bio-mechanical implants, poor imitations of Obelisk technology, were connected to their spine and skull, running to rows of dead servers. The person was impossible to identify; their gender, age, or even species was unclear. Their skin was pale and see-through, with the same pulsing, sickly silver veins as the implants. Their eyes were open, blank and unfocused, as if staring into some internal nightmare.
"Oh God", Kaito whispered, his curiosity replaced by horror. They tried to connect a human brain directly into their network.
As they got closer, Gamma's head twitched. Bubbles floated from their lips. A robotic voice, patched together from damaged brain signals, crackled from a speaker.
"...the song… the song is wrong… a thorn in the melody…"
Aris stepped forward, the tephra stone suddenly growing cold. What song?
Gamma's blank eyes seemed to focus, not on Aris, but on the space around him. "The Song of the Garden. The Grand Pattern. It is… empty. So empty. The Weavers are lonely. They sing to quiet the silence."
Each word confirmed Aris's vision. Rostova's calm exterior finally broke, revealing a glimpse of pure terror.
"The Weavers", Aris asked, his voice steady despite the fear he felt. "What are they weaving?"
Gamma's body spasmed, their face twisting in a silent scream. The liquid in the cylinder clouded. "A tapestry! A shield against the Dark! Consciousness is the thread! Our pain, our joy… the colors! They need the colors!" The voice glitched, screeching. "THE GARDEN IS EMPTY. THE GARDEN MUST BLOOM."
The words echoed in the silent lab. Then, Gamma's face relaxed. The robotic voice softened to a broken whisper, like a child telling a terrible secret. "They are coming for the final thread. The brightest one. The thorn… and the silent flower…" The blank eyes seemed to move towards Aris, then past him, to where Lily stood holding her rabbit. "They will take you both… and the Garden will sing."
With a final, shaky sigh, the lights on the consoles died. Subject Gamma was still, a broken puppet. The only link to the Weaver's truth was gone, leaving behind its horrifying message.
In the silence of the bunker, the direction of their mission changed. The goal was no longer just to stop the unthinkable. It was to understand what was coming. Rostova looked from Aris to Lily, the soldier in her struggling with a war that couldn't be won with weapons.
"They're not destroying a forest", Aris said, his voice heavy. "They're harvesting us. Our minds. Our souls. And they've just found the two best specimens."
He was the thorn, the unusual person who could see them. Lily was the silent flower, the innocent receiver of their pattern. They were the key, not to a door, but to the loom itself. The battle had become personal, and incredibly strange.