Location: Shinjuku District, Tokyo, Japan
The neon lights of Tokyo blinked innocently under the calm dusk, unaware of the storm rippling beneath the surface. In a private suite atop the Kenji Tower, one of the tallest smart-buildings in the city, Dominic Black—Damien's twin brother—stood overlooking the skyline, clad in obsidian-black silk, eyes devoid of warmth.
Below, hidden in the sublevels of the tower, lay a Seraphim Core. The final prototype—a living AI-infused genetic vault meant to rewrite DNA across bloodlines.
Archer appeared on a transparent holo beside Dominic. "You've done well. Now, activate the pulse. Once released, no government, no family will stand in our way."
Dominic's jaw flexed. "Even Damien?"
"Especially Damien," Archer replied. "He still clings to loyalty and love. But you… you understand sacrifice."
---
Location; Tavara – Damien's Private Jet
The cabin was tense.
Evelyn sat bundled in medical gear, her vitals stabilizing. Aiko lay nearby, her mind recovering in fragmented whispers. Elijah sat beside them, deep in thought, digesting the revelation.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Damien finally asked his mother, breaking the silence.
Evelyn sighed. "Because I hoped the past had buried him. But Dominic... he was different. Smarter, colder. Even as children, he would watch, not speak. Archer found him before I could protect him."
Nora glanced between them. "We're not just fighting Archer. We're fighting your own blood."
Damien's eyes burned. "Then I'll fight him with everything I've got."
Location; Tokyo – Underneath Kenji Tower
Nora, Damien, Elijah, Kiyomi, and a small elite unit landed stealthily at Haneda and infiltrated Shinjuku by midnight. They moved through Tokyo's electric veins with forged IDs and underground allies.
A hacker from Seoul, codenamed Lynx, patched into the tower's blueprint. "You've got a window of 22 minutes before the tower's AI locks down all internal access. The pulse will be triggered from the Neuro-Control Room on Sublevel 6."
Kiyomi tapped her comm. "We'll need to breach fast and disable the secondary relay in the Data Core. If not, Tokyo's entire DNA network will be affected."
Nora checked her weapon. "This city houses over 14 million souls. If that pulse spreads... Archer won't just win—he'll evolve the world in his image."
---
Location; Kenji Tower – Sublevel 6
As they descended through service shafts, alarms went off. Dominic had sensed them.
His voice echoed through the tower: "Brother. I wondered how long it would take you."
Damien led the charge, breaching the Neuro-Control Room. Screens lit up around them—showing cities across the globe: London, São Paulo, Nairobi, Shanghai. Archer's network was global.
Dominic emerged from the shadows. Calm. Calculated.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Neither should you have betrayed your family," Damien snarled.
Dominic raised his hand. Bio-tech surged from his arm—nano-filaments infused with Seraphim enhancements. He was no longer fully human.
"You chose love. I chose ascension."
The brothers collided—one born of loyalty, the other of cold ambition. Sparks flew, gunfire echoed, and Nora faced waves of enhanced guards—each encoded with micro-variants of the Seraphim strain.
Kiyomi, hacking furiously, bypassed the Data Core's pulse conduit. "Ten seconds to overload! Someone stop that pulse!"
Damien, bloodied, slammed Dominic against the pulse console.
"You still have a choice."
Dominic's eyes flickered.
For one brief second, the old twin surfaced.
Then, he smiled—soft and haunting. "Too late."
He smashed the override.
The pulse fired.
---
Location; Tokyo – Skyline
But instead of spreading outward, the energy collapsed inward. A failsafe coded by Nora and Kiyomi diverted it into an implosion, caging the Seraphim Core.
Kenji Tower went dark.
Dominic collapsed—conscious but restrained.
"You didn't kill him," Elijah said.
"No," Damien replied. "But now, he'll see what real humanity looks like."
Location; Tavara – Damien's Private Estate (Two Days Later)
Evelyn sat in the garden, holding Aiko's hand. Birds sang overhead. Peace—however brief—had returned.
Nora and Damien stood beside a grave marker.
"Who was it for?" she asked.
He whispered, "Dominic. The brother I once knew."