The old Echo relic lab stood like a scar on the outskirts of Solara — half-buried in sand, shrouded in static, and pulsing faintly like something still breathing.
Kael stared at it. "We sure this is the right place?"
BITS beeped. "Confirmed. Coordinates match the Echo cache from Eirin's decrypted logs. Also, there's a really sketchy sign over the door."
Nyra squinted through her scope. "It says: 'Welcome Home, Subject Zero.'"
Kael sighed. "So polite. Almost makes me forget this is where I was built."
They entered through a ventilation shaft — classic infiltration technique if you ignored the fact that Kael got stuck halfway.
"Why are these always so small?" he hissed.
Nyra shoved his boots. "Because test tubes weren't meant to grow linebackers."
BITS clung magnetically to a pipe and muttered, "This is undignified."
They dropped into the inner corridor like ghosts. The lights flickered. The air stank of ozone and rust.
It felt more haunted than abandoned.
Kael touched the wall. It was warm.
The lab was still powered.
The trio moved through the darkened halls in formation. Kael's hand never left his Starkey blade.
Monitors blinked to life as they passed — displaying flickers of test data, charts, heartbeat logs. All labeled:
SUBJECT 0 SERIES
CLONE INTEGRITY: COMPROMISED
STABILITY: RED
"Charming," Nyra muttered. "Let me guess. One of these tanks is gonna wake up and try to murder us?"
BITS beeped. "Statistically… yes."
Kael stopped at a surgical platform. His own name — or something like it — was burned into the base:
K-L.00X
A still image hovered above it: him, unconscious, wired into the relic mainframe.
"I don't remember this," he whispered.
Eirin's voice crackled over comms. "You wouldn't. They reset your stream after each failed prototype cycle."
Nyra turned to Kael. "How many of you were there?"
Kael didn't answer.
Because a door behind them hissed open.
And the alarms began to scream.
Four humanoid drones dropped from ceiling ports, armor-clad, bearing the Echo logo like a brand.
Kael moved first — ducking low, slashing upward. Sparks flew. The first drone dropped.
Nyra slid under the second, stabbed straight through its core, and vaulted over Kael's back to tackle a third.
The fourth aimed a pulse cannon —
And BITS hacked its targeting node mid-shot.
"Boom," BITS chirped, as the blast reversed and fried the unit.
Kael wiped sweat from his brow. "Next time, less warning would be nice."
"I enjoy the drama," BITS replied.
They reached the core lab chamber — walls lined with deactivated cloning pods, dozens of them. Some were empty. Some weren't.
And in the center: a larger pod, marked in red, sealed under a relic lock.
Nyra stepped back. "That one's humming."
Kael approached. The lock blinked.
Subject 0.X – Emergency Clone Protocol
"What the hell is 0.X?"
Eirin came back over comms. "According to the files, it's an unstable echo of you. A version too dangerous even for the Project to control."
"So naturally," Nyra said, "they kept it?"
"Classified as 'Last Resort.'"
Kael stared at the pod. Inside, something shifted. A human shape. Masked. Breathing.
Alive.
He backed away. "We're not opening it."
BITS floated forward. "We may not have a choice."
The alarms cut off.
And a new voice filled the room.
"Subject Zero detected."
Kael froze.
"Engaging legacy override."
The lights went out.
And the pod began to open.
Kael turned. "We're leaving. Now."
But the doors slammed shut.
The relic systems reactivated. One by one, the other pods began to power on.
"They're rebooting the entire clone series!" Nyra shouted.
Kael grabbed her arm. "Run!"
They sprinted through the halls — as the lights behind them turned red, and the sound of footsteps echoed everywhere.
Relic-born, incomplete clones — some half-formed, some corrupted — began stumbling into view.
"Plan?" Nyra asked breathlessly.
Kael grinned grimly. "Improvise. With violence."
They reached the security hub.
Kael slammed his blade into the console.
"Override command," he said.
The terminal blinked.
"Request confirmed. Initiating total collapse."
Nyra blinked. "That was an option the whole time?"
Kael shrugged. "Only if you're genetically keyed to the building."
BITS hovered. "Well then, you are good for something."
As the self-destruct countdown started, they fought their way back to the exit — Kael cutting down a malformed clone with eyes too familiar, Nyra shoving debris aside, BITS laying EMP mines like confetti.
They escaped just as the lab imploded.
The blast wave lit the skyline.
And the air smelled of ozone and scorched legacy.
Kael sat on the wreckage later, staring at the burned-out crater.
"I saw myself," he said. "Again. In that pod. But… worse."
Nyra sat beside him. "Whatever was in there — it's gone now."
BITS hovered silently. For once, without a joke.
Kael looked at his reflection in the Starkey blade.
Then whispered, "What happens if I'm the next one that wakes up… wrong?"
Nyra said nothing.
She just handed him her blade.
"Then I put you down," she said. "Fast. And stylishly."
He chuckled.
They sat in silence.
And far away, in the shadows of a broken archive tower—
Prototype 0.A watched.
"He's growing."
"Good."
"Let him get strong enough…"
"So we can tear him down."
💬 Author's Note — Kazuki Rei
Kael, Nyra, and BITS just nuked a relic lab full of half-baked Kael clones, escaped a trap, and probably triggered at least 3 new nightmares.
Honestly? Not bad for a Tuesday.
Next:
👉 Chapter 25 – Nightfall Briefing (Regroup, flashbacks, strategy)
👉 Or Prototype Strikes Back — 0.A attacks during rest hours 👀
Or… both?
Tell me your poison. Or I let BITS choose and we all suffer. 😏
— Kazuki Rei