The sun over Kenya cast molten gold across the Rift Valley, stretching shadows between jagged escarpments and acacia trees. The air was dry, humming with a silent pressure—as though the earth itself waited to speak.
Anderson adjusted his thermal visor, the lenses flickering with seismic overlays. "No interference," he muttered. "This place feels too still."
Beside him, Elias scanned the horizon through a pulse rifle scope. "We're being watched."
From their vantage on the ledge overlooking Lake Turkana, the group could see far across the desolate terrain. Sparse clouds drifted above volcanic plains, while animal herds roamed in the distance. But something was wrong. The land looked too... symmetrical. Too perfect.
David—formerly known as Aurelius before the world changed—knelt beside a stone. He brushed dust from it, revealing a sigil scorched into its surface.
"The Sequence language," he said quietly. "Same pattern from the Arctic node. But this predates it."
"How can that be?" Ava asked, crouching beside him. "That language was coded by the Emissary only decades ago."
"No," David said, standing. "It was reawakened decades ago. But it was always here."
Behind them, Dr. Zach Zorin stood silently, his coat flapping in the wind. There was no lab anymore—only the raw earth, and echoes of what humanity once was. He ran his hand over a jagged boulder etched with more markings.
"This valley," he murmured, "holds the first remnants of the Precursor strain. Before the Emissary. Before me. Before even human memory."
Anderson turned. "You knew this place?"
"I found it years ago. Before I made the Formula. Before Echo One. This is where I first questioned what humanity truly is. Whether we were shaped—or designed."
Ava stared into the ravine below. Something shimmered down there, an unnatural pulse of blue light faintly visible through the mist.
Elias raised a drone. "Sending a scout."
The drone zipped downward, relaying grainy images of an underground structure—ancient, half-submerged. Pillars of obsidian protruded from the earth like the ribs of a buried beast.
Suddenly the feed cut out. Static hissed.
Elias frowned. "Something's jamming us."
Zach's face grew pale. "It's awake."
Before they could respond, the ground beneath them trembled—a deep thud that didn't echo, as if it had no source. Birds exploded from the trees. Dust spiraled into the sky.
"Underground tremor," David said. "Localized... right beneath us."
Anderson reached for his communicator. "Team two, respond."
Silence.
The static sharpened, then cleared—and a voice whispered back, fragmented but chilling.
"Divergence… must be erased…"
Everyone froze.
Ava paled. "That's Echo One's voice modulation."
"No," Zach said quietly. "That's the one it copied."
They all looked to the valley. The pulse of blue was growing brighter, rippling in time with their heartbeats.
Anderson broke the silence. "We go in. Weapons ready. Protocol Echo."
David nodded. "If this is the Cradle, then everything changes now."
The team descended into the Rift.
Unseen, far beneath the rock and ash, gears that had not turned in a million years began to move.
---
The tunnel's breath narrowed, silence folding over Anderson like wet cloth. The rhythmic thrum of ancient machinery echoed beneath his boots as he stepped deeper into the underground chamber. The bioluminescent moss along the walls pulsed faintly, reacting to his presence. It felt like a heartbeat. No, it was a heartbeat.
Behind him, Mira stayed close, her weapon lowered but her eyes sharp. "There's something alive down here," she whispered. "Not just machines."
Anderson nodded. "Something Dr. Z left behind. Or… something that found what he left behind."
They emerged into a circular room. It looked like a lab, but unlike any Anderson had ever seen. Transparent tubes lined the perimeter, each containing a suspended figure—humans, or human-like forms—floating in greenish fluid. Some were aged, some looked perfectly preserved. One of them looked identical to Anderson.
Mira stopped dead. "Tell me I'm hallucinating."
Anderson stared at the tube. The face was his. Younger, maybe. Less weary. His mind raced. "Clone?"
"No scars. No signs of life," Mira murmured, examining the vitals displayed beside the tube. "But no signs of death either. They're frozen in some kind of... quantum stasis."
Anderson stepped forward, and as his palm brushed the console, the lights dimmed. A voice—modulated, but unmistakably Dr. Z's—filled the chamber.
> "If you are hearing this, you have survived the first threshold. That means you are either my heir, or my mistake."
Mira's eyes met Anderson's. "He recorded this for you."
> "The Eternal Formula was never meant for power. It was meant for survival. But survival has a cost. I had to test its limits. I had to test you."
A hiss echoed from the far side of the lab. A mechanical gate opened.
> "This chamber holds the Labyrinth Remnant—fragments of what came through with the Formula's final synthesis. Be warned: not all that I preserved was human."
Something stirred in the darkness beyond the gate.
Anderson raised his weapon. "Stay close."
They stepped through the gate—and into a chamber that bent reality. The room shifted with every blink: walls becoming floors, shadows whispering names. A low growl resonated across the space, and from the shifting mist, a creature emerged—twisted, malformed, yet vaguely humanoid. Its skin shimmered like mercury, but its eyes… they were full of memories.
Mira aimed her pulse rifle. "That thing has your eyes."
Anderson hand trembled. The creature took a slow step forward.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The creature's voice was warped, layered with multiple echoes. "I... am what remains of your father's failure."
Anderson froze. "You knew my father?"
It nodded. "He tried to correct what Z started. But the Formula rejected correction. It only adapts. Always forward. Never back."
Mira fired a warning shot. The creature recoiled, shrieked, then lunged.
Anderson tackled her aside just as the beast's claws sliced through the air where her neck had been.
"Run!" he shouted.
They dashed back into the chamber, the sirens flaring to life, red lights spinning wildly. The tubes around them began to drain—the clones inside twitching, awakening.
Anderson slapped his palm on the central console. "Override! Lock it down!"
The AI responded: "Override requires genetic match: Zeno-class clearance."
Mira grabbed his wrist. "Anderson… your DNA—can it trigger it?"
He nodded. "I'm his heir. I hope that's enough."
He placed his hand on the scanner. It hissed, scanned… then chimed.
> "Zeno Clearance confirmed. Protocol: Stasis Reboot."
The clones froze. The monster shrieked behind the closing gate. Just before it shut entirely, it locked eyes with Anderson and whispered, "You can't run from yourself."
Then it was gone.
Silence returned. The lab dimmed, pulsed once, then quieted.
Anderson slumped to the floor, panting. Mira crouched beside him, eyes wide.
"That thing… it was made from the Formula too, wasn't it?"
Anderson nodded. "It was a reminder. The Formula may give you eternal stamina, even long life. But it amplifies the truth of who you are. My father tried to rewrite it. He failed. And now... it's my turn."
Mira stared at him. "What will you do?"
He looked up at the largest tube in the center of the lab. Inside was a figure... impossibly old, suspended in glowing liquid.
Dr. Z.
"I'm going to wake him up.
Anderson stood before the suspension tank, staring at the figure within. The man floated, immobile, yet serene—his skin faintly glowing, hair snow-white, veins laced with a silvery shimmer. The label on the console read:
ZION-0 | Genesis Host
"Dr. Z…" Anderson whispered. His breath fogged the glass. "He's still alive."
Mira examined the panel beside the tank. "Vitals are stable, but the readings don't match any baseline human biology. His cells are in perpetual flux—adapting every second. It's not just longevity, Anderson. He became the Formula."
Anderson's stomach churned. "So he's not just the creator anymore. He's the container."
Mira nodded grimly. "And maybe the only one who can explain how to stop what's happening above ground."
Alarms blared faintly in the background—low, distant, almost like a warning from the earth itself. The facility was still reacting to the Remnant's brief escape attempt.
Anderson placed his hand on the biometric scanner beside the pod. It lit green.
> "Zeno clearance accepted. Host revival sequence initialized."
Mira tensed. "Are you sure this is a good idea? He might not be who you remember. Or even human anymore."
"I don't need him to be human," Anderson replied. "I need him to tell me why the world is dying... and how to stop it."
The fluid inside the tank began to drain. Zion-0's eyes fluttered behind closed lids. Tubes detached themselves with mechanical precision. The figure convulsed, then coughed violently as oxygen flooded into his lungs.
The chamber trembled.
Dr. Z's eyes opened.
Anderson took a step back. There was no recognition in that gaze—only raw intellect and something deeper. Something ancient.
"Where... am I?" Dr. Z croaked. His voice was layered, almost dual-toned. "What year is it?"
Anderson steadied his voice. "It's 2089. You've been asleep for thirty-six years. My name is Anderson Zorin . You're my great-grandfather."
Z's expression remained blank. Then slowly, a flicker of something passed through his features. "Anderson… Zorin ." He looked down at his hands. "I remember... you were just a boy."
"I was," Anderson replied. "Until the world collapsed around your legacy."
Dr. Z chuckled, a sound both human and chilling. "Then it worked."
"What worked?" Mira stepped forward. "The Formula? The Remnants? The Replicants in those tanks? Did you plan for all of this?"
Z's eyes darkened. "I planned to survive. Everything else... was a variable."
Anderson's fists clenched. "You knew it would break people. That it would create monsters."
"No," Z said softly. "I hoped it would create gods."
Silence. Mira's grip tightened on her rifle. "We didn't find gods. We found nightmares."
Dr. Z reached for a nearby terminal, fingers flying over the interface. His movements were eerily fast, unnaturally precise.
"The Eternal Formula is more than chemistry. It's a seed—designed to unlock the next phase of human evolution. Painful, yes. Violent? Inevitably. But necessary."
Anderson stepped forward. "And what about the Remnants?"
Dr. Z didn't look up. "Failed hosts. They retained instinct but not intellect. The Formula amplified their primal nature. They are warnings—flesh-wrought errors."
"They're killing people," Mira snapped. "And one of them... had my face."
That made Dr. Z pause. "Ah. Then the system must have begun generating new lineage prototypes. Interesting."
"Interesting?" Anderson growled. "You played god, and now the world is cracking at the seams. People are dying. Nations have collapsed. And you think it's interesting?"
Z finally looked at him. "And yet you survived. You made it here. That is the proof I needed."
Before Anderson could speak again, the floor beneath them vibrated violently. A siren shrieked overhead, followed by a garbled message.
> "Containment breach. Sector Omega. All personnel evacuate."
Mira's face paled. "That Remnant got loose again?"
Z narrowed his eyes. "No. Something worse has awakened."
The terminal beside him blinked red. Z typed a command.
A holographic projection appeared above them. A map of the facility—and something crawling beneath it. Massive. Unfathomably fast.
> Designation: CODEBLACK. Status: Active. Origin: Unknown.
Anderson stared. "You have no record of what that is?"
Z's face turned grim. "That wasn't part of my design.
"Then what is it?"
Z turned toward Anderson with a hard gaze. "The result of evolution exceeding its creator."
The chamber lights flickered. Distant roars echoed through the corridor they came from.
Z stepped forward and placed something into Anderson's hand: a small black disc with a glowing sigil.
"This is the only key left. It unlocks the Origin Vault beneath Site Theta—where I hid the master genome of the Formula. You need to reach it before they do."
Mira frowned. "They?"
Z didn't answer.
Instead, he turned toward the wall, placed his hand against it, and a hidden door slid open, revealing an armored hallway with a high-speed transport.
"You have thirty minutes before CODEBLACK reaches this sector. Go. I'll stay behind and trigger the failsafe. If I can contain it, I will."
Anderson hesitated. "We came here to find you."
Z gave a rare smile. "You found me. But now... the world needs you."
The high-speed transport roared to life, lights along its frame pulsing in sync with Anderson's racing heart. He clutched the black sigil disk tightly, feeling its faint thrum through his gloves.
"Coordinates pre-set for Site Theta," Dr. Z called from the doorway. "Go now. The vault will only respond to Zeno-line DNA."
Mira stepped in first, her expression grim but determined. Anderson lingered.
"You sure you'll be okay?" he asked.
Dr. Z didn't answer immediately. His silver-veined hand touched the doorframe, as if saying goodbye. "There are some mistakes only the creator can bury."
Before Anderson could argue, the steel door slid shut, cutting them off. The pod jolted forward—accelerating into a dark tunnel that spiraled downward at impossible speed.
Inside, the silence felt deafening.
Mira broke it first. "Did you see his eyes?"
Anderson nodded. "He's not the same man from my childhood."
"No. He's not even fully human anymore."
The tunnel widened, revealing holographic panels flickering along the walls. Warnings. Status alerts. One particular message repeated over and over in bold crimson text:
> "GENETIC SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN. WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED ENTITY DETECTED IN PRIME LAYER."
Anderson frowned. "If CODEBLACK isn't part of Z's experiment, then who—or what—unleashed it?"
Mira touched the embedded comm-link in her ear. Static.
"We're too deep," she muttered. "No outside connection."
Then the transport shuddered. A low growl—like metal under stress—echoed faintly ahead of them.
Anderson's instincts kicked in. "Slow down the transport. Now."
Mira yanked the emergency lever. The cabin screeched, throwing sparks as the pod decelerated. Outside, something darted past—a shadow, almost serpentine, longer than the entire rail line. It left scorch marks behind.
Anderson and Mira exchanged looks.
"That wasn't a Remnant," Mira whispered.
"No. That was something new."
The transport coasted to a halt at an emergency access point. The station was dimly lit, partially collapsed, but the guidance lights to Site Theta blinked faintly in the distance.
Anderson stepped out, scanning the darkness. "We go on foot."
They moved quickly, weapons drawn, every footstep echoing like a drumbeat in the ancient corridor.
As they turned a corner, Mira halted suddenly.
"Look."
Ahead, the steel walls were covered in something organic—black vines pulsing with red light. They pulsed like veins, feeding into the stone beneath.
Anderson knelt. "It's integrating with the facility. Like a parasite."
"It's evolving in real time," Mira said, running a scanner. "And whatever's at the center of it... is mimicking the Formula."
Just then, the ground vibrated—heavier now. Not an earthquake. Footsteps.
No, not footsteps. Marching.
They ducked behind a broken console just as a group passed by. Humanoid figures—tall, lithe, pale. Their eyes glowed violet. Skin glistened with the same black shimmer coating the walls.
"Those aren't Remnants," Mira hissed.
"No," Anderson whispered. "They're... Hybrids."
The figures stopped briefly, as if sensing something, then moved on—toward the direction of Site Theta.
Anderson's grip on the sigil disk tightened.
"They're after the Vault," he realized. "They know what's down there."
"Then we can't let them get it first."
They resumed moving, keeping to shadows, until finally, the corridor opened into a circular chamber.
In its center stood a vault door, thirty feet tall, embedded into the bedrock. Ancient carvings covered its surface—some in Latin, others in a language Anderson didn't recognize.
Above it, in burning white letters:
> "Vault of Genesis – Blood Unlock Required.
Anderson stepped forward, raising the disk
A thin red beam shot out, scanning his face, then his palm.
> "Zeno-line DNA recognized. Genesis Access granted."
The vault rumbled. Layers of metal folded inwards, gears spinning like clockwork. Cold air hissed out, smelling of ozone and sterile decay.
Beyond the threshold was a massive chamber—filled with cylindrical tanks and towering databanks. At the very center stood a pedestal holding a crystal sphere, suspended in magnetic fields.
"The master genome," Mira whispered. "It's real."
Anderson approached slowly. "This... is what everything was built around."
He reached out.
Suddenly, alarms blared again.
> "Unauthorized lifeforms approaching. Defense systems offline. Prepare for breach."
Mira turned. "They followed us."
The corridor behind them erupted in red light. Hybrid soldiers flooded in, weapons formed from their own bone-structure. Leading them was a figure cloaked in black biological armor, eyes shining like twin suns.
It spoke in a voice that echoed across the vault.
"You are too late, Zeno-blood. The Future has already chosen its inheritors."
Anderson turned to Mira. "We're not giving them the genome. No matter what."
She nodded, raising her weapon.
The Vault, once a sanctuary, was now a battlefield.
The vault chamber throbbed with pressure as the lead Hybrid stepped forward, its bio-armor flexing and writhing like a living organism. Its voice sounded again—low and ancient, carried by something far beyond mere vocal cords.
> "Surrender the Origin. The Genome belongs to the Ascended Line."
Anderson stood tall, shielding the pedestal behind him. "Not happening."
Mira leveled her pulse rifle, eyes locked on the enemy. "Who are you?
The Hybrid paused. Then, it removed its helm
The face beneath was sharp, elegant, disturbingly human—but with translucent veins glowing purple beneath pale skin.
"I am Serik. Firstborn of the CORE. We were the silent half of Z's work—abandoned, buried, perfected.
Anderson's mind reeled. CORE. He remembered the term—deep within one of Dr. Z's journals. "The Counter-Organic Replicant Experiment."
"You were experiments—failures.
"No," Serik said, voice filled with pride. "We were evolutions. Dr. Z made you for longevity. He made us for ascension."
The Hybrid soldiers flanked him now, surrounding the chamber. But none dared enter the central ring. Not yet.
Mira leaned close to Anderson. "Standoff. They're unsure. That crystal—they're afraid of it."
Anderson turned slightly. The genome sphere hovered within its magnetic field, glowing with a pale blue core. It pulsed in sync with his heartbeat
He looked back at Serik. "What happens if I destroy it?"
The Hybrid smiled. "You won't. You can't. You're still human.
Anderson raised the sigil disk and slammed it into the pedestal. Instantly, the magnetic field flared—burning hot white. The genome sphere responded by rising higher, spinning rapidly.
Serik's expression twisted. "Stop! The protocol—!
A shockwave burst from the pedestal, slamming outward like a dome of energy. Hybrid soldiers were thrown back, their armor cracking under the pressure.
Mira shielded her eyes. "What the hell did you just trigger?!"
Anderson gritted his teeth. "The Vault's last defense. Dr. Z... must have set a failsafe."
From above, panels opened in the ceiling. Dozens of mechanical limbs extended—each tipped with glowing projectors. Ancient security constructs, long dormant, came to life.
> "AUTOMATED PROTOCOL INITIATED: GENOME WARFARE COUNTERMEASURES ENGAGED.
Lasers ripped through the chamber. Drones descended like vultures, opening fire on the intruding Hybrids.
Serik howled, leaping through the chaos, claws drawn. He struck one drone in half mid-air, then bolted for Anderson.
But Mira was faster
She intercepted with a plasma grenade, tossing it at his feet. The explosion sent Serik flying into a vault wall, black ooze spraying from his wounds.
Anderson turned to the pedestal. The genome sphere now displayed holographic patterns—codes, bloodlines, DNA histories tracing back thousands of years.
A prompt appeared.
> "Transfer Genome to Host?"
He hesitated.
Mira grabbed his arm. "Anderson. Think. You absorb that—you become the living blueprint of humanity."
"I know," he said. "But if I don't... they will."
The system beeped. A drop of blood fell from his wounded palm, landing on the pedestal.
> "Zeno-line confirmed. Commencing assimilation."
The sphere burst into particles, flooding into Anderson's chest like a swarm of stars.
He screamed.
His body arched backward. Light poured from his eyes, his skin illuminated from within. Neural pathways lit up like city maps, and knowledge—raw, ancient, infinite—flooded into him.
Mira stumbled back. "Anderson...?"
He dropped to his knees, panting.
Then, slowly, he stood. Taller. Stronger. His veins now pulsed with faint blue light. His gaze met Mira's—calm, sharp, unblinking.
"I can feel... everything," he whispered. "Every version of me that could've existed."
Serik, now limping, hissed from across the vault. "You've fused with it... but you are still not one of us."
"No," Anderson said, stepping forward. "I'm something older. I'm what came before you."
He raised his hand. A wave of pressure burst from him, slamming Serik into the far wall, pinning him like a bug under glass.
Mira looked around as Hybrid soldiers retreated, dragging the wounded Serik with them. Alarms still blared, but the Vault was stabilizing.
"What now?" she asked.
Anderson turned to her, his voice calmer, deeper.
"Now we finish what Dr. Z started. We find the Origin Core—and end the war before it begins."
Behind him, the pedestal slid back into the ground. The chamber dimmed.
But above them, deeper in the labyrinth's ceiling, another entity stirred—watching.
And for the first time in decades, it spoke.
> "Zeno-blood... has awakened. Phase Two will commence."