The metal doors to Level Z hissed open with a groan that sounded like the mountain itself was protesting.
Ella stepped forward slowly, Elara tucked protectively behind her.
Rows of glass cylinders lined the hallway—fogged from the inside, each containing the silhouette of a sleeping figure.
But it wasn't the clones that stole her breath.
It was the man at the end.
Strapped to a surgical chair.
Pale. Motionless.
But undeniably… Leon.
Her knees nearly buckled.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't free.
He had been here—trapped beneath a mountain, frozen in time like a lab rat too valuable to release.
She had mourned him.
Hated him.
Loved him.
And all the while, he had been a subject.
Subject 00.
Not a man. Not a lover.
A prototype.
Her entire love story…
…was a carefully coded experiment.
He looked like a fallen god preserved in glass—divine and broken, wires like vines wrapping around his veins, sensors embedded in his skull like a crown of thorns.
The monitors around him flickered with neural patterns.
Heartbeat: faint.Brain activity: chaotic.
Yet something pulsed in rhythm with her own heart, as if their souls were still entangled, defying science, fate, and betrayal.
Ella stepped closer, voice breaking."Leon?"
The room responded before he could.
A female voice—cold, synthetic.
"Unauthorized emotional interface detected. Initiating lockdown."
Metal shutters slammed down behind her.
Lights dimmed.
Elara screamed.
And then…
Leon's fingers twitched.
Just once.
Then again.
And then his eyes snapped open.
Feral.
Bloodshot.
Not entirely human.
But they locked on hers.
And he whispered—hoarse, jagged—
"I told them… if you ever came here… I'd kill to protect you."
The glass cylinder shattered.
Wires ripped free.
Alarms blared.
And Ella realized with a jolt—
Leon wasn't just awake.
He was unstable.
A prototype not meant to survive activation.
And now…
He remembered everything.