The doors to Genesis Zero hissed shut behind them, but the weight of the truth followed Aria like a second shadow.
She walked in silence, the cold wind slicing against her skin, her mind replaying the footage over and over.
Kael.
Subject A13.
Her bonded counterpart, her other half... and the threat buried inside him.
She didn't know what scared her more—the idea that he could lose control, or the terrifying thought that she might be the only one capable of stopping him.
Echo didn't speak, but Aria could feel the tension radiating from her with every step. She kept glancing at the darkening sky, as if expecting it to swallow them whole.
"We'll never reach the city by foot before nightfall," Echo finally muttered. "And if he's out there—"
"I'll find him," Aria interrupted.
Echo stopped, turning sharply. "And what happens when you do? What if he's not… himself anymore?"
Aria didn't answer immediately. The truth was, she didn't know. But the thought of Kael out there, alone, possibly fighting whatever beast Red Hollow had turned him into—it tore at her in ways she couldn't name.
"We don't abandon people we love," she whispered. "Not even when they scare us."
Echo stared at her, then looked away. "You sound like her."
"Who?"
"Mara Voss. The woman in the recording. She used to say that all the time… until she disappeared."
They walked again, this time heading toward a ridge Echo claimed led to a hidden outpost. Aria could feel something pulling at her core, like gravity in reverse—Kael's presence echoing through their fractured bond.
She tried not to think about their last kiss.
Or the way his eyes had burned with something feral.
Something not entirely human.
They reached the ridge by sundown. Below them lay ruins of what had once been a research station—half-buried in ice, partially collapsed, but still humming with residual power.
Aria climbed down first. Echo followed, boots crunching over glass and debris. As they stepped inside, the air changed. Denser. Charged.
The moment her boots hit the metal floor, Aria froze.
There it was again.
That pulse.
Familiar. Terrifying. Beautiful.
Kael.
She ran toward it.
Down a rusted corridor, past bloodstained walls and shattered lights. She didn't stop until she reached the center chamber—where the pulse beat the loudest.
The door opened.
He stood inside.
Kael.
But not the boy she remembered.
His skin was pale, marked with faint glowing veins beneath the surface. His eyes—no longer just stormy, but swirling with shadows and silver light—locked onto hers.
"Aria," he breathed, voice hoarse, broken. "You… came."
She wanted to run to him. To fall into his arms. But something held her still.
"You're hurt," she said.
He stepped closer. "Not anymore."
She saw it now—his wounds had closed, but not healed. They had shifted. His body was adapting, transforming, fed by the dormant energy in his blood.
Subject A13 wasn't a failure.
He was evolution in motion.
"You saw the footage," he said quietly.
She nodded.
"Then you know what I am."
"You're still you," she said, voice trembling.
He laughed bitterly. "No, Aria. I'm what they warned you about."
He lifted a hand. Shadows coiled around it—alive, sentient, like ink made flesh.
"I can feel it inside me," he said. "Rage. Fire. Hunger. Every moment I breathe, it grows stronger."
Aria moved closer. "Then fight it."
He looked up, eyes burning. "Why should I? They created me to destroy. What if that's all I'm meant for?"
"Because you chose to save me," she said. "Because you still feel. Because you're not alone."
Kael's hands trembled. "You don't understand what I've done."
He turned—and the room changed.
Behind him, a wall of glass lit up with glowing sigils. Inside it was something monstrous—twisted flesh, exposed bone, glowing eyes.
A creature.
Dead.
"I killed it," he said. "They called it 'The Hollow.' One of the first born from Genesis Zero. It was hunting you."
Aria stepped forward slowly. "You saved me again."
Kael turned to her, and his voice cracked. "But I didn't stop there."
He opened his coat—and Aria gasped.
Beneath his shirt, his skin was marked with sigils—burned into him. The same ones she'd seen in the lab, on the tanks. They weren't just scars.
They were control runes.
"Someone's trying to weaponize you," she whispered.
Kael nodded. "Someone still inside Red Hollow."
That's when Echo entered, eyes wide. "We have a problem."
She held up a shattered earpiece. "They're here."
"Who?" Aria asked.
"The ones that made you," Echo said. "And they're not here to talk."
Kael clenched his fists. "Then I'll finish what I started."
"No." Aria stepped between him and the door. "Not like this."
"They won't stop. They'll hunt us down. Cage us again."
"Then we make a different choice," she said, placing her hands on his chest.
He shuddered beneath her touch.
"Kael, you're not a weapon. You're not a monster. You're mine."
His breath caught. The shadows around him slowed, curling like smoke.
But before either of them could say more—
The wall exploded.
Aria was thrown back. She hit metal hard, the air knocked from her lungs. Lights flickered.
Figures stepped through the smoke—clad in armor, faces covered by black helmets.
Aria's ears rang.
She saw Kael rise, shadows coiling again.
"No," she gasped.
But it was too late.
He unleashed the dark.
The entire room trembled.
Echo dragged Aria to cover as the first soldier screamed—lifted into the air by shadow tendrils that shredded him like paper.
Aria crawled toward Kael, yelling his name.
He didn't hear.
Didn't see her.
He was gone—lost in the storm of his own power.
"Kael!" she screamed again.
This time, his head jerked. His eyes locked on her—just for a second.
And that was all she needed.
She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"Come back to me," she whispered, pressing her lips to his.
For a moment, nothing.
Then—
Silence.
The shadows stilled.
Kael collapsed into her arms.
All around them, the soldiers froze.
Then dropped their weapons.
One by one.
Retreating.
The light returned to Kael's eyes.
He blinked up at her. "Aria?"
She held him tighter. "I'm here. I've got you."
He exhaled a shaky breath. "I thought I lost myself."
"You didn't," she whispered. "You came back."
And for now—that was enough.