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Chapter 22 - Chapter 22: The Omega Protocol

Location: Prague, Czech Republic.

Aria traced Subject Omega to an old cathedral-turned-underground lab. The records were old,almost erased but the coordinates were burned into a redacted file Ares left on the flash drive.

Only a single name attached to Omega's experiment logs:

Elian.

No gender. No age. No photo. Just a warning:

Failed control. Terminated — or so we thought.

---

Aria stepped into the ruins beneath the church.

Old lab machines. Bloodstained notes. Broken glass.

She was alone.

Or so she thought.

---

As she stepped deeper, the lights flickered.

Then — static on her earpiece.

A voice whispered into her left ear:

Why are you looking for me, sister?

Her blood went cold.

She hadn't spoken out loud.

She turned.

But no one was there.

---

Suddenly — gas hissed from the walls.

She grabbed her mask — too late.

Darkness clawed at her vision.

The last thing she saw was a shadow behind her, with eyes glowing gold.

---

Somewhere unknown.

Hours later

Aria woke up chained to a chair in a cold metal room.

A single bulb swung above her.

Across from her sat a person — young, tall, wrapped in shadows. No obvious features. Skin almost pale blue under the light.

You wanted to meet Omega,they said.

I wanted answers,she croaked.

You came to the wrong sibling.

---

You don't want the truth,Elian said, tilting their head,you want someone to blame.

My family created this nightmare.

No,your family is the nightmare.

Elian stood.

Then showed her a file.

It was Aria's.

Not Mei Lin's. Not Augustin's.

Hers.

> A hidden program: PHOENIX ZERO.

Designated: Aria Lin.

The Original.

She was never outside the project.

She was the reason it began.

---

Her voice cracked.

"No. I was raised—in comfort? In wealth?Elian sneered,you were the only one who got love.

The rest of us got wires. Needles. Ice.

Aria shook her head,i didn't know

Elian leaned in close.

You're not our savior, Aria.

>You're our mother.

---

Aria's pulse thundered in her ears.

She whispered, What do you want from me?

Elian walked toward the door.

I want you to stop pretending you're innocent.

Because the other eleven?

They're not coming to destroy the world.

They're coming to destroy you.

---

Back in Zurich, Liam found Aria's phone — broken, burned, left outside a decoy warehouse.

He knew what it meant.

> She'd been taken.

But when he traced the lab's signal…

There were two life forms inside.

And only one was human.

---

❓ Reader Questions:

1. Should Aria embrace her identity as Subject Zero and lead the Helix survivors?

2. Is Elian an enemy… or a twisted mirror of what Aria could've become?

3. If Aria was the prototype, what powers might she have hidden all along?

4. Will Liam arrive in time — or fall into the trap too?

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