Island Zero – Architect’s ChamberNull hung mid-air, his frame trembling, limbs sparking with disrupted code. The Architect’s obsidian mask split open not revealing a face, but light. Swarming with logic threads and rewritten algorithms.“You are obsolete,” the Architect intoned.“Your thread ends. Hers begins.”Null’s voice came in bursts. “You were my shadow, You’re not meant to lead.”The Architect tightened its grip.“And yet I rise.”Elsewhere – Sublevel TunnelsAyla stumbled, The world blurred. Her fingers twitched with rhythms not her own. Her veins pulsed like fiber-optic cables, Data bled through her thoughts.[PROTOCOL MERIDIAN INITIALIZING][NEURAL SYNC: 12%… 16%…]“Ayla!” Vex caught her.“I feel it,” she whispered. “Something’s taking me over.”Charlotte leaned against Echo, barely able to stand.Her voice was a ghost. “It’s happening faster than I thought.”Echo snapped, “Then stop it.”“I can’t.” Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears. “But maybe she can.”Inside Ayla’s Mind

Langford’s Private Facility – Server Core – 03:12 a.m.Smoke curled from every screen. Sparks danced across the metal floor. Langford stood in silence, watching the remains of his empire blink out one by one. The room, once glowing with power, was now a tomb, Behind him footsteps.Ayla stepped in Weak Limping But alive. Langford turned slowly. Saw her silhouette in the doorway. He laughed soft, disbelieving.“Well, look at you. You’re not dead.”Ayla’s voice was raw. “Neither are you.”Seconds Later – Null and Cassian entered.Langford raised his hands mockingly. “What now? Execution? Public trial? Or maybe just a quick purge while no one’s looking?”Cassian’s grip on his pistol tightened. “Tempting.”Ayla stepped between them. She faced Langford, shaking but standing tall.“You tried to strip the world of its choices. You used my DNA. My mother. You built a future without consent.”Langford smiled thinly. “And yet I almost succeeded.”Echo joined them, dragging a case filled with rec

Charlotte sat upright on her cot, brows furrowed as Ayla paced in front of her. The envelope lay open on the table between them, names exposed like raw nerves.Ayla’s voice was low, Controlled Too calm.“You said Dad died in a systems crash, That he was an analyst Civilian, Quiet.”Charlotte didn’t speak. Ayla kept pacing.“His name is on the list, Mom Right there Sebastian Trent Donor, Primary investor in Meridian.”Finally, Charlotte looked up, her eyes full of a grief that had sharpened over years.“I didn’t lie, I edited. Because the truth would’ve broken you.”Flashback – 17 Years AgoA man with a crooked smile and sharp suits. Sebastian Trent Standing beside Langford Shaking hands. Smiling for the camera. Then later storming out of a lab, files in hand, shouting:“We didn’t agree on this. Using children? You cross this line and I pull funding.”Langford’s answer: “You already gave us your DNA, Sebastian. You can’t undo that.”Back to PresentCharlotte held Ayla’s gaze.“He trie

Milan Facility – Sublevel 4 – 07:31 a.m.Alarms blared.Red strobes painted the steel corridors the scent of burning circuits filled the air. Ayla dragged Null 2.0 down the hallway, his weight heavier than it should have been. His muscles twitched, sparks of data still surging beneath his skin.“Keep moving!” she urged.He staggered, eyes flickering with static.“He’s inside me. Trying to overwrite.”She grabbed his face. Forced his gaze on hers.“Then don’t look at him, look at me.”For a moment, his eyes steadied.Observation DeckSebastian Trent watched with cold fury as his daughter fled. The technician’s hands trembled.“Sir, we’re losing control he’s rewriting core systems.”Sebastian’s jaw flexed“Then bring the building down now.”The tech froze. “Sir, there are hundreds of staff”“Collateral. Erase everything.”Fjord Base – En RouteCassian slammed the jet’s throttle forward. Vex strapped herself into the co-pilot seat, pulling up schematics of the Milan compound.“If Sebasti

Sublevel 4 – 08:30 a.m.Ayla pressed trembling hands against the console, her vision swimming. The clone’s body lay still at her feet, but the screens around her pulsed with new life chaotic, unbound.Code raced like wildfire, symbols reshaping themselves faster than her eyes could follow. Then, in the static chaos, a fragment aligned into words: AYLA LISTEN.Her heart stuttered. She whispered, “You’re still here?”The letters flickered NOT ME WHAT I LEFT, HE CAN’T STOP IT.The system howled as alarms ripped through the base. Sebastian’s voice thundered overhead, distorted with fury: “STOP FIGHTING ME!”Observation DeckSebastian tore at the console, blood on his fingers as glass cracked under his strikes. The system refused to obey him fully. The clone’s ghost had infected Requiem, inserting a recursive key a choice.Sebastian slammed a fist into the glass. “You think you can outplay me? I BUILT this world! You are nothing but echoes of a broken experiment!” But for the first time,