The dark didn’t stay silent.It breathed.A slow, resonant exhale drifted up the open shaft—too deep, too heavy to belong to anything human. Lila felt it more than heard it, a pressure against her ribs, like the air itself recoiled from what lurked below.Riker stepped back instinctively.“What… what did they keep down there?”Hale didn’t speak.He was staring into the void like it might stare back.Ethan did not move.His shoulders squared, eyes locked downward, listening—not to the sound, but to the pattern beneath it. The rhythm. The cadence. The familiar, engineered breathing routine.Lila’s fingers curled around his arm.“Ethan,” she whispered, “you know what it is.”He didn’t answer at first.Then—“Yes.”His voice was low, controlled, but not calm.The kind of tone a person used when seeing a nightmare they’d spent years pretending didn’t exist.Riker licked his lips.“Sir… that breathing… is that—”“Yes,” Ethan cut in.“It’s a Ghost Unit.”Lila’s heart slammed against her ribs

The tunnel quaked under the clash.Shockwaves rolled through the hallway as metal shrieked, sparks exploded, and two forces—one human, one engineered to end humanity—collided again and again.But Lila didn’t see the blows.She only heard them.She only felt every bone-deep impact echoing through the steel walls as Hale dragged her through the far end of the tunnel, Riker running ahead to override the blast doors.“Faster!” Riker barked, voice cracking.“It’s tearing the tunnel apart! We don’t have time—!”Lila tried to look back.Hale forced her forward.“Don’t,” he said. “You look back, you freeze. If you freeze, Ethan dies.”His voice wasn’t unkind.Just brutally honest.But she could still hear it.Every hit.Every strike.Every impact of flesh against metal.The Ghost against the weapon built to kill him.Her heart hammered painfully.“Why is he doing this alone?” she whispered.Hale didn’t answer immediately.Not until they reached the junction door.“Because Level Zero isn’t som

Silence.Heavy.Cold.Suffocating.Ethan didn’t move.He didn’t blink.He just stared at Lila like the ground had slipped out beneath him.A second child.Another one in the cube.Another Ghost.Impossible.No—No, it should have been impossible.The Ghost Program was built on one rule:“Only one subject can survive.”Hale stepped closer, stiff, calculating.“Lila… are you absolutely certain?”Her voice trembled.“I saw two silhouettes. Two children. Ethan… and someone the same age. Same room. Same restraints. Same monitors.”Riker’s face drained of color.“That means there was another Ghost Unit—one never recorded in the official logs.”Hale muttered, “A hidden subject. A twin protocol.”Ethan said nothing.Not a word.His silence was louder than any roar.Lila reached for him instinctively—But Ethan stepped back.Just half a step.Barely noticeable to anyone else.But to Lila, that inch felt like a canyon.“Ethan?” she whispered.He breathed in—slow, sharp, and cold.“When you reme

The safehouse felt colder than the night outside.Ethan hadn’t moved since the nameless Ghost—Zero-Two—disappeared into the shadows.Not a muscle.Not a breath out of place.Lila watched him with her heart in her throat.He wasn’t angry.He wasn’t afraid.He was remembering.Which was worse.Hale finally broke the silence.“We need answers. Real ones. Now.”Riker nodded, rubbing his face.“That guy wasn’t just trained—he’s engineered. And he knew things nobody should know except…”“Except someone from the original Ghost Program,” Ethan finished quietly.Lila stepped closer to him, voice small and uncertain.“Ethan… you said he was activated by the Commander. The real leader of the program. Does that mean he’s alive?”Ethan didn’t look at her.He didn’t look at anyone.He was staring at the table where, hours ago, they’d examined Hale’s recovered symbol.The Crown Serpent.“He didn’t just survive,” Ethan said at last.“He rebuilt everything. In the shadows.”Hale exhaled sharply.“So t

Lila couldn’t breathe.The words kept echoing through the archive chamber, bouncing off steel and glass and memories she never knew she had:You are the other half of Ethan Cole.You are the weapon.Her legs buckled.Ethan caught her before she hit the floor.“Lila—look at me.”His voice was low, steady, but his eyes—his eyes were shaking.She pushed weakly against his chest.“Don’t—don’t touch me—Ethan, what did he mean? What did he—”“We’ll figure it out—”“No!” She jerked back harder, tears burning down her face. “You knew something! You always knew something! You just didn’t tell me!”Riker and Hale stepped away, giving them space—though neither took their hands off their weapons.The hologram of the Commander remained, silently observing its creations.Ethan swallowed.“Lila, listen. I didn’t know this. I didn’t know you were part of the program. I suspected your father had a connection, but this—this is different. This is—”“—a nightmare?” she whispered.“Because that’s what it