HUMBLE & WILD

Chapter 7: Fractured Reflections—The Blood Protocol

Zurich, Switzerland - The Crucible

Time fractured in the smoke-filled chamber. Ten identical faces locked in silent assessment—predators recognizing predators.

"The Protocol lied to you," the golden Sophia said, her voice a perfect echo of the original. "As it has lied for five centuries."

The chamber's emergency systems struggled to compensate for the breach, ancient mechanisms grinding beneath stone floors. Warning lights bathed the confrontation in crimson and amber, casting twin shadows behind each figure.

Grey moved with unexpected speed, drawing a weapon that seemed to phase between solid and energy. "This is a containment breach. The Counter-Protocol is attempting to corrupt the inheritors."

The golden Jack laughed—a sound identical to his counterpart's dangerous cadence. "We're not corrupting anything. We're revealing."

Antonio—the original—felt the golden light spreading through his veins, burning like ice beneath his skin. Everything about these doppelgängers screamed danger. Yet something deeper than conscious thought recognized truth in their presence.

"If you're the real inheritors," Mikhail challenged, "prove it."

The golden Carlos smiled, the expression carrying centuries of calculation. "We don't need to prove anything. Your blood is already acknowledging the truth."

As if triggered by his words, memories began flooding through the original five—not personal memories, but genetic recollections locked in molecular chains. Generations of orchestrated marriages. Selective breeding disguised as dynastic alliances. Children raised to believe they controlled criminal empires, government agencies, and corporate conglomerates—all while serving as unwitting vessels for something far older.

"The Protocol was never about saving humanity," the golden Mikhail stated, his voice carrying the weight of revelation. "It was about controlling extinction."

Dr. Koenig moved toward a concealed panel, her fingers flying across an interface hidden within ancient stone. "Security override Alpha-Nine—"

Her words cut off as the golden Antonio appeared beside her with impossible speed, his hand closing around her throat. "No more lies, Doctor."

The original five felt their bodies changing—cellular structures realigning as the golden light spread through tissue and bone. With each pulse came new understanding, fragments of a hidden history ignored by conventional records.

"The original five families weren't saviors," the golden Sophia continued, her gaze locked on her counterpart. "They were architects of control. They didn't create the protocol to prevent extinction. They created it to manage who survives."

Grey fired his weapon—a streak of energy that should have incinerated the golden Jack. Instead, the beam passed through him like light through water, leaving him untouched.

"Quantum state shifting," Grey snarled, frustration breaking through his composed facade. "They're not physically present."

"Wrong again," the golden Jack responded, suddenly beside Grey. His hand closed around Grey's weapon, crushing it with impossible strength. "We're more present than we've been allowed to be for centuries."

The chamber's defense systems activated fully—turrets emerging from walls, targeting arrays locking onto the golden five. As energy weapons prepared to fire, the original Carlos felt understanding crystallize within him.

"Stand down," he commanded, his voice carrying unexpected authority.

To everyone's shock, the defense systems complied immediately—weapon arrays powering down, targeting systems disengaging.

"How did you do that?" Dr. Koenig demanded, eyes wide with genuine fear.

The golden Antonio released her throat, stepping back with calculated precision. "He didn't. The Blood Protocol did."

"The what?" the original Jack demanded.

"The real failsafe," the golden Carlos explained. "Written in blood five centuries ago by those who recognized the protocol's true purpose."

The original five felt it now—access points opening in their minds like doors unlocked by genetic keys. Information poured through neural pathways never before utilized, carrying revelation after revelation.

The Protocol wasn't created in 1547. It was corrupted then.

"The original design was humanitarian," the golden Mikhail explained as the originals processed genetic memories cascading through their consciousness. "A distributed system of human potential, designed to ensure our species could adapt to any threat."

The golden Sophia continued seamlessly: "But the five families saw opportunity. They hijacked the protocol, rewrote it to ensure their own bloodlines would control what remained after collapse."

"Mafia families didn't emerge from poverty and necessity," the golden Antonio added. "They were engineered specifically as carrying vessels for Protocol genetics—operating outside government oversight while maintaining hierarchical control."

The chamber seemed to breathe around them, ancient stones shifting as though awakening from centuries of dormancy. Beneath their feet, mechanical systems engaged—not defensively, but transformatively.

"The counter-protocol is a myth," the golden Jack stated flatly. "There is only the original design and the corruption you've served."

Grey's expression shifted microscopically—recognition followed by calculation. "They're attempting to subvert your integration. The golden light is a corruption vector."

The original Sophia felt truth crystallizing within her cells. "No. It's a restoration vector."

Dr. Koenig lunged for another control panel, desperation evident in her movements. "Emergency purge protocol! Authorization Koe—"

This time, it was the original Mikhail who moved to stop her, covering the distance with impossible speed. "I don't think so, Doctor."

The chamber's transformation accelerated—wall panels sliding away to reveal ancient mechanisms interwoven with quantum technology. A hidden architecture revealing itself after centuries of concealment.

"What you're feeling is choice," the golden Carlos explained. "The one thing the corrupted protocol eliminated from its carriers."

The original Antonio looked at his golden counterpart. "You're not doppelgängers."

"No," the golden Antonio confirmed. "We're what you were meant to be. What you can still become."

The global display reactivated, showing the network nodes shifting—not dying as Grey had claimed, but transforming as the golden light spread through the system.

"The five families corrupted something beautiful," the golden Sophia said, her voice carrying ancient sorrow. "They turned a distributed empowerment system into centralized control."

The original Carlos felt understanding lock into place. "The mafia networks. The government connections. The corporate structures. They were all just delivery systems."

"For the corrupted protocol," the golden Jack confirmed. "Five centuries of manipulation disguised as family legacy."

Grey suddenly laughed—the sound jarringly genuine from someone who had shown so little humanity. "You're too late. The Convergence is already active. The extinction triggers have been engaged."

All ten turned to him with identical expressions of alarm.

"What have you done?" the original Sophia demanded.

Grey's smile was terrifying in its sincerity. "The Protocol requires extinction to fulfill its purpose. If natural collapse was insufficient... alternative measures were implemented."

The global display shifted again, showing activation patterns across strategic locations—nuclear facilities, bioweapon repositories, and weather modification arrays. Countdown sequences initiated with synchronized precision.

"You engineered the collapse," the golden Mikhail realized, horror evident in his voice.

"The protocol requires collapse to select survivors," Grey replied, as though explaining something obvious. "The families have waited five centuries for their ascension. They will not be denied by a genetic safeguard."

The chamber shuddered violently. Ancient stone cracked as something fundamental shifted in the earth beneath them.

"What's happening?" the original Jack demanded.

"The Crucible is awakening," Dr. Koenig answered, her clinical detachment returning. "The final stage of protocol activation. This facility is not merely a bunker. It's a seed vault—for humanity's selected survivors."

The floor beneath them began to reconfigure, revealing sophisticated stasis chambers arranged in concentric circles around a central platform.

"Five families," Grey continued. "Five thousand selected bloodlines. Five million carefully chosen carriers of specific genetic markers. All safely preserved while the protocol cleanses the remaining eight billion."

Horror spread across ten identical faces as understanding crystallized.

"This was never about saving humanity," the original Antonio whispered.

"It was about replacing it," his golden counterpart confirmed.

The chamber's transformation accelerated, walls falling away to reveal a vast underground complex extending beyond sight—thousands of stasis chambers already occupied with suspended figures.

"The families have been preparing for centuries," Grey explained, professional pride evident in his voice. "Collecting the genetic material they deemed worthy of preservation."

"And eliminating bloodlines they considered threatening," the golden Sophia added, centuries of genocide suddenly contextualized.

The global display showed extinction protocols activating across continents—cascading failures designed to appear as natural disasters, political conflicts, and technological accidents.

"You can't stop it," Dr. Koenig stated with clinical certainty. "The protocol is distributed across too many systems. It's been executing for too long."

The golden Mikhail turned to his original counterpart. "She's wrong. There is one way to interrupt the sequence."

"The Blood Protocol," the original Mikhail realized, the knowledge unfolding within him like a genetic memory.

The ten looked at each other—originals and golden counterparts—as understanding passed between them without words. The Crucible continued its transformation around them, ancient machinery awakening to apocalyptic purpose.

"It requires all five bloodlines," the golden Jack confirmed. "Working in perfect synchronization."

"And it will kill half of us," the original Jack added, the knowledge emerging from newly activated neural pathways.

Grey's composed facade finally cracked completely. "You cannot access the Blood Protocol! The families eliminated that failsafe centuries ago!"

The golden Carlos smiled—the expression containing equal parts triumph and sorrow. "They tried. But blood remembers what men attempt to forget."

The ten moved into position, forming a double pentagon around the chamber's central platform. As they took their places, the golden light beneath their skin intensified, creating visible connections between original and counterpart.

"Whatever you're attempting will fail," Dr. Koenig warned, backing toward a hidden exit. "The protocol is absolute."

"Nothing created by humans is absolute," the original Sophia replied, certainty flowing through her transformed biology. "Especially not systems built on corruption."

The golden five began to fade—not disappearing, but merging with their original counterparts. As they did, knowledge transferred completely—the full genetic memory of five centuries of manipulation, resistance, and hidden purpose.

"Remember," the golden Sophia whispered as she merged with her counterpart. "The Protocol serves humanity. Not the other way around."

As the integration completed, the five originals stood alone—transformed, illuminated from within by golden light, and connected by visible strands of energy that formed a perfect pentagram between them.

The Blood Protocol was activated.

And the world began to change.

In the monitoring centers of five family compounds across the globe, alarms sounded as extinction sequences were interrupted. In secure bunkers where the true heads of the five families waited for the Convergence, panic spread as systems failed and safeguards collapsed.

In the Crucible beneath Zurich, five heirs to corrupted legacies made a choice that their ancestors had never allowed them.

And somewhere, in systems too distributed to be tracked, too complex to be understood by any single mind, the original protocol—the true design—began to awaken.

Grey's final words echoed through the chamber as he activated his own escape protocol:

"You have no idea what you've just unleashed."

He was right. They didn't.

But they were about to find out.