You thought you escaped the lab. But the lab had cameras outside the walls. Watching. Waiting. And now they're ready to bring the experiment home.
Scene: Abandoned Data Relay Station – Sector 8 Underground
Dust choked the hallways. The old Concord archive towers hadn't pulsed in years. When the new HeroNet grid was activated, this wing became obsolete — forgotten by staff, sealed off from cadet access.
But Rook Vale had the override key.
Courtesy of Solaris's spike.
He stepped through the security field, boots landing silently on cracked tile. The terminal hummed as he approached — slow to wake, as if surprised it was being used again.
The drive lit up.One blinking file.
Labeled:
C-REINA // CONTINGENCY CACHETimestamp: 6 Years AgoVoice Only.
He played it.
Audio Log Begins
A click.
Then static.
Then a voice.
Not Reina.
Male. Cold.
Zodiac-class vocal signature. Too clear. Too calm.
"Cognitive spike is stronger than projected. Subject Vale is entering pattern replication. Motor response to high-emotion stimuli matches archival Solaris combat logs with 94.6% fidelity."
"Reina Salen removed herself from oversight. She cannot be recovered."
Rook blinked.
She didn't vanish. She ran.
"Subject displays dissociative layering. Conscious Hernan does not recall deeper mimetic behaviors.Observation protocol holds.Do not correct.Do not engage.We watch."
A pause.
Then:
"If he begins remembering…"
A second pause.
Like hesitation.
Then the voice hardened.
"…we observe. We do not interfere.Unless he begins to build."
"If he builds?If Bloodcape forms?"
A long breath. Like someone recognizing a final option.
"Protocol shifts to Contain or Convert."
The recording ended.
Scene: Data Hall – Same Time
Rook didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Convert?
They didn't just expect rebellion.
They had a response strategy ready.
They had a name for it.
Bloodcape wasn't his invention.
They gave it to him.
Ava's words returned in his skull:
"I wasn't made to kill. I was made to remember."
But that meant someone had already designed a threshold. A limit.
And now he had crossed it.
Scene: Private Comm Line – One Hour Later
Aya stared at the incoming feed. No video, just Rook's voice.
"Tell Tessa to be careful. She's a variable they don't know how to chart."
Aya frowned. "You're spiraling."
"No. I'm in a plan that's older than me.And I'm finally at the part where the cage door closes."
Scene: Ava's Quarters – Same Time
Ava sat at her desk.
The lights were off. Her comm was silent.
But her hands were shaking.
Because the last message on her internal thread had no sender ID.
No trace.
Only text.
"He knows now.Initiate conversion protocol.Handler Zero will make contact."
Ava closed the message.
Her eyes didn't blink.
But somewhere, deep inside her synthetic memory thread…
A part of her didn't want to obey.