The first thing I noticed was the smell of disinfectant.
Not the Grand Hyatt's champagne. Not blood or gunpowder. Just the sterile sting of ethanol and bleach.
I opened my eyes to blinding fluorescent lights. White tile walls. A heart monitor beeping erratically beside me. My wrists were strapped to a medical gurney with thick leather restraints.
The System was silent.
A shadow moved to my left. The original Lu Chen—*my prototype*—leaned against a hospital tray, rolling a syringe between his fingers. His face was gaunt, his eyes hollow with years I hadn't lived.
"Welcome to iteration zero," he said. "The loop you were never supposed to see."
---
SECTION 1: THE LAB ORIGINS
He didn't speak at first. Just tapped the heart monitor's screen, pulling up a grainy ultrasound image dated **twenty years earlier**.
A fetus. My face.
"Mu's first successful clone," he said. "You."
The video feed jumped to a lab scene: Mu in a surgical mask, injecting something into the fetus's amniotic fluid. The timestamp read: **PROJECT SECOND CHANCE - TRIAL 47**.
"Her breakthrough wasn't time loops," he continued. "It was **memory implantation**. Every 'loop' you've experienced? They're archived memories. Mu's been testing different deaths on you since birth."
I strained against the restraints. "Anya—"
"Is dead." He flipped to another screen. Security footage from the Grand Hyatt's real first loop: Anya taking a bullet meant for me, her body crumpling to the floor. "She only exists in your head now. Mu added her later to... motivate you."
The door opened.
Our twelve-year-old son walked in, holding a knife. But his eyes were normal—*human*. Terrified.
"Dad?" he whispered. "Please wake up."
---
SECTION 2: THE SON'S BETRAYAL
The original Lu Chen sighed. "He's why I broke the cycle. The only heir who resisted her programming."
The boy—*my real son*—lunged at the prototype. "Don't touch him!"
They struggled. The syringe shattered. Glass bit into my forearm as I yanked against the restraints—
***SNAP.***
The heart monitor flatlined. The lights died.
In the darkness, the System flickered back online:
**[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE]**
*▶ Memory archive corrupted*
*▶ Primary directive: Protect heir (designation: Subject Omega)*
*▶ Mu's location: OR Room 3*
My son's small hand found mine. "She's coming."
---
SECTION 3: THE FINAL CONFRONTATION
We found Mu in the operating room, prepping a newborn—*the golden-eyed baby*—for neural transfer. Her surgical mask hid her smile, but not the triumph in her voice:
"Chen. You're just in time to meet **the true heir**."
The original Lu Chen burst in behind us, his face bloody. "Don't let her—"
Mu plunged a needle into the baby's spine.
The world **split**.
One version of reality showed the baby screaming. Another showed it laughing. A third showed it aging into our twelve-year-old son in seconds.
The System screeched a warning:
**[TEMPORAL COLLAPSE IMMINENT]**
*▶ Only one timeline can stabilize*
*▶ Choose now*
I raised my stolen scalpel—
Not at Mu.
At the baby.
---
The original Lu Chen tackled me mid-lunge. "Wrong choice!"
The scalpel plunged into his chest instead.
As he died, he whispered: "She's not the enemy... *you are*."
Then the baby's golden eyes snapped open.
And the **first true loop** began.