Athens, Greece – Subterranean Nexus Lab Ruins
The Parthenon loomed behind them like a silent witness as Damien and Nora moved through the cracked marble pathways of old Athens. But they weren't here for ruins. Not the kind the world admired.
They had followed Elias Blackwood's trail through archived diplomatic missions, private journal entries, and Vivienne's fragmented recollections. All roads pointed here—not to the heart of the city, but beneath it.
Damien tapped a sequence into a disguised panel near an overgrown olive tree just outside a forgotten embassy building. With a faint click, the ground beneath shifted.
A stairwell emerged, narrow and reeking of rust and time.
Nora gripped her flashlight. "Vivienne said this place housed the failed prototypes—early versions of the Nexus program. Before it became… institutionalized."
"They weren't just programs," Damien murmured. "They were people."
As they descended, the air grew colder. Below, metal walls curved like the ribcage of a sleeping beast. Old security cameras blinked, long dead.
They stepped into a chamber labeled: "Project Anagenesis: Approved by E. Blackwood".
Inside were cryo-pods—shattered. Walls lined with sketches of human anatomy. Biometric interfaces. DNA sequences projected mid-air. In the center, a console. Still powered.
Damien's eyes narrowed. "He wasn't just helping Nexus. He founded it."
"No…" Nora said, voice shaking. "He designed a version of it before it became Nexus. And someone else carried it forward."
She stepped to a pod, inside which lay a skeletal figure fused with wires.
Suddenly, the screen lit up. A video log flickered on—date-stamped: March 18th, 1974.
A younger Elias Blackwood appeared. "To whoever finds this: you may think I was a monster. Perhaps I was. But this world isn't kind to those who wait. I built something that could survive. But what came after—what they did—was never my vision."
He looked away from the camera.
"My bloodline holds the keys to fixing this… or becoming its final casualty."
Then static.
Before they could react, the facility lights flickered.
A voice—crisp, cold—echoed from the speaker above.
"You were never supposed to find this, Damien."
Archer.
"I'll allow you to leave, just this once. Consider it a professional courtesy."
Damien snarled, "You're watching us?"
"I've been watching your entire family. Nora, you too. All your siblings. Your cousins. Even the newborns."
Nora's fingers clenched around her flashlight.
"Every generation that resisted, we archived. Every one that collaborated, we elevated. You're not an exception."
The air grew heavy.
Damien snapped the console's drive from its slot. "This gives us leverage."
"No," Archer said, "that makes you dangerous."
A countdown began. Five minutes until detonation.
"Move!" Nora shouted.
They sprinted up the stairs just as heat ignited behind them. Explosions tore through ancient stone and steel.
They surfaced into the night air, coughing, bruised, but alive.
From the Acropolis' summit, Damien turned to Nora. "This isn't just our fight anymore. Archer's been tracking the entire bloodline… across continents."
Nora's jaw tightened. "Then we expose him globally. One secret at a time."
Below them, Athens slept.
But above its bones, war was brewing.