Back to the present.
Smoke curled off the wreckage of the Revenant gate tower, Lia's pulse still thudding in her ears. Kairo stood beside her, hands scorched, breath shallow.
"They're regrouping," he said, watching drones re-form overhead. "We don't have much time."
Lia tightened her gloves. "We don't need time. We need answers."
Behind the debris, they found the vault—steel and reinforced, humming with Genesis encryption.
Lia placed her hand on the panel.
It responded.
Within seconds, it slid open, revealing racks of vials and a massive screen displaying the original Genesis blueprint.
Subject 01: Lia.
Subject 07: Kairo.
And then—Subject 00: Null.
Kairo froze. "What is that?"
"Caine's prototype," Lia whispered. "The one before both of us. The one they had to lock away."
Suddenly, alarms blared. A transmission flickered on the screen—Caine.
"I was hoping you'd get this far," he said, voice calm. "You're about to make the same mistake we did. But you won't find salvation in the vault, Lia. You'll find your predecessor."
Kairo looked at her. "We're opening it, aren't we?"
Lia nodded.
"Together."
And as the containment chamber hissed open, cold air spilling into the room, they stepped forward—hand in hand—toward the last piece of the Genesis puzzle.
Toward the thing that might save them…
…or destroy everything.