The jet roared across the night sky above the Indian subcontinent, its engines modified with stealth drives and cloaking systems long thought theoretical. Inside, silence reigned.
Aria sat near the window, fingers curled around the dormant Eden Core. Every pulse from it synchronized with her heartbeat. She wasn't just guiding it anymore. It was responding to her.
Across from her, Lucien cleaned a modified pulse rifle, eyes narrowed. "This Vault... it's different."
"It's not a Vault," Aria reminded him. "It's a tomb. A lab. A prison built to hold what couldn't be controlled."
Lina didn't speak. She hadn't said much since Siberia. Guilt still hung heavy, but she hadn't run. That counted for something.
K-0X broke the silence. "Project Eidolon was terminated… officially. But unofficially, its subject—the first Helix hybrid—was never neutralized. It disappeared."
Lucien looked to Aria. "Until now."
Aria nodded. "She's awake. And she's not alone."
---
New Delhi — Subsurface Level 17
Security alarms screamed, though no one remained to hear them. Bodies of Helix soldiers lay torn across the corridor floors, armor shattered like glass.
Inside the main chamber, the hybrid stood—barefoot, blood-soaked, elegant in her destruction.
Her name was Isolde.
Unlike Aria, she hadn't been created to feel.
She had been created to win.
Her hair shimmered silver-black, eyes golden and voidless. And as she stepped from the broken circle of the containment ring, she whispered something to herself.
"They've come."
---
The Descent
"Eyes on the Vault perimeter," K-0X announced. "Energy fluctuations suggest the subject is awake and possibly hostile."
"No kidding," Lucien muttered, looking at the blown-apart surface hatch.
They descended fast—Aria taking point, the Eden Core pulsing hotter with every step.
As they reached the containment levels, heat radiated through the walls.
And then they saw her.
Isolde stood in the wreckage of her prison, her expression unreadable.
Lucien raised his weapon.
She didn't flinch.
Aria stepped forward, unarmed.
"Isolde."
That name. That voice.
The hybrid cocked her head, studying Aria. "You were supposed to be my replacement."
"I was supposed to destroy you," Aria said honestly.
Isolde gave a small, sharp smile. "Then why do you sound like me?"
Aria blinked.
Because she did. And that terrified her.
"We need your help," Aria said. "The Helix Empire is coming back. They want to finish what they started."
"They'll fail," Isolde replied. "They always do."
"They have more Vaults," K-0X said. "More weapons."
"They have me," Aria added. "But they don't have us."
Isolde's gaze flicked to Lucien, then to Lina, then back to Aria. "You would trust me, after what I am?"
"No," Aria said. "But I'll stand beside you anyway."
---
The Oracle's Echo
Far away, in a hidden server city beneath Geneva, a console flickered to life.
A single eye opened within the core of the Oracle's last backup—fragmented, shattered, but not gone.
She whispered:
> "Let them unite. I will still divide. The next Vault is mine."