Location: Site Phoenix – Subterranean Control Wing
Time: 3:12 a.m.
The room pulsed with glitching red emergency lights. Metal groaned behind the walls. Sparks spat from overloaded conduits, as if the entire facility resented being awake. Emily raised her rifle first.
"No movement. Yet."
Ryan stepped through the shattered bulkhead, crowbar in hand. The air was thick, almost gelatinous with static. Bella followed last, dragging a limp leg but eyes sharp.
Then the voice came.
Low. Hollow. Too close.
"You had their love. I had the void. Now… I want what was mine."
A shape stepped from the shadows, smoke curling around its silhouette.
Version Zero.
He was taller than Ryan, bulkier. Armor laced with old ONYX tech pulsed with corrupted light. Half his face was Ryan's—the other half was plated, burned, scarred by old experiments. His eyes burned like dying stars.
Behind him, an explosive rig pulsed in tandem with the Phoenix Protocol's core.
"Tell me, father-of-two," Version Zero said, his voice modulated and skipping like a corrupted MP3, "Do they know you're replaceable?"
Ryan didn't blink. "Do you?"
3:13 a.m.
Bella aimed her sidearm. Emily moved wide. Ryan stepped forward alone.
"You want to kill me," Ryan said. "But this isn't about revenge. It's about identity. You think you *are* me."
Version Zero chuckled—a broken, childlike sound.
"I was born from your DNA, your training, your memories. The pain, the fire, the void... that was mine. But you got the family photo on the fridge."
He tapped his head. "I dreamt about her before I even had a name. Your wife. Your kids. My glitching salvation."
A soft playback issued from his chest speaker. Faith's voice, distorted:
> *"Daddy... why did you forget me?"*
Ryan flinched. Emily did too. Bella growled.
"He's sick. And he's about to get put down."
Version Zero moved.
3:15 a.m.
The room exploded into combat.
Version Zero slammed into Ryan, sending him crashing into a bank of old monitors. Emily fired twice—the bullets deflected off his plated shoulder. Bella leapt, cracking a pipe over his back. It bent.
Ryan rolled to his feet, flung a chair at Zero, then dove for the explosives rig. The timer read
11:23
"We got a twelve-minute death clock!" he shouted.
Version Zero flung Bella aside. Her body hit the wall, hard. Emily closed in and slashed his thigh with her combat knife. Sparks flew—metal beneath skin.
Ryan used the moment to plant a jamming spike into the rig. The timer glitched to **10:07**, then resumed ticking.
3:19 a.m.
Ryan and Version Zero stood in the middle of the room.
Identical stances. Mirror images, broken by time.
"I should've been loved," Zero said. "But they threw me away. Like code that didn't compile."
Ryan stared. "I won't say sorry for a life I didn't choose. But I *earned* what I have. You want to take it? You'll have to be better than me."
Zero grinned, then charged.
They collided. Crowbar against armored fists. Bone cracked. Sparks flew.
Emily ducked under a collapsing walkway to reach Bella, who was coughing up blood. "You good to rig the pulse?"
Bella nodded. "Tell me when."
3:23 a.m.
Ryan pinned Version Zero against the wall. "You could have been better than me. You chose hate."
Zero spat blood. "I chose truth."
Emily shouted, "Ryan, MOVE!"
He dove as Bella hit the detonator.
**A flash pulse ripped through the chamber.**
The countdown froze. The core deactivated. Power reversed.
Site Phoenix began to collapse inward.
3:26 a.m.
The trio sprinted through collapsing corridors. Behind them, alarms screamed as systems shorted. Glitching holograms begged for mercy. One said, *"Thank you for using ONYX CORE. Your death is important to us."*
Ryan laughed despite himself.
They reached the surface hatch just as the ground trembled. Bella slammed the button. The elevator rose through rock and flame.
They emerged into the misty night.
3:30 a.m.
From the hill above Site Phoenix, they watched the ground cave in.
Emily leaned on Ryan. Bella lit a cigar with a shaking hand.
"Is it over?" Emily asked.
Ryan didn't answer.
His wristcom buzzed.
A single signal. Distorted. Untraceable.
> *"You stole the name Ryan Bruce. I'm coming for the man beneath it."*
The screen flickered. A single glowing eye. Then silence.
Ryan stared at it, eyes hard.
"Wrong clone came home."
(TO BE CONTINUED...)