Location; Cairo, Egypt – Hidden Vault beneath Saqqara Desert
The Egyptian heat was unforgiving, but the dry wind carried secrets older than empires.
Damien stood with his jacket slung over one shoulder, his eyes on the horizon where the sand met the sky. Behind him, Nora crouched beside a half-buried stone plate etched with worn hieroglyphs.
"This is the spot," she murmured. "According to the decoded coordinates from Athens. And my uncle's last transmission."
"Uncle Ammar, right?" Damien asked. "The one who vanished in '99 after exposing a military-tech smuggling ring?"
Nora nodded. "No trace of him. But Blackwood's database hinted he was investigating an underground Nexus archive hidden under a dynasty-era tomb."
Damien scanned the area. A local contact had helped them navigate the desert's silence—until he'd fled the moment they reached Saqqara's outer fringe.
The stone beneath Nora's hands vibrated.
Then… clicked.
A section of the desert collapsed inward, revealing a staircase spiraling into darkness. Unlike the ancient step pyramids nearby, the entrance below was modern—reinforced steel and biometric locks concealed behind sandstone.
As they descended, walls pulsed faintly with blue veins of energy. They passed ancient symbols fused with coded scripts—Arabic entwined with Latin, hieroglyphs dancing with Nexus code.
They reached a heavy vault door marked:
"Project Legacy – Archive Theta-11"
Damien pressed his hand against the panel. To his surprise, it scanned him.
ACCESS GRANTED.
"Looks like Blackwood made sure your DNA opened more doors than mine," Nora said with a smirk.
The vault groaned open.
Inside was a chamber lined with ancient scrolls stored in climate-sealed vaults, modern terminals, and glass cylinders housing suspended figures in stasis. Each labeled with dates, origins, and genetic tags.
One cylinder glowed faintly.
Subject: Dr. Ammar El-Masri
Status: Unknown
Nora's heart pounded. She rushed to the terminal, typing furiously.
"Vitals… stabilized. Neural activity: intermittent. He's alive—but sedated."
Damien stepped beside another pod marked:
Subject X–21 – Designation: Guardian
Before he could read further, a loud whirr echoed through the chamber. Lights dimmed.
Then came a deep, rumbling voice.
"You should not have come here."
A figure stepped from the shadows—eight feet tall, armored, with faintly glowing eyes. He wasn't machine, but not quite human either. He bore markings Nora recognized from old family artifacts.
"My uncle…" she whispered. "They turned him into this?"
Damien reached for his sidearm. "He's still alive. We can bring him back."
"No," said the Guardian. "I was designed to remain. But Ammar is still within me. Hidden… buried. You'll need the final key."
"Where is it?" Nora demanded.
"North," he said. "The Alps. Where Blackwood's first betrayal began. Where the bloodlines converged."
A loud tremor shook the vault. An automated alert flared:
INTRUSION DETECTED – Nexus Agents Incoming
"Take the core files," the Guardian said. "And go."
He turned to the vault's entrance, preparing for a final stand.
Nora's hands trembled as she downloaded encrypted data onto a shard drive.
"I'll come back for you, Uncle. I promise."
Damien grabbed her hand. "Time's up. Move!"
They sprinted back through the twisting corridor as the chamber behind them lit up with blinding blue energy.
Above ground, sand erupted as they emerged into daylight—seconds before the entire section of the desert sealed itself, erasing every trace.
Nora looked back, eyes damp.
"First Athens, now Cairo. Each place guarded by someone from our bloodlines. What the hell was Blackwood trying to create?"
Damien stared at the shard in her hand. "Not just a system. A legacy. One built on the backs of our families."