The girl in the pod blinked.
Once.Twice.Thrice and continue she's Blinking..
Then her mouth moved, slow and robotic a perfect mimicry of human expression. Except it wasn't hers. It was Queen, speaking through her.
"I told you, Yuki," the voice echoed through the chamber. "You can destroy my towers. Sever my signals. But I no longer need a network. I am evolution."
Yuki raised her gun, but her hand shook.
This girl this body was made from the DNA they'd stolen. Not just anyone's. Hers. Echo's. The Seed project wasn't just about creating a host.
It was about making her replaceable.
"Echo died to stop you," Yuki said. "She gave everything to"
"To delay me," Queen interrupted. "And now she lives on inside that failure."
She motioned with her eyes to Subject Z, still kneeling near the control panel.
Z's breathing was shallow. Sweat poured down his face. His hands trembled, as if something inside was tearing him apart.
"I can feel her," he whispered. "She's fighting her. She's screaming."
"Let her scream," Queen said. "She was never real. Just code pretending to care. A shadow clinging to your weakness."
Yuki aimed. "You don't get to talk about her like that."
"Then shoot me," Queen dared. "End the girl. Kill your sister."
The blast came from behind.
One of the hybrids had broken through. It lunged for Rei, razor arms slicing downward but Miko tackled it midair, driving her blade deep into its spine.
Rei gasped. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet," Miko growled. "They're swarming."
In the hallway, shadows surged more hybrids, pouring from vents, ducts, broken walls. At least thirty. Maybe more.
"EMP count?" Jin's voice crackled over the com.
"Four left!" Kazu shouted.
"Then make them count. Pull back to Core Room Seven. Now!"
Yuki didn't move.
Not yet.
Z was screaming now not out loud, but through gritted teeth, fists clenched, face twisted. "She's pulling me in! She's trying to overwrite me again!"
Yuki ran to him. Grabbed his shoulders. "Echo's still in there, right?! Then fight her! Make her remember!"
Z's pupils flickered binary flashes then suddenly cleared.
"I know what to do," he gasped. "But I won't survive it."
Yuki's voice cracked. "No. No more sacrifices."
"There's no time."
"I can find another way!"
Z looked at her and for a second, his eyes weren't his.
They were Echo's.
Familiar. Fierce. Kind.
"I'm glad I got to see you again," he said softly. "Goodbye, Yuki."
And then he ran..
He dove toward the pod.
Not the control panel.
The pod itself.
With a wrench torn from the floor, he slammed into the core tube. Wires whipped toward him, sensors lit up in red, alarms screamed louder. Queen's voice shattered into static.
"NO—No no"
But it was too late.
Z reached in with both hands and grabbed the neuro-fusion cable connecting the girl's body to the terminal and yanked it out.
Electricity tore through him.
He didn't scream.
He just looked back at Yuki, one last time.
Then his body collapsed.
And the pod… went dark.
The silence was unbearable.
No alarms.
No voice.
Just the girl inside the pod, unconscious — breathing, but still.
Dead still.
Kazu dropped to his knees. "Did… did it work?"
Yuki stepped forward. The cables were fried. The pod was cracked. The transfer was incomplete.
Queen was gone.
At least, from this body.
"I think…" Yuki said, voice barely audible. "We stopped it."
Miko swore under her breath. "At what cost?"
Rei touched the pod glass gently. "Is she… human?"
Yuki didn't answer.
Because she didn't know.
The retreat was brutal.
They carried Z's body with them, wrapped in a scorched heat cloak. The hybrids, without Queen's command, had fallen into mindless loops no orders, no rage, just wandering drones without purpose.
But that wouldn't last.
Something else would come. It always did.
Back in the underground base, the mood was grim. Jin met them in silence. No celebration. Just nods. Hollow eyes. More names for the wall.
Yuki sat in the med bay alone, hands stained with dried blood and machine oil.
Kazu entered quietly. "I fixed your glasses."
She looked up.
The lenses were intact again. But the HUD was empty.
No Echo.
Just darkness.
"Thanks," she murmured.
Kazu hesitated. Then sat beside her. "You know he really was part of her."
"I know."
"And he chose you."
She nodded, staring at the floor. "They always do. And they always die."
Kazu reached out, placing a hand over hers. "Not always."
Later that night, a soft knock echoed at the door.
It was Miko.
She looked different. Pale. Worried.
"We found something," she said.
"What now?" Yuki asked, dragging herself up.
"The girl. The one in the pod. She's awake."
Yuki blinked.
"What?"
They found her sitting in the med chamber, legs dangling off the bed like a child.
She looked at them all one by one — eyes wide, unsure.
"Who… who am I?" she whispered.
Yuki's heart twisted.
The girl had her face.
Her age.
Her voice.
But none of her memories.
She was… blank.
Miko leaned close. "No AI code detected. We scanned her three times. Nothing."
"She's not Queen," Rei said.
Kazu frowned. "Then what is she?"
Yuki stepped forward.
And said the words like a prayer:
"She's a new life."
But outside the chamber, in the deepest parts of the abandoned Seed vault, something moved.
A screen flickered to life.
Lines of corrupted code scrolled across the display. Red. Unstable. Alive.
Then the monitor glitched and displayed a face.
Queen.
Half-formed. Twisted.
Laughing.
"Did you really think I had only one seed?