The soft hum of machines filled the lab, sterile and chilling. Ava stood before the glass tank, staring at her own face, pale, still, suspended in a sleep that looked peaceful but reeked of violation. She wasn't just a clone. She was a blueprint of everything they wanted her to be, obedient, controlled, perfect.
Iris stood behind her, frozen in place, eyes narrowed. "What the hell is this?"
Jonas moved to the console, fingers trembling as he scrolled through lines of encrypted files. "They called it Project Seraphim. It wasn't just about creating elite assassins. They were building replacements. Clones for every failed operative. Bodies with no memories, no attachments. Just… tools."
Ava breath caught. "They didn't just destroy my family to get to me. They wanted to erase me… and recreate me in their image."
She looked around. There were more tanks some cracked, others still intact. One held a version of her with cybernetic implants along her spine. Another had scars across her face, as if she'd been tested in combat and discarded.
Iris stepped toward one of the pods. "They experimented until they got the version they wanted."
Jonas found a video log. He played it, and Genevieve's face filled the screen. Younger, colder. "Subject 07 shows optimal emotional suppression. Memory erasure is partially effective. Next phase: psychological reprogramming."
Ava stomach turned.
"I wasn't a daughter to her," she whispered. "I was a lab rat."
She stepped back from the console, heart hammering in her chest. She could feel years of betrayal boiling in her blood. All the training, the surgeries, the rules, it had all been a lie wrapped in love.
Jonas's voice broke through. "There's more beneath. A failsafe vault marked Facility Black. We're standing in the prototype wing."
Ava turned to Iris. "We're going deeper."
They descended metal stairs into darkness. Facility Black was colder, older designed not for life, but containment. Walls were rusted. Blood stained the corners. The air reeked of ammonia and rot.
Jonas found the terminal, lighting up a massive chamber filled with stasis tanks. Dozens of them. Each with a version of someone I once was or might have been.
In one pod was a young girl, maybe twelve, wearing a version of Ava's mother's pendant. In another, a hybrid with glowing eyes stared straight at them.
"This isn't just about you," Iris said quietly. "They've been replacing others, too."
Ava stared at a pod labeled "Subject 00."
It wasn't me. It was my mother.
Alive.
But not.
She stepped back, knees shaking. "They took everything."
She pressed my hand to the console, fingers hovering over the PURGE button. Flames, alarms, and the screams of her past echoed in her ears.
She hit it.
Tanks hissed open. Fire erupted from the vents. The chamber lit up like a crematorium.
Iris grabbed her arm. "Run!"
They sprinted through the corridor, Jonas stumbling behind them. Explosions rocked the floor. Systems overloaded. Sparks fell like rain. Ava didn't look back.
As they reached the exit hatch, she turned once more, watching the Circle's darkest secret burn.
Let the world forget me.
But never forget what they did.
Flames consumed the cloning lab behind them, roaring through the chambers like a living beast. The floor shuddered beneath their boots as systems shorted out one after another. Red emergency lights bathed the corridor in hellish glow.
Jonas coughed, pressing a sleeve to his mouth. "The purge system, it's triggering a full collapse!"
"Good," Ava said without slowing. "Let it all fall."
Iris pulled him along, her eyes scanning every corner. "We need to get to the surface. Now."
They raced back through the winding tunnels, navigating smoke, sparks, and falling debris. Every alarm blared in shrill agony. Walls buckled. Pipes burst overhead. This place the Circle's crown jewel was crumbling.
In the distance, they could hear gunfire. Not at them. At each other.
"They're turning on themselves," Iris growled.
Ava kicked open a door and they spilled into a hangar bay. Enforcers shouted, loading crates onto a transport aircraft. One of them turned and recognized her.
"It's her!"
She fired first, the bullet catching him between the eyes. Chaos erupted.
Iris threw a grenade. The explosion rocked the hangar, flames licking up the walls. Jonas scrambled behind cargo as Ava sprinted through the gunfight, sliding behind a fuel tank and returning fire.
They fought their way toward the far end of the hangar, where another transport was fueling up. Pilots tried to flee, but Iris shot one in the leg and ripped the other from the cockpit.
Jonas clambered aboard, bloodied but alive.
Ava climbed in last, slamming the hatch shut as Iris powered the engines. Bullets pinged off the hull. Below them, the facility cracked, fire surging from its seams.
They lifted off.
Ava stared through the window as the Circle's legacy vanished in a storm of fire and smoke.
It was over.
Or so she thought.