The sky over Nexus seemed to be engulfed in flames that night.
The red moon hung low, shrouded in smoke from the burning power plant. The smell of ozone and scorched metal filled the air, signaling that the world was beginning to crack.
In the middle of the battlefield full of ruins, Zero stood. His body was half-smoky, the hybrid suit on his body flickering, as if he was fighting to stay alive.
His eyes were no longer the blue they once were, but a mixture of silver and deep purple, vibrating between human and something greater.
In front of him, Kyra ran towards him, her face filled with anxiety.
"Zero! Stop the power before"
"Before I lose myself?" Zero interrupted, smiling faintly. "Maybe I've been gone for a long time, Kyra."
The wind swirled around them. Energy from Zero's body began to emerge like glowing smoke, making the ground beneath him tremble.
In the distance, thousands of Division X drones appeared from the sky, forming a swarm like a black cloud of fire.
Zero looked at them blankly.
"They came to end this. But I'm not done yet."
---
A few hours earlier.
Kyra and the small Helix team had just discovered a secret file in the underground archives of Sector Delta.
The file was dusty, and it read:
"GENESIS: SUBJECT 00."
In the file, a picture of Zero dated 18 years before he was born.
Kyra was stunned.
"No way… he's not a normal human…"
Juno, their technician, shook her head.
"More than that. He's the last prototype before the 'ORION' project was frozen."
Beneath the note, another note was written:
"Subject 00 was designed not to fight humans but to replace them."
---
Back to the present.
The first blast from the drone exploded in the air. Kyra screamed, pushing Zero aside.
Zero raised his hand, the light from his bio-core gloves burst out, forming an energy shield that deflected the shots. Plasma blasts glowed blue around them, shattering glass and stone.
"You have to back off, Kyra!"
"I won't leave you!"
But Zero had disappeared in a haze of smoke. In an instant, he was behind the line of drones with lightning-quick movement, the sound of wind and metal clashing.
One by one the drones split in two.
But each time he used the energy, his body broke apart more, his skin cracked into tiny pieces, his veins blazing like fire.
Kyra screamed from afar,
"You'll be destroyed if you keep going!"
"If I stop, the world will be destroyed first," Zero answered quietly into the radio.
---
Underground, the Nexus lab was still active.
Neon lights flickered on the ceiling and in the main control room, an old man stared calmly at Zero's hologram screen.
His name was Dr. Varin, the original architect of the Genesis Project.
"He's reached Omega level," he said slowly.
"What are your next orders, sir?" asked the officer.
"Wake up Subject 01."
The officer hesitated. "But..."
"Now. Or this will all mean nothing."
---
A few minutes later.
Zero and Kyra made it to the ruins below the old lab. In the center of the large room, stood a giant glass cylinder filled with a glowing green liquid. Inside, a girl floated.
Her face… was soft, but her eyes were tightly closed.
Kyra swallowed.
"Who is she?"
Zero slowly approached. In his mind, blurry images appeared, the white lab, a girl's laughter, and a soft voice calling his name.
"Lira…" he whispered.
"Do you know her?"
"Before. Or maybe… before I became this way."
Suddenly, the lab's systems came back to life.
[SECURITY BREACH DETECTED. AWAKENING PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
The cylinder began to vibrate. The liquid inside churned. Kyra turned, screaming,
"Zero, we have to get out!"
But Zero stood rigid.
The girl's eyes slowly opened, a blinding white light shooting from her pupils.
"Subject 01: Active."
"Mission: Eliminate Subject 00."
---
A white light exploded from inside the cylinder. A wave of energy shattered the surrounding walls. Kyra was thrown back, screaming Zero's name, but only heard the sound of a crash and the cracking of glass.
Lira stepped out of the cylinder, her skin glowing softly, her white hair floating in the air, and behind her, an aura like sparkling glass wings.
"Lira, listen to me!" Zero shouted.
"You are not the enemy!"
But Lira raised her hand, forming a blade of energy from the air.
"You've lived too long on your own mistakes. I'm just fixing the world as it should be."
She attacked.
The blade passed quickly, smoothly, but Zero managed to block it with a silver-shining hand. Sparks of energy exploded, shattering the lab's basement floor.
They fought fiercely, silver and white light intersecting in the darkness.
Every blow, every step, shook the entire building.
Kyra screamed for them, but her voice was drowned out by the noise of the explosion.
---
Finally, Lira slashed Zero's chest, a huge crack in his bio-core armor.
Zero fell to his knees, blood mixed with energy gushing from the wound.
"Lira… please stop…"
"You should know, Zero," Lira's voice was slow, but cold, "I was created from your own memory. From the part of you that you were most afraid of losing."
Zero looked up, his eyes trembling.
"That's a lie."
"No. You created me to replace Kyra… when your world collapsed first."
Silence.
Kyra was frozen, her face changing, as if she had just realized she was living in someone else's shadow.
Lira raised her hand again.
"Now, let me end your suffering."
But Zero managed to grab her wrist.
"If I created you... I can also make up for that mistake."
The light from her body flashed brightly.
"ZERO—DON'T!" Kyra screamed.
The explosion of light blinded her eyes.
The sky of Nexus cracked. A sound like thunder shook the entire city.
---
As the dust began to settle, the Nexus laboratory disappeared, leaving only a large crater in the middle of the field of ruins.
Kyra woke up, half of her body injured. She screamed Zero's name over and over again, but there was no answer.
Only one thing floated in the air, a sphere of white light, pulsating slowly.
Inside, the shadows of Zero and Lira's faces... united.
A soft voice echoed:
"Kyra... if I don't come back... make sure this world doesn't forget who we really are."
The sphere broke into thousands of glowing particles and flew into the sky.
On the far horizon, the ORION system reactivated, forming a new symbol in the air, NEXUS RECLAMATION.
Kyra stared at the sky, tears mixing with blood.
"Zero… what exactly have you become?"