The seventh symbol ignited.
A golden explosion tore through the laboratory, throwing Ryan against the wall. His chest burned as the golden mark beneath his skin began changing.
“RYAN!” Zara screamed.
Adam crawled toward him, but black tendrils wrapped around his legs and dragged him backward.
Daniel stood above them, smiling.
“Now you understand, brother. You were never the original.”
Ryan struggled to breathe.
“Who am I, then?”
Daniel leaned closer.
“You are the replacement. A perfect copy created after the first Ryan failed.”
Father shook his head.
“Don’t listen to him! The truth is more complicated!”
Ryan turned toward him angrily.
“Then tell me the truth!”
Father looked at the transparent floor. Beneath it, the child inside the glass chamber slowly opened his eyes.
“That child was the first Ryan,” Father said. “His body could control the organism, but his mind could not survive its memories. We tried to save him.”
“How?”
“We transferred his memories and genetic pattern into another body.”
Ryan stared at his father.
“You made me?”
Father nodded slowly.
“You were created to complete what the original couldn’t.”
A metallic voice echoed through the chamber.
ORIGINAL SUBJECT AWAKENING.
Beneath the floor, the glass container cracked.
The child placed one small hand against the glass.
“Father?” he whispered.
Father’s eyes filled with tears.
“My son...”
Daniel suddenly roared.
“NO! HE MUST NEVER WAKE UP!”
His tendrils smashed through the floor, tearing open the golden machinery below. The glass chamber began filling with black liquid.
Ryan stood despite the pain.
“Stop! He’s just a child!”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“He is the one who rejected the organism. He left us trapped beyond the door!”
The child looked directly at Ryan.
“Don’t believe them,” he whispered. “I remember everything.”
Ryan approached the damaged floor.
“What do you remember?”
The child’s eyes turned golden.
“I remember the day Karachi died. I remember Father opening the seventh lock. And I remember who really released the monsters.”
Ryan looked back at Father.
Father stepped away.
“No... that memory was supposed to be erased.”
Hamza raised his weapon toward him.
“Doctor, what is he talking about?”
Before Father could answer, the glass chamber shattered.
Black liquid erupted upward, but the child remained floating inside a golden sphere.
Then he looked at Ryan and spoke in a voice much older than his face.
“Brother, you must kill me before I become him.”
Behind the child, a gigantic shadow unfolded.
Daniel fell to his knees.
For the first time, the monster looked afraid.