Silence.
A strange, artificial silence, as if the very air was holding its breath.
Mayu stepped closer to the vat. The pale, almost lunar glow of the liquid revealed every contour of the submerged figure.
She—yet not her.
Number 00.
Her face bore the same features, the same jawline, the same piercing gaze… but something was different. Her eyes were not merely open: they were aware. Present. Calculating.
— "She's awake…" murmured Seth, transfixed.
— "She's not like the other clones," added Lia. "She seems… whole."
Zéro approached and laid a hand on the glass. A shiver ran through him.
— "This energy… I can feel it vibrating in my bones."
Mayu stood rooted to the spot. She had fought against versions of herself, destroyed imperfect copies, faced echoes of her own identity. But this… was something else. A presence. A force either dormant—or worse, waiting.
On the side of the vat, a half-erased inscription caught her eye:
> ORIGINAL SUBJECT – DECODING IN PROGRESS
Codename: AZUR PRIMORDIAL
Status: Under Observation – Delayed Awakening.
— "Why keep her down here?" Seth asked. "If she's the prototype, why isn't she at the core?"
Lia scrolled through files on a still-active terminal, her expression shifting as she read.
— "She was… too powerful. Unstable. From the moment she was created, she showed extreme autonomy. Abnormal capabilities."
— "In other words, a ticking time bomb," Zéro breathed.
Mayu knelt by the vat. The liquid pulsed, as if the vessel itself were breathing. Suddenly… Number 00's eyes locked onto hers.
Not just a gaze. A mental transfer. A psychic shock.
Mayu tensed, gasped, and leapt backward. Vivid, razor-sharp images seared into her mind.
She dropped to her knees.
She saw…
> Laboratories.
Scientists.
Cries.
A little girl in a cell.
Tests. Again and again.
Then… erasure. Emptiness.
Isolation.
Awakening.
— "Mayu!" Seth cried, rushing to her side.
She shook her head, struggling for breath.
— "She spoke to me. Not with words. With memories."
Zéro's brow furrowed.
— "She's conscious to that degree?"
Mayu rose slowly, eyes still haunted.
— "She knows everything. What they did. What I am. What we are. She's seen my past. My choices. And now… she's judging me."
A click echoed. The vat trembled. Its release mechanism engaged.
— "What have you done?!" Zéro shouted.
— "Nothing! She's controlling it from inside."
The panels hissed open. The fluid drained away, revealing Number 00 stepping out through cold steam. She placed a bare foot on the metal floor—then the other—without hesitation.
She spoke, voice clear yet cutting as a blade:
— "…Mayu."
Mayu remained standing, fists clenched.
— "You woke me."
— "That wasn't my intention."
Number 00 tilted her head, almost amused.
— "And yet… here we are. The original and the replica."
— "You're not the original."
— "No. I came before the original. The one they erased because she saw too far. The one they buried."
Her eyes gleamed with an icy blue light.
— "They made you from my remains, Mayu. But what they removed from you… they left in me. The rage. The chaos. The truth."
Lia leveled her weapon.
— "You'd better calm down."
Number 00 raised a finger. The entire chamber shook. Lights flickered out. Vats exploded one by one in a deafening roar.
— "She controls everything tied to the network!" Seth shouted.
Zéro stepped in front of Mayu.
— "Strategic withdrawal?" he asked, muscles coiled.
— "Too late," Mayu replied softly.
Number 00 advanced, each step tolling like a death knell.
— "You destroyed the Source. Fine. But you left the root. Me."
She reached out toward Mayu—and this time the contact was complete.
A burning current surged through Mayu's body. She staggered, retreated—but an unseen force held her fast. Memories resurfaced, stolen sensations. Moments she'd never lived… yet that somehow belonged to her.
Then she understood.
— "You were… transferred. Fragmented. That's why I've felt this emptiness all along."
— "Because you were only half. The shadow of who I was."
Zéro fired, but a psychic barrier repelled the shot. Lia lobbed a flash grenade—it detonated harmlessly in midair.
Seth screamed at Mayu:
— "We have to get out—now!"
But she did not move.
— "I'm not running anymore," she whispered.
She closed her eyes and summoned that missing part—the fragment she'd always taken for a scar… but which was actually an echo of something far greater.
And then she found it.
A torrent of memories. A flood of rage. And will.
She opened her eyes.
Her gaze turned azure—deeper, older.
— "You think you're the only one who can awaken what you are?" she said calmly. "But I was forged with your memory. Your DNA. Your instincts."
She lunged.
The clash was brutal. Two versions of the same being. Two intertwined destinies. The floor cracked under the violence of their struggle. Walls vibrated, the ceiling threatened collapse.
Mayu dodged a psychic strike, rolled across the floor, then countered with a blade of raw energy. Number 00 smiled, as if every blow drew them closer to the truth.
— "You understand now!" Number 00 screamed. "You're not defeating me! You're accepting me!"
Mayu roared back:
— "I am not you!"
She plunged her blade into the ground. A blue shockwave exploded outward, flinging Number 00 against the shattered vats. The ceiling began to cave in.
Zéro screamed for everyone to run. Seth yanked Lia by the arm. Chaos reigned.
Mayu sprinted for the exit.
Number 00 remained standing, eyes fixed on her.
— "You are only my reflection."
Before stepping into the tunnel, Mayu called back:
— "Maybe. But I am the one who chose who I want to become."
A collapse separated them.
Then—darkness.