The Collector stepped into the room with measured grace. His boots echoed against the sterile floor, each step like a countdown. Behind him, guards in armor not seen by the outside world flanked the hallways—silent, faceless.
Raya stood her ground, but her eyes flickered to the figure in the stasis tank.
"What is this?" she asked. "Who is that?"
The Collector smiled like a man who believed the world was his to narrate.
"That?" He tilted his head. "That is Lengaza. Version Two."
Raya's heart pounded.
"You're lying."
"Am I?" He walked toward the tank, his hand brushing the cold glass. "You think your friend is unique? He's one of thirteen. Only one survived the Awakening Cycle. The rest… failed. This one? He never woke."
"Then why keep him?"
"Because unlike your version, this one obeys."
Flashback – 24 years ago.
The Collector wasn't always the Collector.
He was Elian Serros—a brilliant mind in cybergenetics, obsessed with perfection. After losing his daughter to a rare neurological disorder, he made a vow:
"If nature can't give me perfection… I'll build it myself."
He merged tech with biology. Emotion with code. He wanted to rewrite evolution. But the world rejected him. Called him mad. So he disappeared—took his funding, took his grief—and built the lab under Mount Salvador.
And there, he began his experiments.
The Lengaza Program.
Present.
Lengaza flew.
Not with wings. With will.
Through wind, cloud, and lightning, he surged toward the mountain. The closer he got, the more the buried memories tried to claw their way up.
A voice whispered in his mind.
Come home, child.
He clenched his jaw.
"This isn't home. It's a grave."
He crashed through the side of the mountain—sending alarms wailing and walls crumbling.
Inside, Raya was already in chains.
The Collector didn't flinch.
"You came."
Lengaza landed before him—his eyes lit like suns.
"Let her go."
"You'll have to fight him first," the Collector said, turning to the tank.
A hiss of air.
A blink of light.
The tank emptied.
And Version Two stepped forward—taller, sharper, stripped of all warmth.
"Designation: Revenant."
He looked at Lengaza.
"Brother."