The sky was wrong.
It always had been. Ever since the first Surge lit the atmosphere like an open wound, the clouds hadn't been clouds, not really. Just bruises of vapor stretched across a dying sky. Electricity pulsed in slow-motion, like the earth was trying to restart a heart that had long since stopped beating.
Arin stood on the remains of a collapsed highway, looking out over what was once Sector Delta-14. Buildings like rotted ribs. Roads torn open. And no birds. Not even wind.
The silence wasn't peaceful.
It was watching.
Kael checked his scanner again. "No movement within two klicks. But the signals are starting to fragment. Something's interfering."
"It's the others," Arin said.
Zara turned her head slightly. "Versions?"
Arin didn't answer. She was already walking forward, her boots crunching the ash-covered glass beneath. She knew where she was going.
Or rather—something in her knew.
It had always been there, beneath her skin, like a hum in the marrow. But now, after breaking the chamber, after meeting the Version in the ash, the signal was stronger.
Not just in her mind.
In her blood.
She could feel the others.
And they were waking up.
---
Three miles northeast, deep in the hollow of a burned-out metro station, another version stirred.
She gasped, lungs filling with air for the first time in weeks. Metal snapped away from her spine. She tore herself free of the growth-pod, tumbling naked onto the floor, coughing, shaking.
She had no name.
Only a memory: Arin.
But in her version, there had never been a Zara. No Kael. No Kael. Only fire. Only screams. And then… blackout.
Now: rebirth.
The terminal flickered to life above her. Static danced across a shattered screen.
> "VERSION 06.08 ONLINE." "PURPOSE: INFILTRATE | REPLICATE | SUPPRESS."
She looked up slowly.
And smiled.
---
Arin's group reached the shelter before sundown. An old climate vault buried beneath a decayed power plant. The kind built for billionaires and black-site engineers.
But this one was different.
This one had been locked from the inside.
They entered cautiously. Tasha stayed above, sniping from a high nest, feverish but still sharp. Zara moved first, sweeping through the main tunnel. Kael followed, nerves tight, eyes scanning for any movement.
Arin just walked like she knew what she was going to find.
Because she did.
She stopped in front of a sealed bulkhead, fingers brushing against the old biometric reader. It flared red.
> "UNAUTHORIZED GENETIC SIGNATURE."
She frowned.
Kael stepped forward, "Try another hand—maybe the infection changed the read—"
"No," she said.
And then, without hesitating, she bit her thumb until it bled—just enough—and smeared the blood across the pad.
A long pause.
Then:
"MATCH FOUND. ACCESS GRANTED."
The door unsealed with a hiss.
The vault inside was not abandoned.
It was active.
Lights flickered on slowly. Rows of pods. Some broken, others glowing faintly. Screens showing data, vitals, psychological logs.
Zara cursed under her breath. "This isn't a shelter. It's a version bank."
They walked between the pods. Most were empty. Some contained half-formed husks. Others were fully grown—versions of Arin in various states of stasis. Some still alive. Some dead.
Kael stopped at one.
The face inside looked exactly like Arin.
But the eyes were black.
No whites. No irises.
Just void.
---
They reached the control node in the center. A tower of glass and steel and pulsing red data. Arin pressed her hand against it.
The screen lit up.
> "PRIMARY HOST RECOGNIZED." "STATUS: CYCLE COLLAPSING." "WARNING: MULTIPLE VERSIONS ACTIVE OUTSIDE PARAMETERS."
Zara read aloud, slowly. "They're not just waking up. They're spreading."
Kael leaned forward, brow tight. "We need to shut this down before more get out."
Arin didn't move.
Her eyes were locked on the screen, where a map of the sectors glowed. Red dots pulsed across it—each one a version.
Some clustered. Some in motion.
One… heading directly toward them.
She whispered, "We're too late."
---
Above ground, Tasha never saw it coming.
A soft footstep.
A reflection in the glass of her scope.
Then a whisper.
"I remember you."
She turned just in time to see the other Arin.
This one wore black armor scavenged from fallen Program agents. Her face was burnt on one side. But her eyes were sharp. Wild. Intelligent.
And merciless.
The fight was short.
When the shot rang out, the others came running.
Kael found Tasha bleeding in the nest, her breathing shallow.
"She's… she's me," she gasped.
Arin looked up.
The impostor version was gone.
But the message was clear.
Not all of them wanted peace.
---
That night, they buried Tasha beneath the old vault. Arin stayed after the others left, kneeling by the grave marker. Not a name. Just a code:
> T-0.Arin.014-TH
Zara appeared beside her after a while.
"She died protecting you."
"She died because of me," Arin whispered.
Zara shook her head. "No. She died because someone else wore your face and pulled the trigger. You didn't do this."
"But I will have to answer for it."
---
That night, Arin dreamed.
Not of her own memories.
Of the others.
Hundreds of them. Walking cities of ash. Building something strange beneath the surface. A signal tower of bone and wire. And at the center, the original chamber. Where it all began.
A voice echoed through the dream.
One she hadn't heard since the fire.
Rylan.
Not speaking to her.
Speaking to them.
> "When the Versions become aware of one another, unity will be impossible. That's when the real test begins. That's when the world decides if it still deserves to exist."
She woke with a scream in her throat.
And something bleeding from her nose.
---
Morning never really came.
Just less dark.
Kael packed gear. Zara locked the vault behind them.
"We find the Nexus Tower," Arin said. "We shut it all down."
"And if it's already too late?" Kael asked.
"Then we burn it all."