---
The storm over the eastern mountains lasted three days. Thunder rolled through the night, echoing like artillery. Every time lightning flashed, the sky burned white over the ruins of the old cities.
At Fort Shiganshina, the wind howled through the cracks in the walls. The scouts had built a command post inside what was once a munitions warehouse. The roof leaked. The heaters failed half the time. But for the first time in weeks, they were safe.
Erwin stood at the central table, maps spread before him. Lines marked old railway routes, hidden tunnels, and new Marleyan patrol zones. Every red mark meant a reactor or hybrid site.
"Subject Zero," Hange said, setting down the decrypted tablet. "The earliest record goes back seventy years. Before the first hybrid experiments. Before even the Titan weapons project."
Levi looked up. "Meaning?"
"Meaning this wasn't born of war," she said. "It started as research into immortality. Energy transfer through living tissue. But it went wrong. The first subject absorbed too much Ether—became something else."
Erwin's eyes narrowed. "Define 'something else.'"
Hange turned the screen. It showed a body suspended in a containment capsule. Skin pale as frost, veins glowing faintly blue. "They called it the prototype. It adapted to every attempt to destroy it. They sealed it beneath an old Marleyan fortress—Vhalis Base."
Levi studied the coordinates. "That's in the dead zone. Nothing's lived there in decades."
"Exactly," Hange said. "Because it's been feeding on everything that wanders too close."
The room went silent.
Lio broke it. "Then that's where Astra will go. If she's regaining memory, she'll seek the one who created her kind."
Erwin nodded. "And we'll be there first."
---
Two days later, the squad moved east.
The landscape changed with every mile—grass gave way to ash, then to glass plains that shimmered with unnatural light. Old rail lines cut through the wasteland like scars. Their scout vehicles rumbled over twisted metal, engines muffled.
Levi sat in the lead rover, binoculars up. "Hange, report."
"Radiation minimal," she said from the back. "But Ether levels are spiking. Something's active underground."
Lio sat silently, watching the horizon. The air itself seemed alive here, humming faintly in his bones.
Hange noticed. "You feel it too, don't you?"
He nodded slowly. "It's like… it's calling. Not to me. To all of us."
Erwin's radio crackled. "All units, halt. Drones ahead."
Through the haze, faint lights moved across the valley—spherical machines hovering silently. Marleyan reconnaissance drones, scanning for life.
Levi whispered, "Take cover."
They slid under the ridge, hiding the vehicles with camo tarps. The drones passed overhead, beams sweeping the wasteland. When they were gone, the group advanced on foot.
By dusk, they reached the ruins of Vhalis Base.
The fortress was a crater of twisted steel and bone, surrounded by melted towers. At its center, a circular shaft descended into blackness. Cold vapor rose from below.
Hange's sensors flickered. "Ether concentration off the charts. Whatever's down there… it's awake."
Erwin drew his revolver. "Then we go down. Quietly."
---
The descent took them through a vertical tunnel lined with black glass. The deeper they went, the more distorted their reflections became—faces stretched, eyes hollow, smiles that weren't their own.
Lio murmured, "This place remembers pain."
Levi replied flatly, "Then don't give it more."
They reached the core chamber—a dome lined with containment pods. Most were shattered. The floor was covered in frost.
At the center stood a massive stasis tank, still intact.
Inside floated Subject Zero.
The figure's skin was translucent. Its veins pulsed with blue Ether. Hair white, eyes closed. But the energy around it was wrong—it bent the air, twisted light, warped sound.
Hange stepped forward. "It's still conscious. The readings are impossible."
Erwin raised a hand. "Wait."
The tank's surface rippled.
A voice entered their minds. Not sound—thought.
Who… disturbs the cycle?
Lio staggered back. "It's speaking through the Ether."
Erwin steadied his aim. "We seek the truth behind your creation."
The voice echoed again.
Truth is irrelevant. All light decays. All order fails. I am the constant.
Cracks formed on the tank. The glass fractured, spiderwebs of light spreading outward.
Levi hissed, "Move!"
The chamber exploded outward. Blue energy surged across the floor, throwing them back. When the smoke cleared, the figure stood free—tall, expressionless, its presence warping the air like gravity itself.
Subject Zero opened its eyes. They glowed pure white.
Hange whispered, "It's not human anymore…"
Zero's voice resonated inside their skulls.
You carry the blood of the fallen. The cycle repeats because you remember.
Lio stepped forward. "If you're what started all this… end it. Release the world."
Zero turned to him. "Release? I am release."
It raised its hand. The walls melted. Ether lightning struck in every direction. Levi pushed Hange aside, rolling under a collapsing beam.
Erwin fired, bullets vanishing midair. "Weapons useless!"
Lio transformed partially again, his Titan form bursting through the flames. He lunged, punching Zero across the chamber. The impact shook the dome.
For the first time, Zero bled—silver fluid dripping from its lip. It looked almost curious.
"You resist inevitability," it said calmly. "Then I will show you eternity."
The floor split open, revealing an abyss of pure light. The temperature dropped. Hange screamed over the roar, "It's opening the fracture again!"
Erwin shouted, "Retreat!"
Levi grabbed Hange, hauling her up the stairs. Lio stayed behind, holding the collapsing bridge with Titan strength.
"Go!" he yelled. "I'll hold it!"
Zero walked toward him, unfazed by the chaos. "You think you carry power. You carry decay."
Lio's skin burned. He forced the Ether through his veins, forming a barrier of molten gold. "Then I'll burn before I let you take another world."
The chamber imploded in a blinding flash.
---
Hours later, Levi and the survivors stood outside the ruins. The crater glowed faint blue. Hange stared into it, shaking. "He's gone."
Levi said nothing. The wind carried faint whispers from the pit.
Erwin looked up. "The sky's changing."
Above them, the stars flickered. Then—one by one—they went out.
---
Far away, under the collapsed fortress, a faint glow stirred.
Lio opened his eyes. His pulse was steady. The world above was gone.
Before him stood Subject Zero—half its body missing, light pouring from the wounds.
"You would defy extinction," it said.
Lio stood. "I would choose life."
Zero smiled faintly. "Then let us begin again."
The chamber filled with light.
---