Rainwater dripped from the ceiling.Reyan stood in the doorway of the lab, staring at the place where Aarvi had been a few hours ago. The monitors were cold now, the red warning lights dead.
His head throbbed. Every muscle ached as if his blood itself had been burned.He touched his neck. Faint marks glowed beneath the skin—just like in the hospital footage.
He whispered to the empty room, "What did you do to me?"
No answer. Only the faint hum of the generator somewhere deeper in the building.
Then his phone vibrated. Unknown number again.
Message:You have six hours. Bring the key card if you want her alive.
Attached was a photo—Aarvi, unconscious, tied to a chair in what looked like an old control room.The same mark, a circle with a slash, was painted on the wall behind her.
Reyan's breath caught.He pocketed the phone, grabbed a metal pipe from the floor, and stepped out into the dawn.
The city looked different at sunrise—too clean, like nothing bad could exist under that light.But Reyan knew better.
He followed the docks until he reached the industrial rail yard.The old security office there still had power. He broke in, switched on a terminal, and slipped the key card into the port.
A list of access logs appeared.One entry blinked: TRANSFER – SITE 09 – 03:17 AM.
He whispered, "Site 09…"
His father's old research compound lay in that zone. Abandoned for years after the explosion.
He stared at the screen. "That's where you took her."
The drive took less than twenty minutes, but each one felt longer.The compound loomed ahead—three buildings surrounded by chain-link fence.Everything about it screamed forgotten.
Reyan climbed the fence, cutting his hand on the rusted wire. He didn't care.Inside, he found tracks in the mud—boot prints, recent.
He followed them to the main building.The door was locked from the inside, but the window above the frame was cracked open.
He pulled himself up, dropped inside, and landed in darkness.
The air smelled of chemicals and dust.He switched on his phone flashlight.
A long hallway stretched ahead, lined with glass rooms.Inside each room—broken machines, chairs with restraints, scattered medical files.
One folder lay open near the floor. The label read:
Project Rebirth – Phase 2: Behavioral Sync
Reyan flipped through it. His own photo stared back at him.Notes scribbled in the margins: Subject demonstrates unique regenerative patterns. Emotional stimulus triggers neural surge.
He slammed the folder shut."What did they make me into?"
A noise echoed—footsteps.Reyan turned off the light, crouched behind a desk.
Two voices, low, male, walked past the door.
"The Director said move the girl before he gets here.""He won't make it this time. Without the key card, he's useless."
They kept walking.
Reyan waited till the sound faded, then followed quietly, using the reflections in the glass to track their direction.
The corridor ended at a metal staircase.He climbed two flights and found himself in a control room—the same one from the photo.
Aarvi sat there, tied, still unconscious.One guard stood by the window, checking his watch.
Reyan tightened his grip on the pipe and moved.
The blow landed fast. The guard dropped before he could shout.
Reyan cut the ropes around Aarvi's wrists."Aarvi. Wake up. It's me."
She stirred, eyes fluttering open. "Reyan… you came."
"Always."
She smiled faintly, then her expression changed—fear replacing relief."Behind you!"
He turned. Another guard at the door, gun raised.
The shot rang out.Pain burned across his shoulder, but he kept moving, slamming the pipe into the man's chest.The gun slid across the floor.
He grabbed it and pointed it at the door as alarms began to scream through the compound.
Aarvi pulled herself up. "They'll come for us!"
"Let them."
They ran down the hall, bullets shattering glass around them.Smoke filled the corridor; red lights flashed overhead.
At the end, a steel door led outside. Reyan swiped the key card—it beeped red, then green. The lock clicked.
They burst out into the rain.
They made it to the old watchtower by the fence before stopping to breathe.Reyan's shoulder bled; Aarvi tore a strip of cloth from her sleeve to wrap it.
"You shouldn't have come," she whispered.
He smiled weakly. "I think you've said that every time I do."
She looked away. "They won't stop. They need you alive."
"Why?"
"Because your father's code is still in you. The Circle built their entire project around your DNA."
Reyan froze. "My father knew?"
"He was part of it at first. But when he realised what they wanted—to create a human weapon—he tried to destroy it. That's when they killed him."
The wind carried her words away, but they hit him like thunder."All this time…" He swallowed hard. "All this time, I thought he left us for his work."
Aarvi touched his face gently. "He died trying to save you."
The moment hung there—rain, silence, two broken people standing in the ruins of everything they knew.
Then Reyan's phone buzzed again.
Message:You can't protect her forever. Phase Three begins now.
The screen flickered once and went black.Every streetlight around the compound went out, plunging everything into shadow.
From somewhere beyond the fence came the whirring of engines—dozens of them.Headlights pierced the fog.
Aarvi's hand found his. "They found us."
Reyan took a deep breath, eyes fixed on the lights closing in."Then we stop running.