Chapter 136: Opened
The reflection’s smile disappeared.
"Me."
David stared at him through the glass.
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then David stepped closer.
"You?"
The reflection nodded.
"Not the version you met in the corridor. Not the thing you called Version Zero."
"Then what are you?"
"What’s left."
David frowned.
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the only one you’re ready for."
David’s hand tightened.
He was getting tired of answers that explained nothing.
"Everyone keeps saying that. Samuel. Elaine. You. They all talk like I should already understand what happened to me."
"You should."
"I was twelve."
The reflection’s expression changed slightly.
"Exactly."
David looked away.
A faint hum passed through the chamber.
The machinery inside the walls began glowing one section at a time.
He recognized the pattern.
Seven lights.
Seven points.
Seven circles.
His stomach tightened.
"No."
The reflection turned toward the lights.
"It’s beginning again."
"What is?"
"The separation."
David looked back at him.
"What separation?"
The glass between them suddenly filled with lines of white light.
David stumbled backward.
Images appeared.
Not memories this time.
Something else.
A body.
His body.
It was lying inside a massive chamber.
Metal restraints surrounded its arms and legs.
Cables disappeared beneath its skin.
Seven circular structures surrounded the body.
Each one was connected to a pillar.
David watched the image.
"That’s me."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Before you became human."
David’s eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
The reflection didn’t answer.
The image changed.
The body opened its eyes.
White energy poured from its chest.
The machines screamed.
People ran.
Glass shattered.
Then something stepped out of the body.
A dark shape.
Humanoid.
It looked unfinished.
Its body flickered between black and white.
David stared.
"Version Zero."
"No."
The reflection pointed toward the image.
"Look."
The dark figure stood beside the body.
Then another figure appeared.
A small boy.
David.
Twelve years old.
He was crying.
The three figures stood together.
David’s breathing stopped.
"Three."
The reflection nodded.
"Three pieces."
"The boy."
"Memory."
"Version Zero."
"Restraint."
David looked at the body.
"And me."
The reflection’s gaze settled on him.
"Survival."
David looked back at the image.
The three figures began moving.
The boy disappeared into the darkness.
Version Zero moved toward the restraints.
And the remaining figure—
David—
was pulled backward.
Into the body.
The image vanished.
David stood perfectly still.
"So they split me."
"They tried."
"What’s the difference?"
"They succeeded."
David looked at the reflection.
"You just showed me three parts."
"Because there were three parts they could separate."
"Then why are you here?"
The reflection stepped closer.
"Because they couldn’t separate everything."
The chamber went silent.
David felt something move beneath his skin.
Not pain.
Recognition.
His chest began glowing.
White light spread beneath his shirt.
The reflection placed a hand against the glass.
David instinctively raised his own.
Their palms met through the barrier.
The moment they touched—
David screamed.
A flood of memories hit him.
A laboratory.
Doctors.
Machines.
Blood.
A woman shouting.
Samuel screaming at someone.
Elaine crying.
The boy inside the seven circles.
Version Zero standing behind him.
And something else.
Something enormous.
David saw it for only a second.
A consciousness.
Not human.
Not a creature.
Something that had existed before the experiment.
Something that had been watching through him.
David tore his hand away.
He dropped to one knee.
His breathing came hard.
The reflection watched him.
"You saw it."
David glared upward.
"What the hell was that?"
"Your beginning."
"No."
David pushed himself upright.
"That wasn’t me."
"It was."
"Then why don’t I remember it?"
"Because they took it."
David froze.
The reflection continued.
"They couldn’t destroy it. So they buried it."
"Where?"
The reflection looked downward.
David followed his gaze.
The floor beneath the observation chamber was transparent now.
Far below them was darkness.
Then—
Two eyes opened.
David’s blood ran cold.
They were enormous.
And they were looking directly at him.
The chamber trembled.
David stepped backward.
"What is that?"
The reflection’s voice became quieter.
"The part they couldn’t remove."
The eyes blinked.
Once.
The entire chamber shook.
David grabbed the edge of a console.
"That’s beneath the facility."
"Yes."
"And you said the thing beneath was my original body."
"It is."
David looked at him.
"Then what am I looking at?"
The reflection didn’t respond immediately.
Finally, he said, "You."
David’s expression hardened.
"That’s impossible."
"Is it?"
The eyes below closed.
For a moment, everything became still.
Then a voice traveled through the chamber.
Not loud.
Not distorted.
It sounded exactly like David.
"You took so long."
David froze.
The reflection lowered his head.
"You remember now."
David’s heart hammered.
"Who is speaking?"
The voice answered from beneath him.
"You are."
David shook his head.
"No."
"You always say that."
The floor cracked.
David jumped back.
The observation chamber began breaking apart.
Glass shattered.
Machinery ripped itself from the walls.
The reflection didn’t move.
David stared at him.
"What happens now?"
"You choose."
"Choose what?"
"Which part survives."
David looked at him.
The words felt wrong.
"That’s not a choice."
"It is."
"Between what?"
The reflection raised his hand.
Three images appeared behind him.
The boy.
Version Zero.
David.
"They cannot all remain separate."
David’s jaw tightened.
"And if I refuse?"
The reflection looked almost sad.
"Then the fourth one chooses for you."
David’s eyes narrowed.
"The thing beneath."
"No."
The reflection shook his head.
"The thing beneath isn’t the fourth."
David felt his chest tighten.
"Then what is?"
The reflection looked directly into his eyes.
"You."
The room went silent.
David stared at him.
"I don’t understand."
"You were never the complete consciousness."
The reflection’s voice remained calm.
"You were the part that was left behind after the others were removed."
David looked toward the darkness below.
The enormous eyes opened again.
This time, they weren’t looking at him.
They were looking through him.
David felt something touch the back of his mind.
A thought that wasn’t his.
A memory that wasn’t his.
A name.
He almost heard it.
Then it vanished.
David pressed his fingers against his temple.
"What is happening to me?"
"Integration."
The system appeared.
[External Consciousness Synchronization: 11%.]
[Consciousness Boundary Instability Detected.]
[Three Internal Signatures Responding.]
David stared at the words.
"Three."
The reflection nodded.
"Your pieces are waking."
David felt something move behind his eyes.
Then he heard a voice.
A child’s voice.
’David.’
He turned.
The boy stood behind him.
Twelve years old.
Barefoot.
Terrified.
David stared at him.
The boy looked exactly like the memory.
"You’re real."
The boy nodded.
"Don’t let them put me back."
David’s expression changed.
"Why?"
The boy looked toward the reflection.
"Because that’s what they wanted."
The reflection stepped forward.
"Don’t listen to him."
David turned.
"You just said he’s my memory."
"He is."
"Then why shouldn’t I listen?"
"Because memory doesn’t understand what happened after."
The boy’s eyes widened.
"He’s lying."
Version Zero appeared beside him.
His expression was grim.
For the first time, David saw genuine fear in his eyes.
"Both of them are."
David stared at him.
"What?"
Version Zero looked toward the floor.
"The problem isn’t choosing which part survives."
David waited.
Version Zero slowly raised his eyes.
"It’s that something else has already chosen."
The chamber shook violently.
A deep sound rolled upward from beneath them.
Not a roar.
A heartbeat.
Boom.
David felt it in his chest.
Boom.
His vision blurred.
Boom.
The three consciousness signatures inside him responded at once.
The boy screamed.
Version Zero grabbed his head.
David dropped to one knee.
The system flashed across his vision.
[Forced Integration Detected.]
[Internal Consciousness Collision.]
[Integration Progress: 18% → 27%.]
David clenched his teeth.
"Stop!"
The chamber didn’t listen.
The heartbeat continued.
Boom.
His memories fractured.
He saw himself at twelve.
Then sixteen.
Then now.
Three versions.
Three lives.
Three sets of memories.
All collapsing together.
David screamed as another memory surfaced.
A room.
The woman in the white coat.
She was kneeling in front of him.
Her face was covered in blood.
She grabbed his shoulders.
"David, listen to me."
The memory trembled.
"You cannot let them complete the process."
Young David was crying.
"What process?"
The woman looked behind her.
Someone was coming.
She leaned closer.
"They aren’t trying to control you anymore."
David stared.
"What are they trying to do?"
The woman’s eyes filled with fear.
"They’re trying to make you replace yourself."
The memory shattered.
David opened his eyes.
The observation chamber was gone.
He was back in the corridor.
Elaine was standing in front of him.
Her weapon was raised.
Samuel stood behind her.
Version Zero was on one knee.
The facility was still shaking.
David sucked in a breath.
Elaine lowered her weapon slightly.
"David?"
He looked at her.
"You knew."
Elaine froze.
"You knew what they were doing."
Her face changed.
"David—"
"You knew."
Samuel stepped forward.
"Enough."
David turned toward him.
"No."
White energy began crawling over David’s arms.
Samuel stopped.
David’s voice was quiet.
"You told me I was the source."
Samuel said nothing.
"You told me they were afraid of what I would become."
Still nothing.
David looked toward the floor.
"But you never told me what they were afraid I already was."
Samuel’s expression finally broke.
Not fear.
Regret.
David saw it.
And that was enough.
"You knew."
Samuel lowered his eyes.
"I knew."
Elaine looked at him.
"Samuel."
"I knew."
David stepped closer.
"What am I?"
Samuel looked at him.
For several seconds, he couldn’t answer.
Then the facility shook again.
A massive crack tore through the corridor floor.
Something pushed upward from beneath it.
Metal bent.
Concrete shattered.
A hand emerged.
Human.
David stared at it.
Five fingers.
Pale skin.
Long nails.
And on the wrist—
A scar.
The same scar David had.
His breathing stopped.
The hand gripped the edge of the broken floor.
Something began pulling itself upward.
Samuel whispered the words David had been dreading.
"That’s what you were."
David couldn’t move.
The system appeared.
[Original Consciousness Synchronization: 31%.]
[Identity Recognition: Confirmed.]
[Host connection expanding.]
The thing beneath the facility pulled itself higher.
David saw its face.
His face.
Older.
Paler.
Covered in scars.
Its eyes opened.
And unlike the figure from the corridor, this version didn’t smile.
It simply looked at David.
Then it spoke.
"You’re not supposed to be here."
David stared at himself.
The older version’s expression changed.
For the first time, it looked afraid.
"Run."
The facility went completely silent.
Then every alarm stopped.
Every light died.
And from somewhere deep beneath them, something else whispered:
"Too late."
The system appeared one final time.
[External Consciousness Synchronization: 35%.]
[Unknown Presence Detected.]
[Origin: Within Host.]
David’s eyes widened.
Within him.
Not beneath the facility.
Not in the chamber.
Not in the original body.
Inside him.
Something opened its eyes.