The thing wearing Aaron's face extended a hand—fingers elongating like molten glass.
"We require translators," it said in Cho's voice. "Not vessels. Not anymore."
The UV lights pulsed, revealing the truth in strobe flashes:
The prismatic shapes weren't invading. They were trapped
The black fluid in our veins? A crude translation matrix
Aesir Biomedical hadn't created anything—they'd stolen
Zayn's black eyes reflected Facility D's live feed. "They want to make a deal," he whispered. "But not with us."
The seventh form stepped through the monitor.
It wasn't a shape so much as an absence—a humanoid eclipse that burned reality at the edges. When it spoke, the words formed directly in our marrow:
"You will carry messages to the other six facilities. In return, we gift you the missing pages of Dr. Kwon's research."
Insha laughed—a broken sound. "What makes you think we'd help you?"
The eclipse-being tilted its head. The motion copied Insha's exact mannerism from three days ago in the airport terminal.
"Because Aesir lied," it said with her stolen inflection. "The vaccine wasn't designed to stop us. It was designed to control us. You're not infected. You're modified."
The screens flickered to show classified documents:
Project Eclipse Phase IV
Objective: Weaponize eclipse entities via neural lures
Method: Implant carrier memories as bait
Captain Wang's face appeared on another screen—his real face, bruised and bloodied in an interrogation room.
*"They made me crash 1-Zeta on purpose,"* he gasped. "Needed the black box frequency to... to open..."
The eclipse-being gestured. Wang's image dissolved into schematics of our plane's cargo hold—modified with resonance chambers beneath our seats.
Zayn's breathing hitched. "We were never survivors. We were bait."
The being extended a hand of liquid shadow.
"Help us warn the other facilities. We will teach you to see through the eclipse. To recognize the strings on your limbs."
Outside, the false dawn darkened toward totality.