The eclipse-being's hand hovered between us, its surface swirling with fragments of stolen memories - a child's birthday party here, a first kiss there, all floating in the black like debris in oil.
"The choice is not binary," it whispered through Captain Wang's stolen lips. "Serve Aesir as puppets, or us as messengers. There is a third path written in Dr. Kwon's missing pages."
Insha reached out first. The moment her fingers touched the liquid shadow, her veins lit up with firefly patterns - the exact neural pathways Aesir had modified. The eclipse-being tilted its head.
"Ah. They gave you the empathy suppressor. How... predictable."
The screens flickered to show Facility D's quarantine zone. There, floating in a containment field, were two familiar objects:
Dr. Kwon's eyes.
Still alive. Still watching.
Zayn made a choked sound. "They're recording everything."
The eclipse-being's form shivered into a perfect replica of Dr. Kwon - minus the eyes. When it spoke, tears of black fluid ran down its cheeks.
*"My eyes contain the truth about Patient Zero. Aesir didn't find the eclipse. They made it. From the dreams of coma patients. From the last thoughts of dying astronauts. Stitched together with Ouroboros-7 into something that could reach through dimensions."*
Aaron's body suddenly spasmed. Flight Engineer Cho's voice burst from his mouth:
"The facilities aren't labs! They're looms! Weaving human minds into control strings for the eclipse!"
The being extended a hand to each of us.
"We will train you to see the strings. To cut them. To weave your own. But first..."
The seventh form dissolved into a swarm of black particles that flowed into our wounds. Not painful. Not comforting. Just true - like finally remembering something vital.
New knowledge unfolded behind our eyes:
How to recognize Aesir's neural implants in others
Where Facility B's hidden exit tunnels lay
The location of Dr. Kwon's secret bunker
Then the vision shifted.
We saw ourselves standing in Shanghai's ruins, surrounded by freed eclipse-beings.
And behind us, reflected in every shard of broken glass -
. Aversion of ourselves still trapped in Aesir's labs -
. Aversion already dead in the jungle -
. Aversion that had merged with the eclipse -
The being's final whisper curled through our skulls:
"All paths are true. Choose which one you walk."
Outside, the false dawn finally shattered.