The rain hit hard.
Adrian's coat flared behind him as he stepped outside the safehouse. The forest had gone quiet—too quiet. The kind of quiet that comes before blood.
Inside, Isabella sat motionless on the edge of the bed, her eyes fixed on the wall, hands still trembling from the serum. Her veins had stopped glowing. Her mind… hadn't.
She could feel something.
Something wrong
Something near.
Her reflection in the cracked mirror didn't look right anymore. Same face. Same eyes. But something in the way her mouth moved—it was too slow. Too measured. Like the wrong person was controlling it.
"You okay?" Adrian asked as he re-entered, shaking water from his boots.
"No," she whispered.
"Is it the serum?"
"No. It's me. It's something inside me that feels like it doesn't belong." She turned to him. "Julian wasn't wrong. I survived the Protocol. But he didn't tell me what came after."
Adrian crouched before her. "Whatever's coming, we face it together."
She nodded. But her stomach twisted.
Because it was already here.
Somewhere Beneath the City – Blacksite Cell A13
A steel door hissed open.
Inside: a single figure chained to the floor. Pale skin. Dark eyes. Same face as Isabella—but crueler. Sharper.
"Subject 5B," a technician said. "Designation: Cain."
Cain lifted his head slowly.
"Do you know who I am?" the tech asked.
Cain smiled. "You're the man who dies screaming."
The tech hesitated.
Then held up a hologram of Isabella's face.
"She's out. Active. Nullified the Protocol. You're being released."
Cain stared at the image like a mirror he wanted to break.
"I was supposed to be the heir," he growled. "I was the weapon."
"She's more than that now."
"Not for long."
Safehouse – Midnight
Isabella couldn't sleep.
She stepped outside, bare feet on cold stone. Rain had turned to mist. Adrian followed, silent as always.
"Tell me the truth," she said. "If they'd activated me and I'd come at you… would you have killed me?"
Adrian didn't lie. "I would've tried."
She laughed once—hollow and low. "You know, I used to think love was supposed to save people."
He moved closer. "It doesn't."
Their eyes met.
"It just gives you something to lose," he whispered.
She reached up, fingers brushing his jaw. "Then lose me."
He kissed her—this time not like it might be their last, but like he wanted it to be.
Her back hit the stone wall, cold and rough. His hands slid under her shirt, over bruised ribs and healing scars. She gasped against his mouth, and he caught it, swallowed it, fed off it.
This wasn't tender. This was survival. Fire. Defiance.
She dragged him down with her.
Hours Later – The Attack
It started with a thud.
Then a second.
Then the walls groaned.
Adrian was already on his feet, shirtless and grabbing the pistol from under the mattress.
"Stay down," he told her.
Isabella was already pulling her clothes on. "No chance in hell."
The ceiling cracked.
And then Cain dropped through it like a blade from the sky.
He stood calmly as dust settled around him.
And Isabella froze.
Because she was looking at her own face.
"Who—" she whispered.
"I'm what you were supposed to be," Cain said. "Before you went soft. Before you fell in love with the man who murdered our father."
Adrian raised his gun. "You're not her brother."
"No," Cain said. "I'm her reflection. The unedited version. The final prototype."
He moved fast—inhumanly fast.
The gun flew from Adrian's hand before he could blink. He slammed into the wall.
Isabella lunged forward, landing a clean strike across Cain's jaw.
He didn't flinch.
He grabbed her wrist—twisted.
"Still fragile," he sneered. "Still trying to be human."
She kicked him hard in the ribs.
He staggered back, more amused than angry.
"I'm not here to kill you," he said. "I'm here to take you home."
"Go to hell."
"Already did. It looked a lot like our childhood."
Cain tossed a small black device to the floor.
DEVICE SYNCING… SUBJECT MATCH: 99.8%
STATUS: PAIRING ENABLED
Adrian pulled himself up. "What the hell does that mean?"
Cain smiled.
"It means she's still one of us. And if I activate this, I can overwrite everything she is."
Isabella's pulse thundered.
Cain held up a thumbdrive—Julian's final file.
"You want the truth? It's on this. Everything about you. About me. About how they made us from the same genetic seed. But only one of us was meant to survive."
He dropped it on the floor.
"Pick your truth, sister."
He turned and walked out.
Just like that.
Minutes Later – Aftermath
Adrian and Isabella stared at the thumbdrive on the floor like it was a bomb.
"Do we watch it?" he asked.
Her throat was dry. "What if it breaks me?"
Adrian stepped closer. "Then we'll piece you back together."
She picked it up.
Inserted it into the encrypted terminal.
The screen lit up.
A video began.
Julian's face.
Bloodied. Bruised. Filmed in secret.
"If you're seeing this, it means you found Cain. Good. You need to. Because only one of you is real. Only one of you was born from Luciana's blood."
Isabella stepped back.
"The other… is a clone."
Adrian's eyes darted to her.
She whispered, "Julian said I was the heir—"
"He lied."
The screen went dark.
Then flashed one word in red:
ISABELLA: SUBJECT 5B.