CHAPTER 14 — THE LAST PHASE
The darkness swallowed us.
Then Isabella screamed.
“Dad!”
I reached for her.
My hand found nothing.
“Isabella!”
“I’m here!”
Her voice came from somewhere to my left.
I moved toward it.
Then a pale emergency light flickered on.
Isabella was standing against the wall.
The black line beneath her skin had reached her neck.
Emma stared at it in horror.
“What is happening to her?”
Beatriz answered before anyone else.
“The failsafe is activating.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the system has recognized Daniel.”
I looked at Isabella.
“Can you hear him?”
She nodded.
“Your father.”
“What is he saying?”
She closed her eyes.
Then whispered:
“He says the door is opening.”
A metallic click echoed behind us.
Everyone turned.
A section of the tunnel wall slid sideways.
Behind it was a narrow staircase leading downward.
Emma shook her head.
“That wasn't there before.”
Lucas raised his weapon.
“Then we don't go down.”
My father’s voice suddenly came through the speakers.
“You've come this far.”
I looked toward the ceiling.
“Show yourself.”
“You already know where I am.”
“No.”
A pause.
“Inside your memories.”
My fists tightened.
“Get out of my head.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because you are me.”
I felt a chill.
“You're wrong.”
“No.”
The voice became softer.
“You are the part of me I couldn't control.”
Emma stepped forward.
“Daniel, don't listen.”
My father laughed.
“Emma.”
She froze.
“You were my greatest mistake.”
Her face hardened.
“And you were mine.”
“You still think you defeated me.”
“I did.”
“No.”
He paused.
“You only escaped.”
Then the speakers went silent.
I looked at the staircase.
“I'm going down.”
Emma grabbed my arm.
“It's a trap.”
“Everything is a trap.”
“Daniel…”
“If we stay here, he'll find us.”
Lucas nodded.
“She’s right.”
I looked at him.
“What would you do?”
“Go down.”
Emma stared at him.
“Lucas.”
He shrugged.
“If we're going to die, I'd rather know why.”
We descended.
The staircase seemed endless.
The walls became colder.
At the bottom was a massive circular room.
In the center stood a machine.
It looked like a giant glass chamber.
Cables ran from it into the walls.
And inside the chamber was a body.
I stopped.
It was me.
But older.
Much older.
My exact face.
My exact scar.
My exact crescent birthmark.
I stepped closer.
“What is that?”
Emma whispered:
“Your original body.”
I stared.
“I thought I was the original.”
“You are.”
“Then who is that?”
She looked at the chamber.
“The first body.”
I frowned.
“I don't understand.”
“You were born naturally.”
“Yes.”
“But your father extracted your consciousness.”
I stared at the body.
“And put it in another?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened to my original body?”
“They kept it.”
“For what?”
Emma swallowed.
“To grow.”
I felt sick.
“They've been preserving it.”
“For twenty years?”
“Longer.”
I walked toward the glass.
The body inside looked unconscious.
Alive.
Machines were keeping it breathing.
I touched the glass.
The body opened its eyes.
I jumped backward.
Everyone froze.
The body looked directly at me.
Then smiled.
My voice came from its mouth.
“Hello, David.”
I felt my blood turn cold.
“How?”
The body inside laughed.
“Do you really think you were the first?”
I stared.
“What are you?”
“The body you left behind.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I never left you.”
“You did.”
The body raised one hand.
A screen activated beside the chamber.
A video began.
It showed me as a newborn.
Then a child.
Then a teenager.
Then an adult.
But the dates didn't match.
The adult version of me existed before I had supposedly been born.
I felt dizzy.
Emma whispered:
“They've been running multiple versions simultaneously.”
My father’s voice came through the speakers.
“Exactly.”
I looked around.
“Where are you?”
A door opened at the far end of the room.
A man stepped inside.
This time, he wasn't wearing my father's face.
He wasn't wearing anyone else's.
He looked ordinary.
Old.
Tired.
Almost harmless.
But I recognized his eyes.
“Dad?”
He smiled.
“Finally.”
I stared.
“You're real.”
“Yes.”
“Not a copy?”
“No.”
I looked at Emma.
She was crying.
“He found a way to survive outside the system.”
My father walked toward the chamber.
“I spent thirty years perfecting consciousness transfer.”
“You killed people.”
“I sacrificed lives.”
“Children.”
“They were necessary.”
“You're insane.”
He looked at Isabella.
“No.”
He smiled.
“I'm a father.”
I stepped between them.
“Stay away from her.”
He looked at me.
“You still think I'm after Isabella.”
“You are.”
“I'm after what she carries.”
“What?”
“The memory of the original activation.”
I frowned.
“What activation?”
My father looked at Emma.
“She knows.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
I turned toward her.
“What happened?”
She closed her eyes.
“The first transfer didn't happen in a laboratory.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
My father smiled.
“You were there.”
I felt a memory trying to surface.
A house.
A storm.
A baby crying.
A woman screaming.
My mother.
She was holding me.
My father was standing behind her.
Emma was a child.
Lucas was a child.
Elena was younger.
Everyone was there.
My mother looked at my father.
“You can't do this.”
He answered:
“He will save us.”
“Save you from what?”
“Death.”
She shook her head.
“You're not afraid of death.”
“What am I afraid of?”
She looked at him.
“Being forgotten.”
The memory shattered.
I stumbled.
My father watched me.
“Now you understand.”
“No.”
“You always believed I wanted immortality.”
“Don't you?”
He shook his head.
“I wanted something else.”
“What?”
He looked at the chamber.
“I wanted my family back.”
I stared.
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they were taken from me.”
“By whom?”
My father looked at Emma.
“Your mother.”
Emma's expression changed.
“That isn't true.”
“She destroyed the original project.”
“She tried to save us.”
“She tried to erase me.”
“And you deserved it.”
My father laughed.
“Perhaps.”
Then he pressed a button.
The glass chamber opened.
The body inside sat up.
Every machine in the room activated.
Isabella suddenly screamed.
The black mark on her neck began glowing.
Emma shouted:
“Stop!”
My father smiled.
“It's beginning.”
“What?”
“The final synchronization.”
Lucas raised his weapon.
“Back away from the girl.”
My father ignored him.
The body inside the chamber stood.
It looked at me.
Then it looked at Isabella.
And said:
“She's ready.”
I stepped forward.
“No.”
The body smiled.
“She remembers.”
“Remembers what?”
“Everything.”
Isabella collapsed.
I caught her.
“Sweetheart!”
Her eyes opened.
But they weren't the same.
She looked directly at me.
Then whispered:
“Dad…”
“Yes?”
“I know where Mommy is.”
I froze.
“Your mother?”
Isabella nodded.
“She isn't dead.”
Elena began crying.
“Where is she?”
Isabella pointed toward my father.
“Inside him.”
Silence.
My father stopped smiling.
I stared at him.
“What did she mean?”
Isabella continued:
“Mommy transferred herself.”
My father slowly backed away.
“No.”
Isabella looked at him.
“She trapped herself inside your memory.”
My father’s face changed.
For the first time, he looked terrified.
Emma whispered:
“She found a way.”
I stared at my father.
“She's been inside you all these years.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Isabella looked at me.
“She told me something else.”
“What?”
“She said you were the only person who could get her out.”
My father suddenly lunged toward Isabella.
I intercepted him.
We crashed to the floor.
He was stronger than he looked.
Much stronger.
He grabbed my throat.
“You don't understand what you're doing!”
I fought back.
“You killed my mother.”
“No!”
His face twisted.
“She did this to herself!”
I punched him.
He fell backward.
Then the body inside the chamber moved.
It stepped out.
And suddenly there were two of him.
My father looked at the body.
The body looked at me.
Then both spoke at the same time.
“Which one of us is real?”
The machine began screaming.
Every light turned white.
Isabella grabbed my hand.
“Dad!”
“What?”
“Mom is waking up.”
“Where?”
She pointed at my father.
“Inside him.”
My father's eyes suddenly widened.
A woman's voice came from his mouth.
A voice I hadn't heard in twenty years.
“David…”
I froze.
It was my mother's voice.
She whispered:
“I'm sorry.”
My father dropped to his knees.
Then my mother's voice screamed through him:
“RUN!”
The entire chamber exploded.
And when the smoke cleared...
My father was gone.
So was the body.
Only Isabella remained.
She was standing alone beside the machine.
Holding something in her hand.
A small silver key.
She looked at me.
“Dad.”
I approached slowly.
“Where did you get that?”
She opened her palm.
The key had one number engraved on it.
000.
Then she whispered:
“Mom told me this opens the place where she was kept.”
I stared at the key.
“Where?”
Isabella looked toward the far wall.
“There.”
A hidden door appeared.
And from behind it came a woman's voice.
“David…”
My mother.
Still alive.
“Don't open the door.”
Then another voice answered from inside.
My father's.
“Open it.”
I looked at Isabella.
May you like
She looked at me.
And the door began opening by itself.
