The stolen Foundation dropship shuddered as it cut through the storm clouds over the Philippine Sea. Hinako gripped the armrests, her knuckles white. The corruption in her veins had spread again after Nakato's fragment vanished—black tendrils now snaked up her neck, pulsing in time with the thunder outside.
Across the cabin, Nine sat cross-legged on a medbay cot, staring at her reflection in a polished steel panel. Her eyes hadn't returned to normal since Tokyo. The inky blackness filled them completely, swallowing the amber.
*"You're afraid of me now."*
Hinako didn't flinch. "I've been afraid of you since you stabbed that scientist with a butter knife."
Nine's lips twitched. Not a smile, but something close.
Daisuke stumbled down the aisle, clutching a steaming cup of synth-caffeine. Dark circles bruised his eyes. "We've got problems. The Foundation's jamming all frequencies, but I caught a transmission—they've got teams already on-site at Echo Prime."
Shiro didn't look up from cleaning his sword. "How many?"
"Enough to level a city." Daisuke tapped his cracked tablet. The hologram showed a massive island facility shaped like a spiraling nautilus shell—Echo Prime. At its center pulsed a red dot labeled **SUBJECT OMEGA.** "Whatever's behind that door, they're willing to kill for it."
The dropship lurched violently. A proximity alarm blared.
*"Incoming!"* the pilot shouted.
Hinako lunged for a viewport just as a missile streaked past. The explosion rocked the ship, sending Daisuke crashing into the bulkhead. Outside, three Foundation fighters closed in, their wing insignias glowing crimson.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Shiro barked.
Too late.
The second missile hit the engine.
---
Hinako woke to saltwater stinging her eyes and the acrid stench of burning fuel. The dropship's carcass smoldered in the shallows, waves lapping at its broken hull. Her left arm screamed where shrapnel had torn through flesh and corruption alike.
"Nine?" Her voice came out a croak.
A small hand grabbed her collar, dragging her up the beach. Nine's strength was inhuman, her tiny frame barely straining under Hinako's weight. The girl's black eyes scanned the jungle ahead.
*"They're coming."*
Daisuke and Shiro emerged from the wreckage—bloodied but alive. The pilot wasn't so lucky. His body floated face-down in the surf, the water around him tinged pink.
Shiro wiped blood from his brow. "We need to move. That missile strike was a beacon."
The jungle swallowed them whole. Vines snaked around twisted trees, their bark scarred with strange symbols that made Hinako's corruption *twitch.* The deeper they went, the louder the whispers grew—not in the air, but in her *mind.*
*"You're close."*
Not Nine's voice. Not Nakato's. Something *older.*
Daisuke adjusted his scanner, wincing as it flickered. "This whole island is a nexus. The energy readings are off the charts—it's like Tokyo Tower times a thousand."
A scream tore through the trees. Human, but wrong—stretched too thin.
Shiro drew his sword. "Trap?"
Nine shook her head. *"Feeding time."*
They found the first corpse fifty yards later. A Foundation soldier, his armor peeled open like a tin can. His insides were gone—not eaten, but *erased*, as if something had licked the marrow from his bones and left the shell behind.
Hinako's dagger trembled in her grip. "What the hell does that?"
Nine crouched, pressing her palm to the ground. The jungle fell eerily silent.
*"Omega."*
---
The facility was a nightmare of glass and steel, its spiraling halls lit by pulsing bioluminescent fungi. The corpses grew more frequent as they advanced—Foundation soldiers, scientists, even Beasts, all hollowed out.
Daisuke gagged at a particularly gruesome find—a man fused to the wall, his mouth frozen in a silent scream. "This isn't weapon damage. It's like reality itself *rejected* them."
Shiro's sword hummed as they reached the central chamber. The door loomed before them, thirty feet tall and engraved with the same symbols as the jungle trees.
**SUBJECT OMEGA.**
The whispers in Hinako's skull became a chorus. Her corruption *burned*, spreading toward her eye. She could *see* them now—shadows flitting at the edges of her vision, always just out of focus.
Nine placed both hands on the door. "He's waiting."
Shiro hesitated. "Who?"
The girl's black eyes reflected the pulsing glyphs. *"The first Shadowborn."*
With a groan of ancient mechanisms, the Omega Door opened.
---
The chamber beyond defied logic.
Floating in zero gravity at the center of the room was a man—or what had once been a man. His body was perfectly preserved, silver hair drifting around a face that mirrored Nakato's too closely. Black fire wreathed his form, but it wasn't *his* fire.
It was eating him alive.
Daisuke's scanner exploded in a shower of sparks. "That's—!"
"Subject Zero," came a voice from behind.
Akira stepped from the shadows, his golden eyes gleaming. His arms were now more machine than flesh, pulsing with the same black veins as Hinako's corruption.
"The first successful Prime," he continued. "My greatest failure."
Nine didn't turn. *"Our brother."*
Hinako's breath caught. The floating man's eyes snapped open—solid black, just like Nine's.
*"Sister,"* the figure intoned. *"You brought them to me."*
Akira smiled. "Now the real work begins."