Cold water dripped slowly from the broken ceiling of Black Site A-01.
The underground chamber remained trapped in darkness while emergency red lights flickered across rust-covered walls.
Nobody spoke.
Not after what they had just seen.
Not after Subject 001.
The man stood silently near the containment chamber, barefoot against the freezing floor. His thin body looked weak enough to collapse at any moment.
But the fear inside the room did not come from his appearance.
It came from his eyes.
Dead eyes.
Eyes that had already survived hell too many times.
Maya couldn't stop staring at him.
Every instinct inside her screamed danger.
Yet something else disturbed her more.
The way he looked at Arman.
Not like strangers.
Like mirrors.
Far above them, distant explosions echoed faintly through the ruined facility.
Orion was getting closer.
Kabir slowly lowered his rifle but never relaxed his grip.
"We need to move."
Subject 001 smiled weakly.
The expression looked unnatural on his damaged face.
"You still think escape exists?"
Kabir ignored him.
"We don't have time for this."
But Arman remained completely still.
Watching.
Studying.
Trying to understand why his own nightmares suddenly had a human face.
Then Subject 001 quietly whispered:
"They called you Subject 002 because you adapted faster than the others."
Maya looked toward Arman instantly.
"What does that mean?"
Arman's jaw tightened.
But Subject 001 answered first.
"It means Orion started breaking him before he even understood what emotions were."
Silence.
Heavy.
Painful silence.
The emergency monitors around the chamber suddenly flickered alive again.
Old archived files appeared automatically across the screens.
PROJECT ASHES — BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT ARCHIVE.
Maya frowned.
"Why are these activating now?"
Subject 001 looked toward the monitors calmly.
"Because the system recognizes him."
Arman slowly stepped closer to the screens.
Something inside him already knew what he was about to see.
And part of him wanted to run from it.
The first video file opened automatically.
STATIC flooded the monitor.
Then—
A small white room appeared.
No windows.
No toys.
No color.
Only a metal chair in the center.
And sitting there…
was a child.
Young Arman.
Maybe eight years old.
Maya's breathing stopped instantly.
The boy looked painfully small inside the cold room.
His wrists were restrained gently against the chair.
Tiny bruises covered his arms.
But what terrified Maya most—
was his face.
No emotion.
No fear.
No sadness.
Nothing.
A voice echoed from the recording speakers.
Clinical.
Calm.
Cruel.
"Subject 002 emotional response test. Day 173."
A scientist entered the room carrying a small black puppy.
The tiny animal wagged its tail happily toward the child.
For one second…
something changed in young Arman's eyes.
A tiny spark.
Humanity.
The scientist placed the puppy beside him.
The little dog licked the boy's hand softly.
Maya felt tears forming immediately.
Because for the first time—
young Arman smiled.
A real smile.
Small.
Innocent.
Human.
Then the scientist spoke again.
"Emotional attachment confirmed."
The puppy was removed from the room.
Young Arman's smile disappeared instantly.
The recording skipped forward.
Another test log appeared.
Day 181.
The same room.
The same chair.
But this time—
the puppy lay motionless on the floor.
Blood near its body.
Maya covered her mouth in horror.
Young Arman stared silently at the dead animal.
The scientists watched through the observation glass carefully.
Waiting.
Studying.
Measuring.
One voice finally spoke:
"Subject 002 reaction?"
Another answered coldly:
"Emotional suppression successful."
The child never cried.
Never screamed.
Never reacted.
Because Orion had already begun destroying those emotions inside him.
Maya couldn't breathe properly anymore.
"Oh my God…"
She slowly turned toward present-day Arman.
Suddenly everything made sense.
His silence.
His emotional distance.
The way he looked at the world like survival was the only thing that mattered.
They had created this version of him.
Deliberately.
Another recording started automatically.
This one looked worse.
Young Arman sat inside complete darkness.
Only one dim light illuminated his face.
A distorted voice repeated endlessly through hidden speakers.
"Pain is weakness." "Attachment creates vulnerability." "Fear creates failure." "You are not human." "You are a weapon."
Again.
Again.
Again.
Hundreds of times.
For hours.
For days.
Maybe years.
Maya whispered weakly:
"They brainwashed him…"
Subject 001 answered softly:
"No."
Everyone looked at him.
His dead eyes remained fixed on the screen.
"They erased him."
The words cut deeper than anything else.
Kabir looked away silently.
Because he remembered it too.
The endless conditioning.
The punishments.
The psychological torture.
Children turned into living tools.
Another file suddenly opened.
CLASSIFIED — NEURAL CONDITIONING REPORT.
Maya slowly stepped closer to read it.
SUBJECT 002:
Empathy reduction: Successful.
Fear response suppression: Successful.
Emotional dependency resistance: Exceptional.
Psychological fragmentation stability: Highest recorded result.
Then one final line appeared.
"Result: The boy no longer fears loss."
Maya felt chills crawl through her body.
That was Orion's true goal.
Not intelligence.
Not hacking ability.
Fearlessness.
Because a person without fear becomes dangerous.
But a child without fear becomes monstrous.
Arman quietly closed the monitor screen.
Enough.
His face remained expressionless.
But inside him—
old wounds had already reopened.
Subject 001 studied him carefully.
"They were proud of you."
Arman finally spoke.
"They failed."
Subject 001 tilted his head slightly.
"No."
The room became silent again.
Then Subject 001 walked closer slowly.
"They succeeded too well."
Those words hit harder than any weapon.
Because deep inside—
Arman feared they might be true.
Suddenly every monitor inside the facility changed at once.
A woman appeared across the screens.
Elegant.
Cold.
Watching.
Elena Voss.
Maya immediately froze.
Kabir cursed under his breath.
Elena smiled calmly through the distorted video feed.
"Good evening, Arman."
Her voice sounded almost affectionate.
Which somehow made it worse.
"I wondered how long it would take before you returned home."
Arman's eyes darkened instantly.
"What do you want?"
Elena folded her hands behind her back.
"To help you remember."
The monitors suddenly shifted again.
New images appeared rapidly across every screen.
Arman's childhood.
Medical experiments.
Isolation chambers.
Punishment rooms.
Hundreds of hidden memories flashing violently one after another.
Maya looked horrified.
"Stop this!"
But Elena ignored her completely.
Her attention remained fixed only on Arman.
"You still don't understand what you are."
Kabir stepped toward the monitor angrily.
"Shut it down!"
Elena smiled faintly.
"You're too late, Kabir."
Then her voice became colder.
"Phase Zero has already begun."
Arman's expression changed slightly.
Very slightly.
But Maya noticed.
Fear.
For the first time—
real fear.
Elena saw it too.
And smiled wider.
"Ah… there you are."
The lights inside the underground facility suddenly dimmed.
Then a low mechanical sound echoed beneath the floor.
Something massive was activating somewhere below them.
Subject 001 immediately looked toward the darkness.
His dead eyes narrowed instantly.
"No…"
Kabir looked confused.
"What is it?"
Subject 001 whispered slowly:
"The memory chamber."
Maya frowned.
"The what?"
But Arman's face had already gone pale.
Because somewhere deep inside his broken mind—
he remembered that name.
The chamber designed to destroy identities permanently.
The final stage of Project Ashes.
The place children entered…
and never psychologically returned from.
Elena's voice echoed softly across the monitors:
"You survived the conditioning, Arman."
"But tonight…"
Her smile disappeared completely.
"We finish the process."
Suddenly the entire underground facility shook violently.
Dust exploded from the ceiling.
Metal doors began unlocking automatically one by one across the dark corridors.
Kabir raised his rifle instantly.
"We've got movement!"
Then the security cameras activated.
Multiple armed Orion soldiers were entering the ruins above.
Fast.
Organized.
Closing in.
Maya's heartbeat accelerated violently.
They were trapped underground.
And Orion wasn't trying to kill Arman anymore.
They wanted to reclaim him.
Elena leaned closer toward the camera one final time.
Her cold eyes stared directly into Arman's soul.
"The world believes you became dangerous because you were broken."
A pause.
Then softly—
"But the truth is much worse."
Static flickered violently.
And Elena whispered the final sentence like a knife sliding into darkness.
"You were designed this way from the beginning."
The screens went black instantly.
Silence swallowed the chamber again.
Heavy breathing filled the darkness.
Kabir checked his weapon quickly.
"We move now."
But Arman still stood frozen before the dead monitors.
Because for the first time in years—
he no longer knew whether his rage belonged to him…
or to Orion.