Lazarus Prime

Jessica stared at the grainy surveillance footage, the lines of code flashing in her mind like electric ghosts. Another her. A version she never met. A version she never wanted to exist. She clenched her jaw, forcing herself to stay grounded. Focus. Stay in control.

Jean-Luc folded his arms, watching her carefully. "I know what you’re thinking."

Jessica scoffed. "Do you? Because I don’t even know what the hell I’m thinking."

He leaned against the desk. "I know what it’s like to question reality. To wonder if everything about you is... engineered."

Jessica shot him a glare. "Yeah? You got copies of yourself walking around?"

Jean-Luc exhaled sharply. "Not yet. But Vanguard’s playbook doesn’t stop with you. They perfect what works and then they scale. You’re not a one-off, Jessica. You’re the prototype. And they’re done testing."

Jessica’s pulse pounded in her ears. Prototype. The word felt like a verdict. If I’m the first, does that make me real—or just a successful error?Jessica squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment, then turned away from the screen. "I need to get out of here."

Jean-Luc nodded, pulling a burner phone from his pocket instead. "Your people are waiting at the fallback point. You’ll want to hear what they found."

Jessica hesitated for half a second before snatching the phone and heading for the door.

---

Leanna sat on the worn-out couch in the safe house, flipping the black envelope over and over in her fingers. The next Jessica is already awake.

She took a deep breath. "We’re in serious trouble," Olivia muttered, pacing the room. "This isn’t just cloning. They’re manufacturing identities. Wiping memories. Creating... weapons. They’re not just cloning people. They’re building assets.”

Leanna looked up. "Did you find out where?"

Olivia pulled up the decrypted files on her laptop, her expression grim. “There’s one name that keeps surfacing—Lazarus Prime.” She let the words hang in the air for a beat. “The program’s fragmented across multiple sites, but this one… it’s marked differently. If there’s an origin point, that’s it.”

Leanna tightened her grip on the envelope. "If Vanguard is still trying to perfect whatever this is, then we need to move before they disappear again."

Olivia hesitated. "Do we tell Jessica?"

Leanna exhaled through her nose. “We give her the truth, not the weight of it,” Leanna said, quieter this time.

A knock at the door made them both jump. Leanna pulled a gun from her waistband and nodded to Olivia, who carefully peeked through the peephole. A long pause. Then she exhaled.

"It’s her."

Leanna unlocked the door. Jessica stepped inside, soaked from the rain, eyes stormy. She dropped the slip of paper and phone onto the table and ran both hands through her wet hair. She didn't need directions, but sometimes you follow protocol to feel like you still have one.

"Tell me everything."

---

Jessica sat cross-legged on the couch, listening as Olivia broke down the files. The details churned in her mind like an unholy storm. Clones. Memory wipes. Replication at scale.

"What do you want to do?" Olivia finally asked.

Jessica scoffed, shaking her head. "Want? I want to burn Vanguard to the ground. I want to erase them before they erase me. But I don’t even know where to start."

Leanna leaned forward. "We start with Lazarus Prime. If it’s the origin point, it’s the best lead we have."

Jessica’s fingers dug into her knees. "And if I find another me there?"

Silence.

Finally, Olivia spoke. "Then you make a choice."

Jessica swallowed hard, her mind racing. Her whole life, she had been running, surviving, trying to understand who she really was. Now, she had to ask herself a different question. Was she ready to destroy who she used to be?

She took a breath and looked at Leanna. "Pack your bags. We’re going to Eastern Europe."