Chapter 19: Crimson Core Awakening

Six months in Promise felt like six years.
Good years.
Ryo woke every morning to the sound of mining equipment starting up, ate breakfast at the communal hall with men who called him "kid" and taught him card games, and spent his days three hundred feet underground swinging a pickaxe alongside Carlos and Old Hank.
It was normal. It was boring.
It was perfect.
Sera had taken over the repair shop completely—the original owner had retired, happy to let the "cyborg lady" run things. She spent her days fixing equipment and her evenings teaching a dozen kids how to code, including Mayor Reeves' daughter Sarah, who'd decided Sera was the coolest person alive.
They had dinner together most nights. Talked about nothing important. Laughed at bad jokes. Fell asleep on Sera's couch watching old movies on a salvaged projector.
It was domestic. It was peaceful.
It was everything Ryo had never known he wanted.
Until the dreams started.
---
The first one came three weeks into their sixth month in Promise.
Ryo was in a laboratory—familiar but wrong. He recognized his father's equipment, his father's workspace. But the perspective was off. Too tall. Looking down at instruments instead of up at them.
And when he caught his reflection in a glass panel, the face looking back wasn't his.
It was Zero's face. Younger. Before the mask. Before the dead eyes.
*This isn't a dream*, Ryo realized. *This is a memory. Zero's memory.*
In the memory, a door opened. Two figures entered—both wearing FDI uniforms. One was a woman Ryo didn't recognize. The other...
Commander Sarah Voss. Younger, but unmistakably her.
"Subject Z-4," Voss said, consulting a data pad. "Or should I say, Ezekiel? Though that's not really your name, is it? You're not really him at all."
"I am Ezekiel Vance," the voice came from Zero's throat—Ryo's throat in the memory. "Takeshi's brother. His twin."
"No. You're a clone of Takeshi Vance, created when he was thirty years old. Grown to maturity in accelerated development tanks. Given false memories of a childhood you never lived." Voss stepped closer. "You're not his brother. You're his backup. Created in case he refused to continue the Crimson Core program."
The memory wavered. Ryo felt Zero's shock, his confusion.
"You're lying. I remember—I remember my childhood. Growing up with Takeshi. Our parents—"
"Implanted memories. Very sophisticated neural programming. We needed you to believe you were his brother. To have the emotional connection necessary to work with him. To be someone he'd trust completely." The woman beside Voss pulled up holographic displays showing genetic sequencing. "But look at the DNA. You're not a twin. You're a clone with minor variations to prevent rejection during the Core bonding."
"No. This is—why would you—"
"Because Takeshi was becoming difficult. Questioning the program. Expressing doubts about the Core's ethics. We needed leverage. Someone he cared about who we could use to keep him compliant." Voss's smile was cold. "And it worked beautifully. Until you bonded with the Core and the psychological conditioning broke down. Until you became something we couldn't control."
The memory shifted, jumped forward.
Now Zero stood over Takeshi's body. But the scene was different than Ryo remembered from his father's recording.
Takeshi wasn't dead yet. He was dying. Bleeding out from Zero's shots. But conscious.
"Brother," Takeshi gasped. "Why?"
"I'm not your brother," Zero said, his voice hollow. "I never was. Just a weapon you accidentally cared about. A tool that developed feelings it was never supposed to have."
"No. You're Ezekiel. My twin. My family—"
"Your family is dead!" Zero's voice cracked—the last time he would show real emotion. "They showed me the genetic scans. The developmental records. Everything. I'm a clone, Takeshi. A fake person with fake memories. And the Core bonding broke whatever programming made me believe otherwise."
"Ezekiel—"
"Stop calling me that! That name was never mine! I'm just Subject Z-4. A weapon that got confused and thought it was human." Zero knelt beside his dying creator. "But you know what the worst part is? Even knowing I'm not real, even understanding that my emotions are just programmed responses—I still care. I still love you like a brother. And I still have to kill you because the Core won't let me do anything else."
Tears ran down Zero's face—the last tears he would ever shed.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."
Then he fired the final shot.
---
Ryo woke up screaming.
Sera was beside him instantly, having fallen asleep on his couch again. "Ryo! What's wrong?"
"Zero—he wasn't—they made him—" Ryo couldn't get the words out. His hands were shaking. The fragments inside him were resonating with the memory, confirming its authenticity.
This wasn't a dream. This was the truth the fragments had absorbed when Zero died. The truth they'd been waiting six months to show him.
"Slow down," Sera said, holding his shoulders. "What did you see?"
Ryo told her everything. The laboratory. Voss. The revelation that Zero was a clone. The genetic scans. The false memories.
"Zero wasn't my uncle," he finished, his voice hollow. "He was my father's clone. Created by the FDI as leverage. As a weapon they could use to control my father. And when the Core bonding broke his conditioning, when he learned the truth..." Ryo looked at his hands. "He killed my father while crying. While still loving him. Because the Core wouldn't let him make any other choice."
Sera was silent for a long moment. "Jesus. That's—I don't even have words for how messed up that is."
"It gets worse. Voss arranged it. She's the one who ordered Zero's creation. Who implanted the false memories. Who turned a living being into a weapon and then acted surprised when he became exactly what they made him." Ryo stood, pacing. "She knew. This whole time. When she was hunting me, trying to capture me for Project Renaissance—she knew I was hunting the man she created. The weapon she built. And she never said a word."
"Because saying something would have meant admitting what the FDI did. Admitting they created sentient life just to use it as a tool." Sera's mechanical fist clenched. "That's beyond unethical. That's evil."
"And my father knew. He must have known. He was working with them when they created Zero. He might have even helped design the cloning process." Ryo felt sick. "My father created a person, gave him false memories, let him believe he was human—and then tried to destroy him when he became inconvenient."
"You don't know that. Maybe Takeshi didn't know about the cloning. Maybe he thought Ezekiel was real—"
"He knew." Ryo's voice was flat. "The fragments are showing me more. Deeper memories. My father knew. And he did it anyway because he thought the Crimson Core program was more important than one person's life."
He looked at Sera, and she saw something frightening in his eyes. Not red. Not the fragments taking over. But something worse.
Cold. Human. Angry.
"They're all guilty," Ryo said quietly. "My father. Voss. Crane. Blackthorn—he was part of the program too, must have known about the cloning. Everyone involved in the Crimson Core project. They created life just to use it as a weapon. And they destroyed lives—Zero's, mine, everyone who bonded with the Core—without a second thought."
"Ryo, where is this going?"
"I need to talk to Blackthorn. He's the only one left who was there from the beginning. The only one who can tell me the whole truth." Ryo was already moving, gathering his things. "And then I need to decide what to do with that truth."
"Do with it how?"
Ryo stopped, meeting her gaze. "I don't know yet. But Sera—I'm angry. Really angry. And the fragments are responding to that anger. Offering solutions. Suggesting ways to make everyone who hurt Zero pay for what they did."
"Don't," Sera said immediately. "Don't go down that path. That's what Zero did—let anger and the Core combine into something that destroyed everyone around him."
"Maybe Zero had the right idea. Maybe the people who did this deserve to be destroyed."
"Maybe they do. But you're not the one who gets to make that decision. Because the moment you start using the fragments to enact revenge, you become exactly what they tried to create—a weapon that kills without conscience." Sera grabbed his arm. "You want to honor Zero's memory? Don't become him. Don't let them win by turning you into the tool they always wanted."
Ryo wanted to argue. The fragments were whispering about justice, about accountability, about how easily he could find Voss and Crane and everyone else involved and make them pay.
But Sera was right. He knew she was right.
"I'm still going to Redwater Ridge," he said finally. "I need answers. Need to understand what my father was thinking. Why he did what he did."
"Then I'm coming with you."
"Sera—"
"Not negotiable. You're in a dangerous headspace right now. The fragments are active, you're processing traumatic information, and you're talking about revenge. I'm not letting you go alone." Her mechanical hand squeezed his. "We're partners. That means we face the hard stuff together."
Ryo nodded, grateful and terrified in equal measure.
They left Promise that night, telling no one where they were going. Just a note for Mayor Reeves saying they'd be back in a few days.
The six-hour drive to Redwater Ridge felt like six minutes.
---
Blackthorn was exactly where Ryo expected—in his office at the rebuilt prison, working late on reports and resource management.
He looked up when they entered, his dead eyes registering surprise and then concern.
"Kazehara. Quinn. What are you doing here?"
"You knew," Ryo said without preamble. "About Zero. About the cloning. You were part of the program. You knew he wasn't real."
Blackthorn's expression went carefully neutral. "Sit down. This conversation needs context."
"I don't want context. I want the truth."
"The truth is complicated. But yes—I knew. Not at first. Not when I was bonded with the early Core prototype. But later, after my bonding failed and they demoted me to security, I learned about Subject Z-4. About the cloning program." Blackthorn gestured at the chairs. "Please. Sit. Let me explain."
Reluctantly, Ryo and Sera sat.
Blackthorn poured water from a pitcher—a human gesture from a man who was barely human anymore—and began.
"The Crimson Core program started with good intentions. The FDI wanted to create enhanced soldiers who could defend the territories from external threats. But Takeshi—your father—was the only scientist brilliant enough to make it work. And he had doubts. Ethical concerns about turning people into weapons."
"So you created Zero to manipulate him."
"Voss created Zero. Not me. Not your father. She did it behind our backs, using stolen genetic samples and classified cloning technology." Blackthorn's hands clenched. "By the time we found out, Zero was already five years old—in biological terms. Already had memories. Already believed he was Takeshi's twin brother."
"And my father didn't stop it."
"Your father tried. He went to his superiors. Demanded the cloning program be shut down. Threatened to expose everything." Blackthorn's voice was heavy. "And they threatened him right back. Said if he didn't cooperate, they'd terminate Zero as a failed experiment. Kill him and start over with a new clone."
Ryo felt something crack inside his chest. "So my father chose to let Zero live. Even knowing he was being used."
"Your father loved Zero. Knew he was a clone and loved him anyway. Raised him. Taught him. Treated him like a real brother because to Takeshi, Zero was real. The circumstances of his creation didn't matter—what mattered was that he was alive, conscious, and deserving of dignity." Blackthorn looked at Ryo. "And when the Core bonding broke Zero's conditioning, when Voss told him the truth about his origins, your father tried to protect him. Tried to find a way to reverse the bonding, remove the Core, give Zero back his humanity."
"By trying to destroy the Core completely."
"Yes. Because that was the only way. The Core had integrated too deeply with Zero's neural structure. The only way to free him was to shut down the Core entirely, even if it meant Zero would die in the process." Blackthorn's dead eyes were haunted. "Your father was trying to give Zero a mercy killing. But Zero didn't see it that way. He saw it as betrayal. As proof that he'd never been real, never been loved, never been anything but a weapon."
"So he killed my father."
"So he killed the only person who ever truly cared about him. Because the Core wouldn't let him see the truth—that Takeshi was trying to save him, not destroy him." Blackthorn stood, walking to the window. "And then Zero spent five years becoming exactly what the FDI wanted him to be. A perfect weapon. While hating himself every second of it."
Ryo sat in silence, processing. The fragments were quiet now, offering no commentary, no solutions. Just waiting.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" he asked finally.
"Because I wasn't sure you were ready. You were so focused on revenge, on destroying Zero, on finishing what your father started. If I'd told you Zero was a victim too—that he was created to be a weapon and then punished for becoming one—I was afraid you'd lose your purpose. Lose yourself." Blackthorn turned back. "And I needed you focused. Needed you strong enough to survive what was coming."
"You used me. Just like Voss used Zero. Just like my father used Zero. Everyone in the Crimson Core program used someone."
"Yes," Blackthorn said simply. "I did. And I'm sorry. But I don't regret it. Because you survived. You're here, alive, human despite carrying fragments that should have destroyed you. You proved that the Core can be controlled. That people aren't just weapons or tools."
"But Zero never got that chance. He was created as a tool and died as a tool, and no one ever gave him the opportunity to be anything else."
"No," Blackthorn agreed. "They didn't. And that's the real crime of the Crimson Core program. Not that it created weapons—but that it created people and then refused to let them be people."
Ryo stood, his mind made up. "Where is Voss now?"
"Under house arrest. Awaiting trial for her role in Project Renaissance. The FDI abandoned her after the scandal broke. She's facing life imprisonment at minimum." Blackthorn's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because I need to talk to her. Need to hear her justify what she did. Need to understand how someone could create life just to use it as a weapon."
"Ryo, that's a bad idea. You're angry, the fragments are active—"
"I'm not going to kill her. I'm not going to hurt her. I just need answers." Ryo met Blackthorn's gaze. "And I need to decide whether I can forgive the people who destroyed Zero's life. Or whether I become Zero—let anger turn me into the weapon everyone fears."
Blackthorn was silent for a long moment. Then he pulled out a data pad and entered an address.
"She's here. Civilian housing, east district. Heavy security. You won't get past it without authorization."
"Then give me authorization."
"You're asking me to help you confront the woman who orchestrated the cloning program. Who created Zero. Who tried to use you for Project Renaissance."
"I'm asking you to trust that I won't do anything I'll regret."
Blackthorn studied him—this young man who carried weapons in his blood but still chose humanity. Who'd fought monsters and won without becoming one.
"Okay," he said finally, handing over the data pad with his authorization codes. "But Quinn goes with you. And you have one hour. After that, I'm sending deputies to extract you whether you're done or not."
"Fair enough."
They left the prison and drove through Redwater Ridge's rebuilt streets. The city looked better than when they'd last seen it—cleaner, more organized, less desperate. Blackthorn's leadership and the FDI's collapse had given people hope.
But in the east district, where Voss was confined, that hope felt distant.
They reached a modest house surrounded by automated defenses and guard drones. Blackthorn's codes got them through, and they found Voss in a simple living room, reading from a data pad.
She looked up when they entered, and something like resignation crossed her face.
"Kazehara. I wondered when you'd come. Most people in your position would want revenge."
"Most people in my position would be dead or insane. I'm here for answers." Ryo sat across from her, Sera standing guard by the door. "Tell me about Zero. About why you created him. About what you thought would happen."
Voss set down the data pad. "You've seen his memories. The fragments showed you."
"I want to hear it from you. In your own words. Why did you create a person just to use as a weapon?"
Voss was silent for a moment. Then she began to speak.
"Because I was desperate. Because the Crimson Core program was failing. Every test subject either died, went insane, or rejected the bonding. We'd spent billions, sacrificed hundreds of volunteers, and had nothing to show for it except me—" She gestured at Blackthorn's authorization on the data pad. "A sheriff who barely passed for human anymore. I needed Takeshi to keep working, keep innovating. And he was losing his nerve."
"So you created Zero."
"So I created a clone with false memories and emotional conditioning designed to maximize Takeshi's cooperation. It was cold. It was manipulative. It was necessary." Voss's expression hardened. "And it worked. Takeshi stayed with the program for another decade. We made breakthroughs we never would have achieved otherwise. The Crimson Core went from a theoretical concept to a functional reality."
"At the cost of Zero's humanity."
"Zero never had humanity. He was a clone. An artificial person created in a lab."
"He was conscious. He felt emotions. He loved my father. That makes him as human as anyone." Ryo leaned forward. "You created life and then convinced yourself it wasn't real so you wouldn't feel guilty about using it. But deep down, you knew. You knew Zero was a person. And you used him anyway."
Voss looked away. "Yes. I did. And I'd do it again. Because the alternative was watching the territories fall to external threats. Watching millions die because we didn't have the weapons necessary to defend them."
"The ends justify the means."
"They always do. In war, in survival, in evolution—the ends are all that matter. History doesn't remember the methods, only the results."
"Then let me make sure history remembers this result." Ryo stood. "You created a weapon that killed hundreds. You destroyed lives, families, futures. You turned my father into someone willing to experiment on his own unborn child. And for what? A program that failed. A weapon that couldn't be controlled. A technology so dangerous we had to destroy it completely."
"The Crimson Core would have worked—"
"It created monsters. Zero. Subject Zero-One. Me. All of us are monsters you made and then blamed for being monstrous." Ryo's eyes flickered red, then brown again. "But here's the thing, Voss. I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to hurt you. Because that's what Zero would have done. And I'm not Zero."
"Then what are you?"
"I'm Ryo Kazehara. I'm the person your program tried to create and failed. I'm the proof that humanity can't be engineered or optimized or controlled. And I'm walking away from you, from this facility, from all of it." He turned to leave, then paused. "But I want you to know something. Every day for the rest of your life, you're going to remember Zero. Remember that you created a person, gave him emotions and thoughts and dreams, and then destroyed him because he became inconvenient. And you're going to live with that knowledge. That's your punishment—not prison, not death. Just memory."
He left, Sera following close behind.Outside, in the street, Sera asked: "How do you feel?""Tired. Angry. Sad." Ryo looked at his hands. "But also... free. I've spent six months hating Zero for killing my parents. Now I know he was as much a victim as they were. And I can finally let go of that hatred.""What about Voss? Crane? Everyone else involved?""They'll face human justice. Trials. Prison. The normal consequences for what they did. I don't need to add my revenge to that." Ryo started walking back toward their vehicle. "Besides, I realized something in there. The best revenge isn't violence or payback. It's proving them wrong. Living a life that shows humanity can't be weaponized or controlled. Being free." Sera caught up with him, taking his hand. "So we go back to Promise? Back to normal?""Back to Promise. Back to boring. Back to being human." Ryo smiled—genuine and warm. "The fragments will always be part of me. But they don't define me. They never did."They drove through the night, leaving Redwater Ridge behind.And inside Ryo, the Crimson Core fragments pulsed gently.Not dominant. Not controlling. Just present.A reminder of what he'd survived. What he'd overcome. What he'd chosen not to become.The awakening wasn't about the fragments gaining power.It was about Ryo finally understanding their true nature—and choosing humanity anyway.END OF CHAPTER 19