Volume II

Chapter 17

Subject Zero

“Hey, Rodriguez!” The fellow officer called out to his partner, as he stumbled down the hallway with a donut in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. He was rather rotund, nearly walking over himself as he tried to catch up to Rodriguez who had turned to acknowledge his name being called.

“What’s up Bob?” Rodriguez questioned, looking at his watch to see that his shift was nearly over. “Make it quick, I got a date with the sweetheart this evening.”

“You heard about that redhead who came in claiming to have information on the missing people of Valdez?”

“Seriously?” Rodriguez had not heard of this at all. “Who? When?”

“Her name is Blaire Whitaker,” Bob explained. “Get this, she claims to know what happened to the missing people, and you’ll never believe what she’s saying. Bonafide nut job, let me tell yuh!”

“Bob, cut the shit talk,” Rodriguez was genuinely interested now, for his own specific reasons. “What is she saying? You know how important this case has been to me!”

“I know man,” Bob shook his head. “Your missing cousin, Elizabeth, I totally get it. But listen, this nut case is claiming that those who went missing were shrunk and sold off in a trafficking organization. Really, absolutely insane claims. It’s a dead end, just figured you’d find it interesting was all.”

“Shrunk? Like what, that movie? Honey I shrunk the kids' type shit?” Rodriguez scratched his head. “No kidding, maybe you’re right. Regardless, maybe she’s mentally ill and does actually know something, right? There have been zero witnesses or helpful leads since the very first disappearance. Are we just going to pawn this bitch off to a psych ward?”

“Can’t put her away for being a nut, but she’s refusing to leave unless we get the interest of some woman she’s been calling Gullivette,” Bob revealed. “If you want to see for yourself, feel free to stop by her room before you clock out. The boss isn’t sure what to do with her yet.”

“Right, I’ll see what I can get out of her then,” Rodriguez immediately began to head towards the interrogation room that Blaire was being held in, as Bob took a bite of his donut and shook his head.

While most of the department and its officers had hit dead ends in the case of the missing Valdez residents, Rodriguez Sanchez was unable to let it go so easily. After his cousin, Elizabeth Sanchez, had gone missing her; entire family had fallen into shambles. With her mother and father heartbroken and spiritually empty, Rodriguez had done everything in his power to uncover a lead of any kind, but always failed to locate a trace of his missing cousin or any of the victims.

Approaching the room, the officer entered and closed the door behind him. The young and redheaded woman sat still and quiet at the table, hands folded on the surface. She turned her head slightly, smiling faintly and acknowledging his presence. However, she didn’t speak right away.

“Miss Whitaker?” Rodriguez asked.

“Yes?” Blaire answered. The officer then sat across from her at the table, and leaned forward.

“You’ve been quite the talk among us officers, it appears,” Rodriguez tried to lighten the mood, unsure of what to think of this young and seemingly innocent woman.

“I’m sure they all think I’m insane,” Blaire responded calmly. Her gaze turned towards his nametag, and a smile spread across her lips. “Ah, so my plan worked. I was wondering if I had come too late, and if you’d have gotten off work already or not.”

“Excuse me?” Rodriguez had no idea what she meant by this.

“You must understand, most people wouldn’t believe what I had to say at all. My friends and I, we came to accept that this entire mission of mine would be utterly pointless. However, with how many people had gone missing, an idea struck me. It was brilliant, to say the least. I’ll admit, it wasn’t entirely my own idea, but the result is what matters most.”

“I apologize, what are you telling me exactly?” Rodriguez was trying to understand, this had not been the interaction he had expected to have with a stranger.

“First we looked up all of the officers within the Valdez department,” Blaire revealed, leaning forward and smiling with a bubbly appearance. “As luck would have it, I recognized your name specifically. Rodriguez Sanchez, but Sanchez is a common last name, so I had to dig a bit further. It didn’t take long to realize you were indeed related to Elizabeth Sanchez, the last person to have gone missing in Valdez among the string of vanishings. With this information, my friends and I determined that if we told the truth, as crazy as it sounds, it would certainly draw your attention and lead you straight to this room, and here we are! It worked wonderfully.”

“You… You wanted me to come here? You knew I would?” The officer was stunned, no way that Bob had known this. Could this woman be serious?

“Knowing her father, Josiah, I figured his determination to find his daughter would be matched by a family member who was in the police department. Would I be wrong about that? Isn’t that why you came here so quickly? You wanted to see if I had any knowledge of Elizabeth, right? Who is she too you, family wise? Your cousin?”

“What exactly is it you know?” Rodriguez was sold, he knew this woman was telling him the truth. It was in her eyes, and she didn’t strike him as crazy. The only crazy thing to Rodriguez was the immense quantity of missing people, without a damned trace, and this was the long awaited shot he’d been waiting for to learn what may have happened.

“Liz is safe,” Blaire revealed point blank. “But she’s also in danger, and so are my friends and myself.”

“Liz…” Rodriguez was now sure that Blaire was an ally. The only people who called his cousin Liz, were friends. “Okay, you have my ears. Tell me what you know. Where is Liz?”

“The department is corrupt with officers,” Blaire explained. “Already have I put myself in danger by revealing the truth. Those who are innocent, will think I’m insane. Those who are corrupt, will know what I speak of, and will likely report it to a very nefarious organization. This organization is responsible for the missing people, but that’s not why I’m here now. The reason I’m here is I need your help. I am very new to all of this, just as you are now too. I understand how insane this all seems, on such short notice.”

“Go on…” Rodriguez struggled with the idea that his fellow officers could be corrupt, but he at least wanted to let this woman say everything she had come to say.

“I need you to call your superiors, bypass your chief,” Blaire instructed. “You need to ask them to send Gullivette down to Valdez to speak with me. They’ll act like they don’t know what you’re talking about, but trust me the message will get to where it needs to go, this I’m certain.”

“What about my cousin?” Rodriguez challenged. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

“It’s not safe to bring you to her quite yet,” Blaire admitted. “However, Gullivette can save her. While I know where Liz is… She…”

“She’s what?” Rodriguez scoffed. “Shrunk? Is that what you’re telling me? The missing people are all shrunk?”

“I have nothing to lose,” Blaire admitted. “Frankly I’m not sure I trust you either, it seems it’s hard to trust anybody nowadays. But I trust my friends, and I just want to see Liz and Ben return home, but in order to do that I need you to send that message to your superiors for me… It’s the only way. I have no other connections, I have nothing.”

“And you plan to stay here until this Gullivette arrives? Is that it?”

“If they let me,” Blaire answered. “I have nothing more to say. You have to make the choice. Either you’re desperate to save your cousin, or you think I’m crazy. It makes no difference to me, one way or another, I’ll find a way to save them. I just hope you’ll allow me to speed up that process.”

“Well,” Rodriguez stood to his feet, studying Blaire’s expressions carefully. “Fuck, I guess what the hell. However, if you’re pulling my leg, I’ll toss your ass in the nut ward. You got that? This better not be some sick joke…”

“I’ve spoken the truth.” Blaire asserted.

“We’ll see about that,” Rodriguez scoffed, heading towards the door. “You’re right, after all. I am desperate to save my cousin. So desperate, I’ll indulge your insane claims. Hang tight, and let’s see if what you say bears any fruit…”

“Get me those damn bandages! And where is that damn satellite phone!?” Commander Ghywin was frantically trying to restore order to the remainder of his task force. With Annie in critical condition, it was all he could do to try and keep her in decent condition.

As there were only three soldiers left, not including Annie and Ghywin, they had taken refuge inside one of their vehicles which had been driven a mile off the road. The sun was starting to set, the intense heat beginning to dissipate as the winds grew cold and sharp. Coming in and out of consciousness, Annie groaned with pain and agony. After being beaten to within an inch of her life, somehow she had summoned a strength that went far beyond anything she ever thought herself to be capable of.

As one of the three soldiers remaining rushed over to treat Annie’s wounds, Ghywin hovered above her with intense concern as he hoped her speedy recovery abilities would soon be able to kick in and restore her to a normal condition. Then, something he had not expected, Annie weakly reached over and grabbed her commander by the hand gently.

“Gh-... Ghywin…” Annie murmured, her eyes slowly opening as she regained full consciousness for the first time since they’d fled the battle after her astounding comeback against the fierce and unrelenting Jacob.

“I’m here, Annie…” Ghywin answered, a tear beginning to form in his left eye. After losing his entire team to the evil and despicable Jacob, it was clear now just how important Annie had become to this world they resided upon.

‘Annie,’ Ghywin thought as he looked into Annie’s eyes. A smile spread across his lips, as he tried to think of what to say to her, but for some reason he struggled to find the words.

“Is… Is it over?” Annie murmured painfully, looking around at the remnants of her team members. The ones who were left, aside from Ghywin, were ones of whom she hardly took the time to know better. After facing what seemed to be death in the flesh, now it seemed foolish that Annie never made a stronger effort to know the lesser members of her team, the ones who hadn’t been around as long as the ones who were now dead and lifeless.

“Annie,” Ghywin responded, not sure how to answer such an innocent and foolish question from a still young and clueless woman. “Throughout the years I’ve trained you to the best of my abilities, despite how confusing and unsure I am of how your abilities seemed to work.”

Ghywin squeezed his grip on Annie’s hand, lifting her knuckles to his chest as he smiled down at her with remorse and regret in his eyes. While Annie was being tended to by their other team member, she looked sadly into Ghywin’s gaze as she listened intently.

“Everyone around me saw you as a monster,” Ghywin continued. “You were brutal to our enemies, without mercy and willing to enact judgment upon your foes in any manner you saw fit. I came to fear you myself, as a result. I often wondered, one day, if you faced a situation that was truly impossible, would you perhaps turn against us and would we be the ones beneath those deadly and massive feet of yours? Despite my hopes for you, I too became weak in my faith and began to wonder if your abilities made you a monster of which I chose to ignore out of fear.”

Leaning even closer to her now, Ghywin’s tear left his eye and fell to her chest where it splashed into a thousand, microscopic droplets. The pain in his expression told Annie everything she needed to know, as she felt her heart flutter at the truth of which he spoke.

“Now I hate myself for losing faith in you at all, even if just a little,” Ghywin admitted, closing his eyes and tilting his head to humble himself before her. “Jacob is the most evil and nefarious weapon I have ever faced in my entire life. He is the greatest enemy of which I have seen this world born into existence in all of human history. Seeing how easily he ripped you from your own growth, reducing you down to normal size so he could easily beat you to a pulp was the most shocking scene I had ever witnessed. I had thought for certain you were going to die, and that I would be next. After he nearly annihilated our entire team without so much as a struggle, for the first time in a long time I thought our lives were going to lose at the hands of an evil incarnate.”

Then, Ghywin released his grip on Annie, standing tall and looking down at her with the biggest expression of relief she had ever seen him express. Lifting his hand, he saluted Annie in front of the three remaining team members, who all paused to salute Annie with respect as their commander did.

“In a moment of great peril, despite the risk to your life, you not only broke an immense record of the greatest height you’ve ever obtained… But you did so when you were on the verge of death, and still managed to use enough strength to throw Jacob so far into the desert that he’d be forced to end the battle, allowing us to escape with our lives.”

Ghywin then fell to one knee, as the other three survivors did the same, all bowing their heads.

“We owe you our lives, Annie. You are not a monster, and you never have been, know this to be the truth. You are more human than most people I’ve met in my lifetime, and I’ll live the rest of my life protecting you and everything you sacrificed on behalf of mine this very day.”

Tears began to fill Annie’s eyes, her ability to regenerate rapidly finally kicking in as she felt her spirit becoming more hopeful as the words of her commander filled her ears. After watching her entire team get brutally murdered in front of her, her failure to predict Jacob’s ambush weighed heavily on her mind. But now, thanks to Ghywin, her soul became eased and weightless.

“Commander! We finally got reception, Whatcom is on the line!”

“About time,” Ghywin quickly took the SAT phone and held it to his ear. “This is Ghywin.”

“I’d ask how the operation went, unfortunately I already know,” Whatcom sounded distressed, the commander could sense it. “Ghywin, it’s best you don’t say anything over this line. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I know well enough that Annie is innocent.”

“What the hell is going on? What are you talking about?” Ghywin was very confused.

“It’s all over the news,” Whatcom revealed. “A hospital attacked by a giantess monster, named Gullivette, released and bred by the United States Government. They’re blaming her for the death of O’Dias Karn as well, and tying your covert task force as the culprits of the most notorious underground trafficking organization ever established on U.S. soil…”

“But none of that is true! What the hell!?” Ghywin couldn’t believe it, was this the plan all along? Avaramix, was this his doing? Assuming that Avaramix planned for the potential failure by Jacob, did that mean this was the backup plan in the event that they succeeded, or at the very least escaped with their lives?

“They recorded your battle, made it look like an innocent slaughter,” Whatcom explained. “I’ve known you a long time, Ghywin, and I know that this version of Annie they’re showcasing is something you’d never allow. Unfortunately there is little I can do, for the time being. You need to get Annie back to headquarters immediately! Her identity has been exposed, she cannot be seen by anyone other than you and the team! Got it?”

“We’re on our way…” Ghywin then hung up the phone, squeezing it tightly as he gritted his teeth.

“You took my team…” Ghywin hissed. “Now you took Annie’s freedom… Curse you, Avaramix. Whoever you are, and wherever you are hiding, coward… Curse you!”

Avaramix stared at the monitor that detailed his decades of research. At long last his plan was all coming together, so flawlessly at that. The lies and deceit were stacked in piles, the usefulness of his subjects beginning to wane and scatter. There was little left to his grand plan, and he had to tread carefully more than ever.

“You bastard,” spoke the voice of Auron Karn, as he entered the laboratory and slammed the door behind him. “I should have known better than to trust you…”

“So you’ve seen the news,” Avaramix smiled, though with his back turned to Auron, the distressed brother of O’Dias was unable to see the man’s expression.

“I’m not a fool, you expect me to believe O’Dias’ death was by accident?” Auron hissed.

“He was in the spotlight, and he got himself caught by the very task force that was designed to infiltrate us and dismantle us,” Avaramix countered, finally turning around and facing Auron with a stern and somber gaze. “Unfortunately, I’ve received word that Jacob too is lost to us. As of yet it is uncertain of his fate, or the total casualties. I took advantage of the situation to dissect the moral support of the population, it was so easy to turn the masses against their own government, ha ha ha ha!”

“I cannot trust you anymore,” Auron knew that Avaramix was lying, unfortunately his brother was a loose cannon. “We could have dealt with O’Dias together, if you had only warned me. I understand he was a problem, but don’t disrespect the decade of testing and experimentation I’ve offered you by lying to me now.”

“Without you, this entire plan falls apart,” Avaramix sighed. “Very well, I suppose the truth is the only path left to take. Despite the workings of your medicine and miracles, my degenerative condition has begun to surpass all methods of my recovery in full. Soon, in a matter of days even, my condition could begin to showcase itself at long last. Rearing its ugly head, my legs and arms will be the first to go, then my mind.”

“So why jeopardize that now? Why lie to me?” Auron questioned, approaching Avaramix boldly. “You have always needed me. Do you think so little of me, that you would kill my brother in secret against me? Do you think I’d have chosen his foolish pride over the integrity of this delicate work? Then you clearly know nothing, Lord Avaramix…”

Avaramix frowned, realizing he underestimated this man. After knowing him for such a long time, he thought he could manipulate Auron as well, but clearly it was the other way around. Auron knew Avaramix all too well, and he saw that now. There was no doubt he needed Auron to finish the research, but how could that be possible now that the truth of O’Dias and his death was bare and exposed?

“I would apologize, but you know me better than that, don’t you?” Avaramix sighed.

“I very much do,” Auron responded curtly. “The tides of this war have shifted. Your days are numbered. No more do we have the uncertain timeline to experiment and craft, nope, not a single day more of such nonsense. I’ve tried to recreate the serum from scratch. I’ve tried to recreate Subject Zero on my own terms, and transfer the findings into your own body. Nothing has worked, and even if I managed to have Jacob or Annie as a subject, they are only fractions of the original serum… It wouldn’t matter, no. It wouldn’t matter at all, the only condition that kept them stable was that of Subject Zero… But she is lost to me now…”

Avaramix opened his eyes with a wide and shocked gaze, his mouth ajar as his brow twitched. His ears perked, he began to question if he had heard Auron correctly. The other Karn took notice, smiling before laughing out loud as he shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands innocently.

“Don’t be too surprised, Avaramix.” Auron lifted his hand and adjusted his round spectacles with a dashing grin. “You didn’t think I’d allow you to fund and continue my own original project, did you? Not without myself, of course. I wanted to see how far you could take it, if success could be obtained after all. Your personal ideas and fundamentals helped me travel leaps and bounds in ways I never had. However, ultimately, I should have known there was only one path left to take.”

“Impossible,” Avaramix finally spoke, unable to believe what he had just learned. “It was you!? You were the one who began project Genesis!?”

“Actually,” Auron’s grin grew wickedly wider. “It was named Omega:Genesis. The last beginning… The final rebirth… It took multiple meanings, but every meaning was derived from the same goal. You see, when I joined the secret mission to uncover an ancient temple deep beneath the Antarctic ice, it was myself who uncovered the ancient specimen sample that was safeguarded there. It was unbelievable, a sample from a being of another world… In the palm of my own hands…”

“Then… You already knew about Jacob, and Gullivette…!?” Avaramix’ eyes burst in shock and disbelief. “That’s how you knew about Jacob!? You were the one who pointed us in his direction, allowed us to benefit financially from his abilities… You were the one who created him!?”

“Gullivette’s true name is Annie,” Auron revealed to him. “I figured if Jacob was kept around long enough, we’d find Annie as well. However, we do not need them anymore. I only had so much of the original sample left, but even with Jacob and Annie, they are only thirds of the whole of the original genome. What I’ve been truly looking for this entire time, was the original creation that I made using the serum, Subject Zero.”

“Jacob wasn’t Subject Zero…” Avaramix finally came to this realization, he had thought that Jacob was the one who passed down the power to Annie, but was that not the case?

“Indeed he was not,” Auron chuckled as he began to pace around Avaramix. “The sample of DNA I found in Antarctica was unlike anything I’d ever seen. The temple buried there was not of this realm of existence, not truly. How it got here was beyond me, but the DNA sample proves an alien existence, or whatever you want to call it, it was not of this plane of existence. Despite being a sample of blood and other bodily concoctions, it had a living presence inside of it. I’m still not sure what the sample belonged to originally, but I knew exactly what to do with it.”

“You created Subject Zero…” Avaramix murmured in disbelief.

“The first genetically created human being,” Auron revealed. “Implanted to fertilize a living embryo, a creation of my own making. Life, Avaramix. I created a living being, and her abilities were beyond comprehension…”

“What happened to it?”

“Her,” Auron corrected. “Ultimately a normal life was pertinent to her development. We wanted to examine how her childhood would be without the knowledge of what she is. We lent her to the Whitaker family out of Seattle, but into her early adulthood she fled from home because of the oppression of the family. They did everything they could to keep her at home, fearing what could happen if she one day realized her potential.”

“Her name…?” Avaramix started to piece it all together, using the minimal knowledge he’d obtained so far.

“Blaire,” Auron answered. “And as luck would have it, who was it that imprinted on Blaire, and revealed her location to us without a care in the world? Without knowing precisely what she was? Mwah ha ha ha ha! HA HA HA HA! You couldn’t make this up if you tried!”

“In the name of God…” Avaramix finally understood now, it was all making sense to him. “Against all odds, Jacob actually reunited with Subject Zero without even knowing it!”

“It has all come full circle now,” Auron returned to his stern and disgruntled appearance. “Now do you understand how it pains me, that you would betray me? You had no right to end my brother’s life so heinously, we could have dealt with him, had Jacob shrunk him at the very least. Because of this, we will only proceed how I see fit, and you have no other choice but to obey me, now.”

Falling to his knees, Avaramix clutched his chest. The realization of his defeat was incomprehensible. All this time he thought himself to be the cunning one, and yet Auron had deceived him this entire time. Using his foolish attempts to gain power and immortality against him, he had become nothing more than another of Auron’s test subjects.

Auron walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning down to match his height.

“Fear not, I simply had to show you how powerless you are in this situation,” Auron admitted. “I forgive you, Avaramix. I see no other suitable subject for the next generation of human evolution. I hid this from you earlier, but it is time now. Blaire is all we need, and she hasn’t even realized her power yet. So long as she remains oblivious to her true nature, we can easily sample her blood and finally push this project to the final stage as it was intended. We have everything we need to make it successful now.”

“Why me?” Avaramix hissed, unable to trust this man now that he’d revealed himself.

“Why not?” Auron answered. “You want power, and I can give it to you. Besides, I’m sure the world will rally together to stop you. I just want to see if it’s possible for the full power of Subject Zero to manifest inside an already established living entity. Jacob and Annie, with the knowledge I had back then, could only handle parts of Blaire’s true power. With her blood, we could finally achieve it. What do you say?”

“What about Deita…” Avaramix found his soft side rearing its head, his heart hurting at the thought of his most trusted ally being lost to him.

“I can rebuild her…” Auron revealed. “Her brain is severely damaged, her condition worsening. She has lost the will to fight it, it seems she has chosen death. However, should I remove certain functions of the brain to weep and show remorse, I could bypass her lost will and restore her using the technology that I’ve amassed at GenetiCo. Be warned, however, she will be but a husk of her former self… But it could save her life.”

“Save her life, and I’ll be your final test subject…” Avaramix bargained. “Deita has been my closest ally since before I can remember… I won’t let Jinshin’s betrayal take my closest friend from me…”

“Then consider it done already,” Auron smiled wickedly. “Your organization is at its ropes end, it seems. All kingdoms must crumble eventually, but when you are reborn, Avaramix… I wonder what kingdom you’ll rise from the depths next?”

“One that will never crumble again,” Avaramix hissed, standing to his feet and squeezing his fists. “I’ve longed to get revenge against the world that damned me to hell and back. I’ll raise hell itself and establish it upon this vile earth. And I’ll owe it all to you… Auron Karn.”

“All in the name of science,” Auron smiled deviously, as he once again corrected his glasses. “All in the name… Of science…”

It had been hours, the harsh heat turning to a sharp cold as the winds blew across the flat desert surface while Jacob continued to limp forward. Sweat had begun to cool on his head, his disheveled hair swaying around as his feet dragged the sand beneath him. Having felt severe dehydration in the desert wastes, it was all he could do to stay awake and keep moving forward.

“Never give up… Never surrender…” Jacob mumbled, repeating the phrase of a movie he had once heard when he was younger. Unable to recall the name of the movie, it helped him stay focused.

“Annie… I hope you’re still alive…”

The wind began to increase in strength, his hair flying in the wind now every which way. Sand began to get in his eyes, as he held up his arms to cover them from the harsh desert environment. Suddenly, a figure began to manifest in the distance. It was hard to see it clearly, as Jacob stopped dead in his tracks while the figure continued moving towards him.

“Who goes there!?” Jacob shouted, the winds increasing and his vision becoming hazier. The figure didn’t respond, but was considerably closer now. Despite the sandy winds, Jacob was stunned when a surge of wind passed over the figure, and after the wind moved on, the figure seemingly teleported even closer. Starting to question his sanity, the figure finally responded to him.

“Jacob,” the voice of a man spoke. “I’ll admit, this was not the future of which I set out for you. Consider me impressed.”

As the winds increased, it became harder to focus. Using both arms now to combat the sand from his face, Jacob desperately tried to get a good look at the man ahead of him. It was impossible, nothing but a dark silhouette standing before him with its arms crossed.

“Who are you!?” Jacob shouted, unsure how this man was able to withstand the force of the desert so calmly.

The figure ignored him, still growing closer yet also becoming less visible.

“It’s not safe here, you could perish,” the voice spoke. “Had I not seen the sliver of hope within your soul, this encounter would have ended differently. However, the Trinity needs you. Without you, I’m not sure your friends can stand against the evil that is soon to be born. It’s time to return home, Jacob. After all, don’t you want to vanquish Avaramix?”

“Who… What are you…!?” Jacob couldn’t be sure if he was hallucinating or not, struggling to comprehend who or what this entity or being was. Could this have been the voice he had earlier? No… It sounded similar, yet the voice earlier was feminine… Wasn’t it?

“Do not fail me,” the voice spoke, the apparition reaching out towards Jacob. “Blaire needs you, after all…”

Then the hand touched Jacob’s head, and his eyes rolled back into their sockets as everything became dark, and the light was snuffed away.