The air felt wrong.
Heavy… distorted… as if reality itself had begun to fracture.
Robin stood frozen before the massive metal door, the words still burning into his mind:
WELCOME BACK, SUBJECT ZERO
His hand trembled.
Slowly… almost unconsciously… he reached forward.
"No…" he whispered, his voice barely there. "This… this isn't me…"
But his fingers touched the surface.
—and everything broke.
⸻
Pain.
Not physical.
Deeper.
His vision shattered into fragments of light and shadow.
Voices—
Screams—
Commands—
And then—
Himself.
Robin staggered, but his body wasn't his anymore.
He was seeing.
Not remembering.
Living it.
⸻
A bright, sterile room.
Cold white walls.
Screens everywhere.
Symbols—the same symbols—covering every surface.
And in the center—
Him.
Older.
Calm.
Standing tall.
Wearing black.
People stood around him… waiting.
Listening.
"Subject Zero," one of them said, voice filled with tension. "The system is ready."
Robin's breath stopped.
No…
That wasn't possible.
"I know," he answered.
His voice.
But stronger.
Colder.
"I designed it."
⸻
The memory cracked.
Robin gasped, collapsing to one knee in the present.
"No… no no no…"
His hands shook violently.
"I was there…"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"I… was in control…"
⸻
"Memory recovery: unstable."
The mechanical voice returned, louder now.
Aggressive.
Almost alarmed.
"Identity conflict detected."
The walls around him trembled.
Then—
Shifted.
Robin looked up sharply.
The corridor warped.
Bent.
Twisted like a living thing.
The symbols on the walls began to glow, pulsing violently.
"Error… error…"
The voice echoed from everywhere.
"Subject Zero status: corrupted."
Robin pushed himself up, breathing hard.
"What is happening to me?!"
⸻
Footsteps.
Behind him.
He froze.
Slowly—
He turned.
Her.
Standing there.
His aunt.
But not the woman he knew.
Her posture… straight.
Her gaze… sharp.
Unshaken.
Like she had been waiting for this moment.
"…Robin."
Her voice was calm.
Too calm.
"You remembered."
His eyes widened.
"You… you knew?"
She didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she stepped closer.
No fear.
No hesitation.
"I tried to stop this," she said quietly. "I tried to keep you away from all of this."
"Then tell me what this is!" he snapped. "Why do they call me Subject Zero?! What did I do?!"
Silence.
Then—
"You started it."
The words hit harder than anything else.
⸻
The building groaned.
Loud.
Violent.
The lights flickered in rapid bursts.
"System override engaged."
"Containment failing."
Robin turned sharply as panels in the walls opened, revealing hidden mechanisms—watching, tracking.
Targeting.
"This place…" he whispered.
"It's reacting to you," she said. "It doesn't know if you're its creator… or its biggest threat."
⸻
Robin looked back at the door.
His chest tightened.
"I need to know."
Her expression shifted.
Just slightly.
"Robin… if you open that door…"
A pause.
"…there's no going back."
⸻
A screen suddenly flickered to life beside them.
Static.
Then—
A video.
Robin turned slowly.
And saw—
Himself.
Sitting alone in a dark room.
Bruised.
Exhausted.
Broken.
"If you're watching this…" the recorded Robin said, voice hoarse…
"…then it means I failed."
Present Robin stepped closer.
His heart was pounding violently.
"What… is this…?"
"I thought I could control it," the recording continued. "I thought I was building something that could change everything…"
A pause.
His recorded self looked straight into the camera.
Fear in his eyes.
Real fear.
"But I was wrong."
The screen glitched.
For a moment—
Something moved behind him.
Something not human.
Robin's breath hitched.
"I saw what's inside the system…" the recording whispered.
"And no one should ever see that."
⸻
Silence.
Then the final words—
"I ordered them… to erase me."
Robin's world collapsed.
"No…"
"I erased myself."
⸻
The screen went black.
The lights died again.
Total darkness.
⸻
"Decision required."
The mechanical voice returned.
Cold.
Final.
Two lights appeared.
One—red.
On the door.
The other—blue.
Behind him.
"Proceed forward: full truth access."
"Retreat: memory suppression reinstated."
⸻
Robin stood between them.
Shaking.
Breathing hard.
"…You chose this once," his aunt said softly behind him. "You chose to forget."
"Because I was afraid," he said.
"No," she replied.
A pause.
Then—
"Because you knew the truth would destroy you."
⸻
Robin clenched his fists.
His entire body trembling.
Then—
He stepped forward.
Toward the door.
⸻
"Robin—!"
Too late.
His hand pressed against it.
⸻
The door began to open.
Slowly.
Heavily.
A blinding white light poured out—
But behind it—
A shadow.
Massive.
Shifting.
Alive.
⸻
"Releasing Subject Zero…"
The voice echoed like a judgment.
⸻
Robin's eyes widened as something moved within the light.
Something that shouldn't exist.
Something that—
Knew him.
⸻
And then—
Darkness swallowed everything.