Chapter 85: The Source

 

The Templar Crypt. Avignon. The Nazi Laboratory. 12:30 PM.

HISS. The wax seal broke. The heavy lead lid of the golden vessel slid open with a sound like a dying breath. Cold, blue mist poured out, heavier than air, cascading down the sides of the altar.

They leaned in. Inside the vessel, floating in a suspension of viscous black liquid, was a stone. But it wasn't a gemstone. It wasn't gold. It was jagged, dark, and pulsing with a faint, rhythmic blue light. A Meteorite. About the size of a human heart.

"It's... alive," Dr. Braun whispered, his Geiger counter clicking frantically. "Radiation levels are spiking, but it's not gamma. It's... unknown."

"It fell from the sky," Catherine said softly, her eyes reflecting the blue glow. "In the year 1119. The Templars found it in a crater in the desert. They called it the Star of Bethlehem." "But it wasn't a star. It was a seed."

"Panspermia," Braun realized, his scientific curiosity overriding his fear. "The theory that life exists throughout the universe and is distributed by meteoroids. This isn't a virus, Sebastian. It's an alien biological agent." "It rewrites DNA not to kill us, but to... colonize us."

Sebastian looked at the stone. It hummed. A low frequency that vibrated in his teeth. He felt a sudden, sharp pain in his legs. The remaining Helios cells in his body were reacting to the Source. They were... calling home.

"Don't touch it," Sebastian warned Harper.

But Harper stood frozen. Her eyes were dilated. She didn't feel pain. She felt... complete. The stone was whispering to her. Not in words, but in feelings. Safety. Power. Home.

---

[The Historian Arrives]

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

A slow clap echoed through the cavern. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Sebastian spun around. Jack raised his rifle. From the shadows behind the Nazi equipment, a hidden blast door opened. Dr. Thorne walked out. He was flanked by six heavily armed mercenaries wearing gas masks.

"You took the scenic route," Thorne smiled, adjusting his glasses. "We took the German service tunnel. Much faster, though less... poetic."

"Thorne," Sebastian stepped in front of Harper. "You want the stone? Take it. It's radioactive poison."

"Poison?" Thorne laughed gently. "Oh, Sebastian. You of all people should know better." He walked closer, unafraid of Jack’s gun. "Humanity is stagnant. We are weak. We get sick. We die." "This stone is the next step. Evolution in a bottle." "The Templars were too religious to understand it. The Nazis were too crude to control it. Your father was too greedy to share it."

Thorne looked at the meteorite with hunger. "But I... I am a historian. I know that the future is built on the ruins of the past."

---

[The Offer]

Thorne turned his gaze to Sebastian. "Look at you, Mr. Sterling. A broken man held together by willpower and painkillers." "Join me."

He held out a hand. "We don't need to be enemies. The Syndicate has resources you can't imagine." "With the Source, we can perfect the serum. No more degeneration. No more pain." "We can make you a god, Sebastian. Truly immortal. You can walk without fear. You can rule forever."

Sebastian looked at Thorne. Then he looked at Harper.

"And the price?" Sebastian asked coldly.

"Her," Thorne pointed to Harper. "She is the Chimera. The perfect hybrid. Her blood is the only thing that stabilizes the alien strain." "We need her to be the... Host." "She won't die, I promise. She will be the Queen of the New World. Kept safe. Kept... productive."

Harper trembled. "Productive?" She realized what he meant. They wanted to harvest her. Like a lab rat. Forever.

---

[The Choice]

Sebastian looked down at his hands. Immortal. Powerful. Healed. It was everything he had ever wanted. Everything his father promised him.

He looked at Thorne. "You offer me the world," Sebastian said softly.

"I offer you destiny," Thorne smiled.

Sebastian nodded. He took a step toward Thorne. The mercenaries lowered their weapons slightly, thinking he was surrendering.

Sebastian stopped. He looked at Harper. "Do you remember what I told you on the oil rig?" he asked her.

Harper looked at him, confused. "That you'd run for me?"

"No," Sebastian smiled. It was a sad, beautiful smile. "I said I'm vintage."

He turned to Thorne. "And vintage things..." He grabbed a heavy glass beaker of Hydrochloric Acid from the Nazi workbench next to him. "...break easily."

He didn't throw it at Thorne. He threw it at the Meteorite.

---

[The Reaction]

SMASH. The acid hit the blue stone. HISS! SCREECH! The reaction was instantaneous and violent. The alien mineral screamed—a sound like grinding metal. It released a pulse of pure, blinding blue energy. A Shockwave.

"NO!" Thorne screamed, covering his face.

The shockwave hit everyone. The mercenaries were thrown back against the walls. Jack and Braun were knocked off their feet.

But Sebastian and Harper... They didn't fall. The energy passed through them. Sebastian’s eyes glowed Gold. Harper’s eyes glowed Violet. The stone was reacting to their shared bloodline connection. It wasn't attacking them; it was activating them.

The cavern began to shake. The ceiling cracked. Stalactites rained down.

"You fool!" Thorne roared, pulling a golden pistol (an antique Luger). "You've destabilized it!"

"Run!" Sebastian grabbed Harper’s hand. He didn't need a weapon. The energy from the stone was surging through his veins, overcharging his system. He kicked a mercenary ten feet into the air. He punched a hole through a wooden crate to clear the path.

"Jack! The tunnel!" Sebastian shouted.

They sprinted toward the Nazi service tunnel Thorne had entered from. Behind them, the meteorite began to glow brighter and brighter, turning from blue to white. It was going critical.

"Close the door!" Catherine screamed from Jack’s back (he was carrying her again).

Jack hit the blast door controls. CLANG. The heavy steel door slammed shut just as the room behind them was consumed by blue fire.

They were in a dark, concrete tunnel. Alive. But they had left the Source behind. And Thorne... was trapped in there with it.

(End of Chapter 85)