Story 1254: The Bloodline Key

The deeper they went, the more it made sense—and the less it felt real.

Juno, Shade, and the fully awakened H-13 now stood before the last sealed vault of the facility: Vault K-0.

The door wasn’t just reinforced. It was encoded—biologically. A scanner pulsed blue light across its center with the words:

ACCESS RESTRICTED: BLOODLINE KEY REQUIRED.

Shade raised a brow. “I’ve broken into VIREX bunkers, cracked neural safes, bypassed Class-7 encryption—but never heard of a bloodline lock.”

“It’s not encryption,” H-13 said. “It’s heritage.”

Juno stepped forward. “Meaning… it opens with someone’s blood?”

H-13 nodded slowly. “Yours.”

She blinked. “What?”

He gestured toward the scanner. “The memory loop confirmed it. Your identity isn’t random. You’re part of the source lineage. You were born from one of the original trial donors. You’re not just tied to the cure—you’re its carrier.”