The embryo vault of Polaris Lab pulsed under sickly emergency lights. 100,000 cryo-pods spiraled in a genetic double helix, their cloned occupants opening synchronized fluorescent eyes as Alys approached. Pupils glowed with her signature viridian hue, ceramic seals on their napes oozing golden fluid—the genetic stabilizer injected into Leah during her transformation.
"These children... reliving my life." Alys' frostrose vines speared Cryo-Pod #3, yanking out a wailing infant. The clone's neck seal split open, revealing a micro-chainsaw spine slick with amniotic fluid. Kaine's silver sand shield engulfed the newborn, devouring the berserk weaponry—but his right arm erupted with crimson tumors etched with embryonic weeping faces.
The inhibitor injector's alarm shattered the silence. Alys tore open her chest armor, crystalline fissures branching across her heart like frozen lightning. Her frost-tipped fingers grazed Kaine's mutated tumors, ice crawling over the weeping patterns: "Twenty minutes until I become the Church's killswitch. Choose—purge me with these embryos' energy, or let me die with all secrets."
Kaine's chainsaw wings shredded cryo-pod foundations. Liquid metal pooled into Leah's specter amidst the wreckage. The clay girl's finger tapped a console—dormant clones screamed in unison, their voices coalescing into Cinder's encrypted command: "Coordinates locked: 79°43'N, Church's Origin Cocoon." A holographic map erupted from Cinder's wedding ring, the erased coordinates burning within Alys' gear-patterned irises.
"I choose a third path!" Kaine smashed the energy core's casing, plunging inhibitors directly into Alys' heart. Viridian serum reacted violently with crystalline cracks, ice storms erupting from her pores. Alys shrieked, vines impaling Kaine's shoulder against the ice wall: "You call this salvation? Prolonged agony!" Her tears froze into daggers, refracting 100,000 clones thrashing in sync.
Liquid nitrogen tanks exploded below. Cinder's corpse floated in the mist, his mechanical arm deploying a laser blade to carve Church-classified archives into ice: "All Matriarchs are Leah clones. Including Alys." Kaine's silver sand convulsed—crimson tumors burst into tendrils, devouring five nearest clones. Infant wails distorted into Leah's plea through the flesh: "Brother... save me..."
Alys' vines blossomed. Frostroses caught collapsing ceiling debris. She seized Kaine's hand at the storm's heart, slotting a final gene key into his spine: "Take this to the Abyss... Unravel the Cocoon..." Before she finished, all cryo-pods thawed. Church sigils melted into Alys' face in the nitrogen fog. Surveillance feeds flickered—Leah's ghost cradled an untainted clone, vanishing into ventilation ducts.