Chapter 13 : Doppelganger

Location: Seoul Ricci Private Safehouse, 2nd District

Time: 03:09 AM

Yuna stood by the window, barely breathing. The city was cloaked in velvet darkness, lights blinking like distant memories. Her hands trembled slightly as she gripped the old photo her mother, young and vulnerable, standing beside Aleksei Drevin.

Pregnant.

The implications clawed at her like fire under skin. If Drevin was her biological father… then what was she really? A weapon forged by bloodlines? Or a woman trying to survive the shadow war she never asked for?

Behind her, Lucien leaned against the doorway, watching in silence.

"You haven't slept," he said quietly.

Yuna didn't turn. "How long did you know this possibility?"

"I've suspected," he said. "For about a year."

She faced him now. "And you still let me fall for you?"

Lucien stepped forward, his expression carved from stone. "I didn't *let* you. I just stopped fighting it."

Yuna's voice was a whisper. "If I'm Drevin's daughter… I'm the Syndicate's greatest threat."

"No," Lucien said, closing the space between them. "You're its future. But only if we take control of your story before he rewrites it."

Outside, an explosion rocked the street. The safehouse trembled.

Lucien spun around. "Get down!"

The lights shattered. A deafening silence followed.

Then: footsteps. Measured. Precise.

Someone entered the room.

Lucien raised his weapon only to freeze.

Standing in the doorway was… "him"!

An exact copy. Same eyes. Same jaw. Same scars.

Yuna gasped. "Lucien?"

Both men turned toward her.

"Which one of you is real?"

Location: Seoul Abandoned Courthouse (Syndicate Lock Facility)

Time: 03:31 AM

Min-Jae was bleeding, hand pressed to his ribs as he crouched in the surveillance room.

He watched the feed with growing dread.

Two Luciens on-screen. One with Yuna. One unconscious, dragged from the wreckage.

"Son of a" he hissed, scrambling to his feet. He reached for the comms. "Yuna! That's not him! The real Lucien's been captured!"

Static.

Then a soft chuckle over the speakers.

Kazuo Shin's voice slithered through.

"You're too late, Min-Jae. The show has already begun."

Location: Safehouse Basement

Time: 03:37 AM

Yuna stood frozen as the two Luciens squared off.

"You know what this is," the real Lucien growled. "Sable's mimic program. Drevin's favorite illusionist trick."

The impostor smiled. "You would say that."

"I trained with Yuna. I bled with her," the real Lucien continued. "Ask me something only we know."

Yuna hesitated. Her heart thundered.

She turned to the first Lucien. "What did I say to you the night I found out about Project Phoenix?"

Impostor-Lucien's smile cracked. "You said… I should've told you."

The real Lucien stepped forward. "You said: *'I don't need your shield, I need the truth.'*"

Yuna didn't breathe. Her eyes locked on the second man.

Bang!

A single shot.

The impostor dropped to his knees then collapsed, his body glitching with minor muscle spasms. The synthetic bio-mods shorted.

Lucien lowered his pistol, breathing hard. "Drevin's trying to turn every truth we know into a weapon."

Yuna stared at the body, then whispered, "Then we give him a truth he can't control."

Location: Sable Facility Below Tokyo Metro

Time: 05:12 AM (Japan Time)

Kazuo Shin stared at the screen, dumbfounded. The mimic was down. Too soon.

He turned to Drevin. "They saw through it."

Drevin's eyes didn't waver. "Good. Let them feel like they've won something."

He tapped the next file.

PROJECT: RED QUEEN

Kazuo raised a brow. "She's not ready."

"She doesn't have to be," Drevin murmured. "We just have to detonate her."

Location: Ricci Korea HQ – Medical Wing

Time: 04:22 AM (KST)

Lucien paced as Yuna lay unconscious in the reinforced med bay. After the incident, her vitals had spiked then flatlined for seven seconds before stabilizing.

Min-Jae read the data aloud. "Her adrenaline levels were off the charts. Neural pathways lighting up in unknown patterns."

Lucien's expression darkened. "Phoenix is activating."

"She's not ready," Min-Jae said. "We don't even know what that means yet."

Lucien turned to Dr. Saito, their Syndicate-aligned geneticist. "What triggered it?"

The doctor hesitated. "It wasn't fear. It was clarity."

Lucien stiffened. "Clarity?"

"She finally believed who she was. That knowledge… catalyzed her."

At that moment, alarms flared red.

"INTRUSION DETECTED. MULTIPLE HOSTILES"

Lucien barked, "Seal all floors. Get to the vault."

Min-Jae's screen flickered. An image appeared.

Drevin. Live feed.

His voice oozed through the speakers. "You can't hide from blood, Lucien. And you can't protect her from what she *is.*"

Lucien stared into the screen. "You don't get to decide her story."

Drevin smiled. "I already have. Chapter 13… ends with a funeral."

Location: Unknown Ocean Experimental Vessel, Sable-Black Ops

Time: Unknown

Yuna opened her eyes in a metal room, strapped to a chair. Monitors beeped around her. Wires ran into her veins. Liquid gold pulsed through them.

A man stepped out of the shadows.

Not Drevin. Not Kazuo.

Another ghost from the past.

Tall. Pale-skinned. A Ricci by blood, but forgotten by the world.

"Hello, sister," he said. "They never told you about me, did they?"

Her pulse thundered.

Lucien never mentioned another heir.

The man smiled cruelly.

"I'm the real Phoenix."