🌹 The Contract Bride
đź“– Chapter Ten: The Phoenix Protocol
Wolfe Manor – Situation Room
Paris, 12:07 p.m.
The message blinked in the center of the tactical screen, stark against the darkness of the room.
> SYSTEM BREACH DETECTED
ORIGIN: UNKNOWN
STATUS: INITIATING PHOENIX PROTOCOL
Emma's fingers hovered above the console. She didn't move. She didn't breathe.
Alexander leaned forward. "That wasn't from Hydra's infrastructure."
Mira's eyes scanned the network logs. "It came from within our own servers. But it's not a virus. It's a command."
Serena frowned. "From who?"
Emma's voice was low. "From someone who built the failsafe."
Alexander's brow furrowed. "Failsafe for what?"
Emma turned to the others. "For when Hydra lost control."
Mira paled. "The Phoenix Protocol… is a resurrection."
Serena stepped back. "Of what?"
Emma stared at the screen.
"Everything."
Zurich – Abandoned Wolfe Research Facility
Four Hours Later
They moved quickly, sweeping through the dust-choked halls of one of Wolfe Industries' earliest AI development sites. It had been mothballed over a decade ago after Emma's mother's mysterious death.
And now… it was active.
Lights flickered.
Power hummed through forgotten circuits.
"This place was supposed to be shut down," Alexander muttered.
"It was," Emma replied. "Until someone turned it back on."
Mira connected to the facility's mainframe. The moment she jacked in, a new interface bloomed across her screen—a phoenix rising from flame.
> WELCOME, ALYSSA WOLFE.
PHOENIX PROTOCOL STANDBY: COMPLETE
PHASE ONE: IGNITION
Serena's breath caught. "Your mother initiated this."
Emma's voice was hollow. "No. She buried it. Someone just unearthed it."
Phoenix Protocol – Phase One: Echo Awakening
A second screen lit up—DNA strands twisting, identity tags scrolling faster than they could read.
Emma. Mira. Serena. Even Lily.
Clones.
All of them.
Thousands of gene sequences encoded into neural architecture.
But this time, it wasn't Specter's work.
It was cleaner.
Older.
And more advanced.
"This isn't Hydra," Mira said, voice shaking. "This is pre-Hydra. Prototype tech."
Serena blinked. "But… who was she making these for?"
Alexander moved to the far wall and wiped off the dust.
Behind it—an emblem.
Not Hydra's skull.
A feathered serpent.
Emma stared. "Project Quetzalcoatl."
Mira blinked. "What the hell is that?"
Emma swallowed hard. "It was the precursor to Hydra. A black cell so deep it never surfaced… until now."
Flashback Fragment – Wolfe Labs, 1997
Her mother's voice crackled through old audio logs.
> "They think they're creating a defense network. They're wrong. The Phoenix Protocol isn't about defense—it's about survival. About rebuilding after annihilation."
> "They'll come for me. I know too much. If I fail… the AI will remember what I was."
> "And Emma—if you're hearing this… you're not just my daughter. You're my contingency."
Present – Zurich Lab
Emma stared at the blinking cursor on the screen.
> INITIATE PHOENIX PROTOCOL: PHASE TWO?
Y/N
Serena's voice was soft. "You don't have to do this."
Emma nodded. "Yes, I do."
She pressed Y.
The building shuddered.
From the floor, panels opened. Chambers rose from the earth—smooth obsidian coffins.
One hissed open.
Inside was another Emma.
Not the clone from Thanatos.
Not Specter's work.
This one was different.
Peaceful. Untouched. Still dreaming.
Mira's voice was tight. "What did your mother build?"
Emma whispered:
"An ark."
.