The world dissolved into white fire.
Nakato's scream tore through the underground facility as the Blood Memory fully unlocked—a torrent of stolen moments flooding his mind all at once.
*—A newborn's first cry in a steel cradle, tiny fists already sparking black embers—*
*—Needles in fragile arms, scientists murmuring "Subject Zero" like a prayer—*
*—His mother's face, streaked with tears as she smashed the containment field generator—*
*—Gunfire. So much gunfire—*
The memories burned hotter than any flame. Nakato's body arched backward as his very DNA unraveled and rewrote itself, his cells remembering what they were always meant to be.
Across the ruined lab, Kuroto's hover platform crashed into a wall as the shockwave hit. The Director's perfect silver hair whipped in the sudden inferno, his golden eyes widening with something Nakato had never seen before.
Fear.
"Impossible..." Kuroto whispered, raising his sword against the gathering storm. "The Prime Ignition protocol was theoretical!"
Nakato's feet left the ground.
Black fire coiled around him like a second skin, forming plates of living armor that pulsed with veins of crimson energy. His hair lengthened, turning white at the tips as the flames reshaped him. When he opened his eyes, they burned pure black—pupils dilating into vertical slits like a Beast's.
Hinako dragged Daisuke behind a shattered console, her voice barely audible over the roaring flames. "What the hell is happening to him?!"
Daisuke's fingers flew across his cracked tablet, the readings going haywire. "He's not just accessing the Blood Memory—he's *becoming* it!" The screen displayed a DNA helix spinning wildly out of control before resolving into something entirely new. **[SUBJECT: PRIME SHADOWBORN]**
Kuroto recovered first. With a snarl, he signaled his remaining Black Ops soldiers. "Containment protocol Omega! I want him *alive!*"
Twelve pulse rifles hummed to life, their barrels glowing blue as they charged to maximum yield. The simultaneous blast should have vaporized Nakato instantly—
—until he *moved.*
One second he hovered in the epicenter of the inferno. The next, he stood amidst the soldiers, their rifles falling to the ground in neatly bisected halves. A beat later, their armor followed, sheared apart by claws of condensed black fire they never saw coming.
Kuroto barely raised his sword in time to block Nakato's next strike. The impact sent shockwaves through the facility, toppling what remained of the containment pods.
"You think this changes anything?" Kuroto spat, his own black flames erupting to meet Nakato's. "I *made* you!"
A backhanded blow sent Nakato skidding across the floor. Before he could recover, Kuroto was upon him—their flames clashing in explosions of dark energy.
Hinako saw her opening.
While Kuroto was distracted, she lunged for the reactor controls Daisuke had been trying to reach. Her fingers danced across the console, inputting the override codes Ryujin had drilled into them all.
"Come on, come on—"
The system beeped ominously. **[CORE OVERLOAD INITIATED: 60 SECONDS TO DETONATION]**
Kuroto's head snapped toward the sound. His rage-filled eyes locked onto Hinako. "You stupid girl!" He abandoned Nakato, sword flashing toward her exposed back—
—only for Daisuke to tackle her out of the way at the last second. The blade still grazed his shoulder, sending blood spraying across the console.
Nakato saw red.
His flames *screamed* as he crossed the distance in a blink, intercepting Kuroto's next strike barehanded. The sword's edge bit deep into his palm, but Nakato didn't flinch. Black blood dripped onto the floor, each drop bursting into tiny firestorms.
"You're wrong," Nakato growled, his voice layered with something ancient. "You didn't make me. You *stole* me."
With a wrenching twist, he snapped Kuroto's sword at the hilt.
The Director staggered back, his perfect composure cracking. "You don't understand what you're destroying! The Eclipse was meant to *save* humanity!"
"By slaughtering millions?" Hinako spat, helping Daisuke to his feet.
Kuroto's laugh was bitter. "By culling the weak before the real war comes." His remaining soldiers formed a protective circle around him. "The Beasts were just the beginning. There are things beyond the void that would make your precious monsters seem tame."
**[30 SECONDS]**
The facility shook as the overload built toward critical mass. Nakato's enhanced senses could already trace the energy spike—when this place blew, it would take half the district with it.
"Tunnel!" he barked, flames lashing out to clear a path through the soldiers.
Hinako didn't argue, hauling Daisuke toward the emergency exit. Nakato covered their retreat, his fire forming a rolling wall of annihilation behind them.
Kuroto's voice followed them into the dark: "Run all you want, Nakato! They'll never stop hunting you! The Eclipse is—"
The rest was lost in the thunder of collapsing concrete as they plunged into the sewer tunnels. The ground heaved violently as the facility detonated behind them, the shockwave propelling them forward like leaves in a hurricane.
Nakato's flames instinctively cocooned them as the world came apart—
—then there was only darkness.
Consciousness returned in fragments.
First, the smell of damp earth and burning hair.
Then pain—every nerve ending screaming as the Prime transformation receded, leaving Nakato human-shaped but fundamentally *altered.*
Finally, voices.
"—pulse is stabilizing, but his cellular structure is... different now."
"Different how?"
"Like his body forgot how to be fully human."
Nakato forced his eyes open. A canvas tent ceiling swam into focus, lit by flickering lanterns. He lay on a cot, his body wrapped in bandages that smelled of herbal poultices.
Hinako's face appeared above him, her usual scowl softened by relief. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty."
Daisuke hovered behind her, his arm in a sling. "You've been out for three days. We thought the Prime state might've..." He trailed off.
"Killed me?" Nakato croaked. His throat felt scorched. "Where are we?"
"The Resistance." Hinako helped him sit up. "Turns out Ryujin wasn't the only one who knew about Kuroto's bullshit."
The tent flap opened, revealing a towering figure silhouetted against the setting sun. Nakato's breath caught—for one wild second, he thought it was Ryujin returned from the dead.
Then the man stepped into the light, and Nakato saw the truth.
Silver hair. Golden eyes. The same angular features as Kuroto, but weathered by hardship instead of arrogance.
"Hello, nephew," the stranger said quietly. "I'm Shiro—your mother's brother."
Nakato's world tilted again.
The Resistance camp sprawled through a network of abandoned subway tunnels beneath Tokyo's oldest district. Makeshift barracks lined the walls, interspersed with stolen Kage Corps tech and hand-painted maps tracking Beast movements.
Shiro led them to a central command tent where a holographic display showed the aftermath of the facility explosion. Whole city blocks had been leveled, but the media reported it as a "gas line rupture."
"Kuroto's covering his tracks," Shiro said, pouring bitter tea into chipped mugs. "But he's scrambling. That explosion took out his main research lab and two-thirds of his Black Ops division."
Daisuke frowned at the footage. "How is there still a city standing? Nakato's power output should've—"
"The facility had dampeners," Shiro interrupted. "My sister designed them." His gaze settled on Nakato. "Hanako was always three steps ahead."
The name hit like a physical blow. Nakato's fingers tightened around his mug. "You knew my parents."
"Better than most." Shiro pulled a worn photograph from his vest—a younger version of himself standing beside a dark-haired woman with Hinako's stubborn chin. "Hanako was the lead geneticist on Project Phoenix. She volunteered to get close to Kuroto, to learn what they were really doing with the Shadowborn DNA."
Hinako leaned forward. "Then why steal Nakato?"
"Because they weren't just studying him." Shiro's voice turned grim. "They were *breeding* him. Kuroto planned to mass-produce Prime Shadowborn as living weapons." He tapped the photo. "When Hanako realized the truth, she destroyed the embryonic clones and escaped with the original—you."
Nakato's stomach churned. The Blood Memory showed him flashes—a room full of glass tubes, each containing a tiny, floating body that looked like him.
Daisuke adjusted his glasses nervously. "That still doesn't explain the Eclipse. Why stage a fake Beast war?"
Shiro pulled up a new map—this one showing not just Tokyo, but the entire Pacific Rim. Dozens of red dots pulsed ominously. "Because Kuroto's not just a mad scientist. He's the vanguard."
The image zoomed in on one of the dots—a massive structure hidden beneath the ocean's surface. Its shape made Nakato's flames instinctively recoil.
"They're coming," Shiro whispered. "And Kuroto's trying to build an army worthy of them."