The handprint in the ice was growing.
Lisa watched the satellite feeds in Rabbit's new Costa Rica shack, tracking the fractal cracks spreading across the Arctic. Each morning, the shape became clearer—not a hand, but something *pushing* from beneath.
*"We were wrong about everything,"* she said, tossing the latest postcard into the surfboard-shaped ashtray.
Rabbit adjusted his eye implant, the one that now glitched in *hexadecimal*. *"Wraith didn't sacrifice herself to *stop* 001. She was *feeding* it."*
Lora's knife stilled on the whetstone. Somewhere in the jungle, howler monkeys screamed.
---
### **THE THIRD TRANSMISSION**
The video arrived at 3:17 AM—the same time Lisa had "died" in that 7-Eleven years ago.
Static resolved into Wraith's face, younger than they'd last seen her. She stood in the Phoenix Prime nursery, surrounded by empty cots.
*"If you're seeing this, I failed."* A child's whimper off-camera. *"We *all* failed. Except the *children*."*
The footage jumped. Now Wraith crouched beside a cot, stroking the hair of a sleeping boy—*Rabbit's exact face* at age six.
*"Batch 307 was never the immune system,"* she whispered. *"They were the *key*. And 001... 001 was the *lock*."*
The video ended with a shot of the Arctic door.
It was open now.
---
### **THE RETURN**
They met at the edge of the ice.
Wraith stood waiting, her body translucent as frozen smoke. Behind her, the door yawned into impossible blackness.
*"You *knew*,"* Lora accused, her golden scars blazing.
*"I *hoped*."* Wraith touched Lisa's cheek. *"You were always meant to choose. Swallow the key—"* She nodded at Lora. *"—or turn it."*
Rabbit's breathing hitched. *"What's inside?"*
Wraith smiled with all their shared teeth. *"What *survives*."*
A sound from the dark.
*Singing.*
---
### **THE CHOICE**
The children emerged in a line, fifty pairs of Rabbit's blue eyes blinking against the sun. Their small hands were clasped, their mouths moving in unison:
*"*...lullaby, and goodnight...*"*
Lora fell to her knees. *"Oh god. They *kept* them."*
Lisa's implants shorted out one by one as the truth hit:
- The "failures" hadn't died.
- They'd *adapted*.
- And whatever slept in 001's bones...
*It had learned to love them.*
Wraith dissolved into the wind as the first child—a girl with Lora's nose—reached for them.
*"We waited *so long*,"* she whispered.
Rabbit was the first to take her hand.
____