The Secret of Twins

The submarine hatch made a dull metallic clang as it sealed. Du Siling sat in the cramped compartment, his fingers unconsciously stroking the red syringe.

The seventy-two-hour countdown ticked in his mind, each second making the connection increasingly unstable. He could sense Han Beimo's unease sitting opposite him—not through the connection, but directly, as naturally as knowing the frequency of his own breathing.

"The password is your birthday reversed..." Han Beimo suddenly spoke, his voice unusually deep in the confined space. He took out General Huo's military tag, flipped it over to check, "950509."

Du Siling leaned closer and, sure enough, there was a miniature data interface on the back of the military license plate. Han Beimo inserted it into the reading slot on the submarine's control panel, and the screen immediately lit up, displaying "Authentication successful."

The console unfolds a holographic projection interface, displaying a complex nautical chart and a flashing red dot—their destination is not the shore, but deeper waters.

"Where is this place?" Du Siling pointed to the red dot.

Han Beimo zoomed in on the image: "Unmarked underwater facilities. Depth... 1500 meters?" He frowned. "Even military submarines struggle to dive to this depth."

Just then, the projection suddenly switched to a blurry video. In the video, a younger version of General Huo, wearing a white lab coat, stood in a laboratory, holding two babies in his arms. The background showed the date as May 9, 1985—a full ten years earlier than their remembered birthdays.

"This is impossible..." Du Siling's voice choked in her throat.

The video continued playing. Young General Huo—or rather, Huo Mingyuan in a white coat—placed two infants into adjacent culture chambers and then operated some kind of gene-editing device. The labels on the chambers were clearly visible: Alpha-1 and Beta-1.

"We... are replicas?" Han Beimo clenched his fists.

The recording abruptly stopped, replaced by an encrypted document titled "Second Generation Twin Breeding Log." The document requires a retinal scan to unlock and is currently inaccessible.

The submarine suddenly shuddered slightly and began to descend automatically. Through the porthole, the seawater gradually changed from light blue to dark blue, and finally to complete darkness, with only the occasional glowing deep-sea creatures flitting by like ghosts.

"General Huo said it contains the information we need," Du Siling said, trying to remain calm. "About his 'twins'..."

Han Beimo suddenly pressed his temple, his expression pained: "Wait... what did I just see..."

Through the connection, Du Siling also captured that scene—a blurry fragment of memory: Linghua was crying, and three babies lay on the control panel in front of her: two were moving, and one was still. The still one had the Greek letter "Ω" etched on its forehead.

"A third child?" Du Siling asked in shock. "We're...triplets?"

Han Beimo shook his head, his eyes flashing with golden light: "No. What we might be seeing is Alpha-1 and Beta-1... and Omega. The first generation."

The submarine continued its descent, the pressure changes stinging his eardrums. Du Siling examined the red syringe, contemplating whether to use it now to stabilize the connection. But a certain intuition told him that the answer lay in that underwater facility—about their true origins, about the missing Omega, about General Huo's true purpose.

A few bright lights suddenly appeared in the darkness outside the porthole, followed by the outline of a huge building—a hemispherical underwater base, its outer shell covered with a special fluorescent material that emitted a faint blue glow in the deep sea.

"We've arrived." Han Beimo stood up, and the submarine began docking with the base.

As the docking hatch opened, a rush of cold air rushed in, carrying a musty smell of something that hadn't been opened in a long time. The interior of the base was surprisingly clean, without any standing water or rust, as if it had been constantly maintained.

They walked down the corridor, the emergency lights on the walls automatically turning on. Du Siling noticed that the structure here was similar to Base Zero, only much older. At the end of the corridor was a door marked "Archives," which required biometric authentication to unlock.

Han Beimo tried placing his palm on the scanner, and the door lock beeped, displaying "Alpha permission confirmed." Du Siling also tried and similarly obtained "Beta permission confirmed." The door slowly slid open, revealing a circular archive room.

In the center of the room was a holographic projection table, surrounded by dozens of data terminals. Du Siling walked to the nearest terminal, and after activating the screen, her attention was immediately drawn to a document: "Final Report of the Omega Project".

The document required two authentications. Du Siling and Han Beimo simultaneously placed their hands on the scanner, the system unlocked, and displayed shocking content:

"The Omega sample exhibited unexpected genetic stability and was able to autonomously regulate RH-0 activity. On May 9, 1985, Alpha-1 and Beta-1 unexpectedly caused Omega to enter a dormant state during the initial contact experiment. The preliminary assessment was that this was due to the activation of a genetic defense mechanism. It was recommended that Omega be transferred for long-term preservation, with a focus on studying second-generation samples..."

The accompanying video showed the horrific scene—when the three babies were placed together, Omega suddenly convulsed violently, and glowing patterns similar to those on Han Beimo's body appeared on his skin before he fell into a coma. Ling Hua rushed into the frame, hysterically pushing Huo Mingyuan away, and picked up Omega, weeping bitterly.

"We killed him?" Han Beimo's voice was unusually dry.

Du Siling continued reviewing the documents and found the records of the second-generation twins—that is, themselves. The records showed that after Ling Hua went into "dormancy" in Omega, he refused to continue the experiments and defected with some of the research data. The military then used the preserved Alpha-1 and Beta-1 gene samples to clone and cultivate the second generation, namely Du Siling and Han Beimo.

"So we are... a copy of a copy?" Du Siling smiled bitterly.

Han Beimo suddenly walked to the other side of the room, where there was a separate safe. He used biometrics to open it again, and inside was a small cryogenic chamber. Through the glass, he could see a blue syringe—exactly the same one they had dropped in the sea.

"Spare separating agent..." Han Beimo said softly, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

Du Siling didn't immediately step forward. His attention was drawn to a huge genetic pedigree chart on the wall. The chart showed that Omega was the original sample, while Alpha-1 and Beta-1 were "simplified versions" separated and cultivated from the Omega gene. These second-generation offspring were the product of multiple optimizations.

"No wonder General Huo needs our data," Du Siling suddenly realized. "He wants to save Omega... his twins."

Han Beimo picked up the blue syringe, then suddenly froze, and the scars on his arm began to glow—those scars, identical to Du Siling's, that had surfaced due to the connection, now formed a pattern. Du Siling immediately sensed the anomaly and was stunned by the sight before her when she turned around.

"Map..." he murmured.

Indeed, those glowing scars formed a detailed underwater topographic map on Han Beimo's skin, connecting with their location and pointing to a deeper coordinate, marked as the "primordial sample".

"The Omega is still alive." Han Beimo's voice carried a strange resonance. "He's calling us."

Just then, the entire base suddenly shook, and alarms pierced the silence. The control panel screen automatically switched to display external surveillance footage—several military deep-sea submersibles were approaching the base, and the insignia of Chen Yan's action team was clearly marked on the canopy of the lead submersible.

"They've found us." Du Siling quickly analyzed the situation. "They can break through the outer defenses in twenty minutes at most."

Han Beimo tucked the blue syringe into his belt and headed for the exit: "Find Omega before Chen Yan arrives. He's the only one who knows the complete solution."

How can you be so sure?

"Because..." Han Beimo paused, his eyes gleaming with golden light, "I can now occasionally hear his thoughts. Just like my connection with you, only weaker."

This discovery is disturbing. If Han Beimo can establish a connection with Omega, then the genetic similarity between them and this "original sample" may be higher than previously thought.

Following the map of the damage, they ventured deeper into the base. Automatic doors opened to them without hindrance, as if the entire facility had been waiting for them. After descending at least ten floors, they arrived at a massive circular chamber, in the center of which was a cylindrical container filled with a transparent liquid.

A young man, appearing to be in his early twenties, floated in the container, his naked body connected to dozens of tubes. Most striking were the Ω mark on his forehead and the genetic markings on his lower back that were similar to, but more complex than, those of Du Siling and Han Beimo.

"Omega..." Du Siling approached the container and was shocked to find that the young man had a face similar to his and Han Beimo's, like some kind of intermediate state—neither like Du Siling nor like Han Beimo, but possessing the characteristics of both.

The monitoring screen next to the container showed stable vital signs, but brain activity was almost zero—a state of deep hibernation that had lasted for more than thirty years.

"How can he help us?" Du Siling asked. "It seems he can't even wake up himself."

Han Beimo placed his hand on the surface of the container, the glow of the scars intensifying: "It requires simultaneous activation of both twins... just like in the Red Chamber."

Du Siling hesitated. The last time they proactively strengthened the connection, it accelerated the fusion, but now they only had... He checked the countdown... sixty-three hours. Risking a stronger connection might cause the tipping point to arrive earlier.

"There's no choice." Han Beimo seemed to hear his thoughts. "Chen Yan will be here soon. Either try now, or lose the opportunity forever."

Du Siling took a deep breath and placed his hand on the container. In an instant, a powerful energy wave surged through his body, ten times stronger than the experience in the Red Chamber. His vision was filled with white light, then suddenly switched to a third-person perspective—he saw himself and Han Beimo standing in front of the container, their bodies wrapped in blue energy beams.

Even stranger, the Omega in the container opened his eyes, which were also golden, but even more ancient and profound. His lips didn't move, but his voice resounded directly in their minds:

"Finally... my other halves."

Du Siling tried to speak, but found herself losing control of her body. The Omega continued to transmit information through thought:

"You are not replicas, but evolved versions. Alpha-1 and Beta-1 failed because they lacked a crucial element—the bond of human emotion. Linghua understood this, so it incorporated an emotional resonance module when creating you."

The scene flashes to Ling Hua operating equipment in the laboratory, where she mixes substances from two test tubes—one labeled "Alpha gene" and the other labeled "Omega memory and emotional fragments".

"You contain fragments of my emotional memories within you," the Omega's voice softened. "This is a gift I gave you... and a curse."

Han Beimo questioned through the connection: "What curse?"

"Too much empathy can eventually lead to a fusion of consciousnesses," Omega explained. "It's a design flaw. When Alpha-1 and Beta-1 tried to connect with me, I sensed the emptiness and violence within them... so I activated defensive hibernation."

Du Siling suddenly realized: "General Huo's twins... are Alpha-1?"

"Yes." The image of Omega nodded in their minds, "and Beta-1 died while on the run. Huo Mingyuan has been searching for a way to stabilize the twin system all these years, trying to awaken me... and his Alpha-1."

The base shook violently again, this time even closer. Omega's expression turned tense:

"Time is running out. There are two solutions: one is to use the red stabilizer, maintain the status quo but always live in the connection; the other is..."

His voice suddenly stopped as Han Beimo's body arched violently, the mark on his lower back emitting a blinding red light. Du Siling felt a heart-wrenching pain through the connection—the RH-0 gene in Han Beimo's body was running rampant, and patterns identical to those of an Omega appeared on his skin.

"What happened?" Du Siling asked in horror.

Omega's voice weakened: "The tipping point... has arrived early. The dormant primal genes within him have been activated... A decision must be made immediately..."

Du Siling looked at the red syringe in her hand, then at Han Beimo—who was now kneeling on the ground in pain, the lines under his skin writhing like living things, his eyes turning completely into a molten gold color.

"Blue syringe..." Han Beimo squeezed out the words through gritted teeth, "Give it to me..."

Du Siling hesitated. The blue syringe meant sacrifice, but the red one might no longer be enough to stabilize the rampaging genes. More complicatedly, the Omega hinted at a second solution...

"What's the second option?" Du Siling asked Omega loudly.

There was no response. Omega's image began to blur, and he closed his eyes again inside the container. The tremors at the base grew stronger; recent surveillance footage showed that Chen Yan's men had breached the last line of defense.

Han Beimo suddenly grabbed Du Siling's wrist, his grip so tight it almost crushed bones: "Listen... there's no time. Give me Blue... you live... find General Huo... save the Omega..."

Du Siling broke free, shaking her head angrily: "No! There must be another way! The second option the Omega mentioned—"

"It's about sacrificing him." A voice came from the doorway.

Du Siling turned his head and saw Yang Zhiming standing there, his gun pointed at them. But unlike before, his Γ mark no longer glowed, and his eyes regained their clarity.

"What?" Du Siling asked warily.

"Omega is the only being capable of completely reconstructing the RH-0 gene." Yang Zhiming slowly approached. "Sacrifice him, and you will gain your freedom. This is... a choice General Huo dared not make."

Han Beimo struggled to his feet, standing between Du Siling and the container: "How...how did you know?"

Yang Zhiming gave a bitter smile: "Because the Gamma series... was made using failed clones of Omega." He pointed to his own mark, "We're all defective... except for the two of you."

The base's alarm suddenly blared, and red lights flashed. Yang Zhiming glanced back: "Chen Yan will be here soon. The final decision—sacrifice the Omega, or watch Han Beimo's genes collapse."

Du Siling looked at the sleeping Omega in the container, then at the agonizing Han Beimo. The countdown ticked in her mind, and two choices lay before her:

Red stabilizer – uncertain whether it can stop Han Beimo's genetic runaway;

Sacrifice the Omega—a "primal self" they had just come to know.

Or... a third option?

Du Siling suddenly recalled Dr. Shen's words: "Twins don't necessarily have to kill each other; they can also coexist."

Perhaps the answer is never about sacrificing someone, but rather...

"We'll be together," Du Siling said firmly, grasping Han Beimo's hand. "Like in the Red Chamber, but this time... we'll actively embrace the connection, not resist it."

Han Beimo wanted to object, but the pain rendered him speechless. Du Siling had already taken action—he tossed the red syringe to Yang Zhiming: "Use this if necessary." Then he cupped Han Beimo's face in his hands, forcing him to look directly into his eyes.

"Trust me," Du Siling said softly, "like you would in the orphanage."

He closed his eyes, willingly letting down all his psychological defenses, allowing the connection to flood in. In an instant, their consciousnesses merged once more, but this time there was no resistance, no fear, only complete acceptance.

This state was both painful and beautiful. Du Siling felt herself being dissected down to her most basic components, and then rewoven with another soul. Memories, emotions, even the subconscious were all merging—

Han Beimo's fear of killing for the first time;

Du Siling's pride upon graduating from police academy;

The sound of whipping in the basement;

The sound of rain at my father's funeral;

Anger, dependence, trust... and something deeper, some unnamed emotion...

Amidst this chaos, a clear idea emerges: symbiosis, not mutual destruction.

The container suddenly burst forth with a dazzling blue light, and the Omega's body trembled slightly. The brainwaves on the monitoring screen changed from a flat line to violent fluctuations. Yang Zhiming watched this scene in shock, the red syringe in his hand falling to the ground.

"They're...restructuring the system," he murmured.

Du Siling-Han Beimo's consciousness manifested as standing in a pure white space, with an Omega projection in front of him. He looked much younger than the person in the container, like a teenager.

"A wise choice." Omega smiled. "The essence of the RH-0 gene isn't control, but empathy. The military has got everything wrong."

"What do we do now?" they both asked in unison.

"Now..." Omega reached out and touched their foreheads, "I give you my last part. Then you will become a complete system... two bodies, one soul."

A powerful surge of energy swept through the room. Du Siling felt ancient knowledge and emotions flooding her consciousness—all of the Omega's memories, from the initial laboratory experience to the agony of forced dormancy. The most intense of these was a deeply buried memory: Ling Hua and Ren Yuqing, in their secret laboratory, encoded the Omega's emotional memories into two parts and injected them into two newborn infants...

"You were never replicas," the Omega's voice began to fade, "but rather my continuation... and a gift I gave to humanity."

The white light reached its peak, then suddenly contracted. Du Siling found herself back in the real world, still forehead to forehead with Han Beimo. But something fundamental had changed—the connection remained, but the fear of merging was gone; the resonance was stronger, but no longer chaotic.

Han Beimo's skin returned to normal; the glowing lines faded, leaving only faint scars. His eyes were still golden, but clearer, like the sky after a storm.

"Did it work?" Yang Zhiming asked nervously.

Du Siling checked her own condition—her memory was clear, there was no confusion about her identity, but she could perceive Han Beimo's emotions and thoughts more easily than before. More importantly, the imminent sense of crisis about integration had disappeared.

"I think so." He looked at Han Beimo and received a nod of approval.

Just then, the container suddenly emitted a piercing alarm. Omega's vital signs plummeted, and his brainwaves flattened out. The monitoring screen displayed the last message:

"System reconfiguration complete. The original sample's mission is complete. May you be happy, my half-bodies. —Ω"

Yang Zhiming knelt before the container, his expression complex: "He chose self-sacrifice..."

A flurry of footsteps sounded outside the door. Chen Yan's men had reached the last door. Du Siling quickly picked up the red syringe and stuffed it into her pocket, while Han Beimo took the blue syringe.

"What do we do now?" Du Siling asked, looking at Yang Zhiming. "Which side are you on?"

Yang Zhiming's brand flickered slightly: "Third option... Follow me. The base has emergency escape pods."

Just as they were about to leave, the main gate was blown open. Chen Yan led fully armed soldiers in, all pointing their guns at the three of them.

"Game over." Chen Yan sneered. "Hand over the syringe."

Du Siling and Han Beimo stood back to back, preparing for a final stand. But just then, the entire base suddenly shook violently, more violently than ever before. The ceiling began to collapse, and seawater sprayed in through the cracks.

"He's activated the self-destruct program!" Yang Zhiming pointed to the Omega's container, which was now flashing red. "Run!"

Taking advantage of the chaos, the three rushed towards the escape route Yang Zhiming had mentioned. Chen Yan roared and fired behind them, but his accuracy was affected by the recoil. They turned several corners and arrived at a small escape pod. It was a spherical pod that could just accommodate three people, designed for emergency buoyancy.

"Go in!" Yang Zhiming pushed them in, while he stayed outside.

"Aren't you coming?" Han Beimo questioned.

Yang Zhiming shook his head, a relieved smile appearing on his face. "Someone has to clean up the mess from the Gamma series." He pointed to his glowing mark. "I can hold them off...buy you some time."

Du Siling wanted to object, but the escape pod had already begun its automatic sealing process. At the last moment, Yang Zhiming tossed a small device to Han Beimo: "General Huo's complete research. Protect them...brother."

The hatch closed, and the escape pod ejected. Through the small window, they saw the base collapse behind them, the deep sea swallowing everything like an enraged beast. Yang Zhiming's figure stood at the tunnel entrance, his Γ mark shining brightly like a star, until the sea completely engulfed him.

The escape pod rose rapidly, the pressure change causing excruciating pain in their eardrums. Du Siling and Han Beimo held each other's hands tightly in the confined space, understanding each other's thoughts without needing words—for those who had sacrificed themselves, for the gift of the Omega, they had to find true freedom.

The two fateful syringes now lay quietly in their pockets, awaiting the moment of final choice...