"....?"

Julius took in the sight before him. The sweeping tanks and blue lighting of the Moscow Oceanarium. It wasn't bad. In fact, to the average Soviet citizen, it was probably beautiful.

But to him, it felt modest at best. The architecture was mostly steel and reinforced polymer, shaped in that familiar utilitarian Soviet style. The layout was simple, the corridors were narrow, and the viewing halls were obviously trying to hide the aging infrastructure behind the holo panels.

Truth be told, Germany's oceanarium was leagues ahead.

Berlin's Marine Sphere spanned an entire district. A floating dome supported by gravitic pillars, housing a fully simulated Atlantic ecosystem.

Artificial storms. Programmable tides. Even a rotating observation deck that gave visitors a full three-hundred-sixty degree view of the bioengineered megafauna swimming below.

Compared to that, Moscow's version felt almost quaint. A relic of early twenty-first-century aquarium design, upgraded here and there with basic holo-tech just to pass modern standards.

Still, Yuliya seemed delighted, looking at him as if expecting his critique.

"It's… something," he replied. "I've never been inside one before to make a statement."

"Today is your first official aquarium experience! In that case—" She grabbed his sleeve eagerly. "We have to make it perfect. Come on!"

"H-Hey, careful. You're going to rip my clothes."

"The dolphin and seal show starts in two minutes. We're exactly on time. We can tour the tanks after. Let's go, let's go!"

Julius allowed himself to be pulled along. Yuliya's enthusiasm was a force of nature. He had no intention of resisting if he wanted to maintain this persona. Still, the sudden energy she exuded caught him off guard.

Right now, she seemed more like a child who had been promised a month's worth of sweets.

They passed under the dome walkway, where schools of holographically enhanced fish swam above their heads. The environmental projectors cast water reflections across the floors, giving the illusion of walking under the sea.

Children pressed their faces against the glass, couples strolled leisurely, and mechanical drones shaped as metallic jellyfish hovered above.

Yuliya didn't spare any of that a glance. All she cared about was dragging him toward the performance hall.

When they reached the entrance of the show hall. Yuliya whispered, "Dimitri. You're going to love this."

She was unbelievably enthusiastic. Perhaps she loved fish that much?

Now that he thought about it, Yuliya did use the fishbone diagram excessively in every project she led. Perhaps this was simply an extension of that passion, or perhaps she was truly the type to get excited over anything aquatic.

They watched the show. Well, Yuliya watched the show. Julius simply watched the range of her colorful expressions as the dolphins or seals leapt from the water.

Her eyes sparkled. Her lips parted in soft awe. Sometimes she clapped too fast, sometimes she leaned forward to catch every moment. It was almost as if she were absorbing every sound and color the oceanarium had to offer.

Julius found himself staring more at her than at the performance.

When the show ended, Yuliya turned toward him with the brightest smile of the day.

"Wasn't that amazing?" she said.

Julius nodded. "Yes. I never knew seals could move like that."

Yuliya clasped her hands together. "Right? They're so smart! And the dolphin choreography, did you see that little one flip? Ahh, I've watched this show three times, but it never gets old!"

"You seem to enjoy this place quite a lot."

"Of course I do." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, smiling brightly as they walked through the hall lined with marine tanks. "My father brought me here when I was young. Whenever he wasn't drowning in work… this was where we'd go. I guess I associate aquariums with happy memories."

"I see."

"And now," she said, glancing up at him with a shy grin, "I get to make a new happy memory with you."

"I'm honored."

* * *

By the time night fell over Moscow, the two found themselves seated in one of the city's high-end restaurants, right inside a private dining suite reserved for patrons willing to pay its steep fee.

"I still can't believe you agreed to this place," she said. "Most people I bring here complain about the price before we even sit."

"If I agreed to spend the entire day with you, does choosing a restaurant surprise you?"

Her cheeks reddened instantly. "W-Well… when you say it like that, it sounds a lot more direct."

"I only meant that refusing would have seemed rude after everything you planned today."

She poked at her food with her fork. "…You could just accept the compliment, you know."

Julius lifted his gaze from his plate and met her eyes. "I did accept it. I even came dressed for it."

She blinked. "D-Dressed for it…?"

"For dinner. With a beautiful woman."

"A-Ah?"

For a moment, Yuliya didn't know what to say. It was the first time she had ever heard him say something like that. Her mind blanked for several seconds as the words replayed in her head.

"Dimitri…"

"Yes?"

"It might be strange for me to say this, but… I think you should leave Zima-12."

"...."

For a split second, Julius's mask cracked. It was a reaction subtle enough not to alarm anyone, but clear enough to show he had not expected those words. The fork in his hand lowered slightly as he looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever heard the concept of anomalies?"

"Have you ever heard the concept of anomalies?"

"Anoma—"

Julius stopped mid word. His brows lifted slightly before he schooled his expression again.

"It seems you have."

The term was not new to him. Anomalies. In the future he remembered, they were creatures that defied any natural form or logic. They behaved like humanoids, yet nothing about them remained human.

Their bodies moved in ways that biology should not allow. In every record, they were listed as hostile.

Sightings first appeared around 2158. At the beginning, people dismissed them as hallucinations, urban myths, or artificially generated media. However, incidents started to happen. Reports spread across different countries. By 2166, a German scientist succeeded in capturing one alive and began tests that shocked the scientific world.

The DNA of the anomaly matched that of a Glassheart. 100%.

It confirmed the unthinkable. These creatures were not separate species or invaders from somewhere else. They were Glasshearts altered beyond recognition.

Somewhere, someone had experimented on living subjects and created beings that should not exist. Beings that wandered the world without explanation. No one knew where they came from, only that they appeared without warning and caused devastation everywhere. Germany. The Americas. The revived USSR. Even the coastal islands in Asia.

People gave them many names. SCPs. Cthulhus. Sirens. Calamities. But the truth was far simpler and far uglier.

They were Glasshearts.

And they were artificially made.

Julius kept his expression controlled, but inside, he felt the realization settle in his chest. If anomalies were connected to Zima-12, and if Joachim Pascal Beißwenger had inserted himself into this place, then the link to the Triplet Tower incident was no longer speculation.

It pointed toward certainty.

Something inside Zima-12 had gone wrong.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.