Project Eclipse 
Seven centuries ago, research to find a way to bring back the dead to life began all around the world. The Brighton Underground Military Base is one such place where this important research is being conducted. All this was possible thanks to new powers discovered a few thousand years ago. Though it seemed unrealistic at first, people started accepting it. However, soon enough, it disappeared from public view, becoming a secret project aimed at expanding military power. While Brighton took credit for having eliminated those with these powers, they were actually the ones experimenting on them.
After a long time, they finally succeeded in bringing back a dead person. The individual had been dead for nearly four hours before they started the procedure. This event came to be known as “Revival,” the moment that changed everything. In just one month following the revival billions would die, in every timeline of the universe.
Brighton, Underground Military Base
Laboratory - 00:56 hrs
Dr. Grant exclaimed, peering closely at the monitor. “Looks like he has come back!”
Dr. Brooks, tapping furiously on the keyboard, replied, “Give him some water… and check for his heart rate! Hurry up!”
A moment later, Dr. Grant added, “The doc is coming with some water.”
“Can you hear my voice? Are you able to see me?” Dr. Brooks leaned closer to the patient.
The patient mumbled weakly, “e…d…bl…eyes…”
“Looks like he isn’t responsive yet,” Dr. Brooks noted, frowning. “He’ll probably take a few hours to recover. Keep him on ventilation for now.”
Corridor - 03:48 hrs
Dr. Brooks, muttered in frustration, “If only we had more manpower down here!”
Suddenly, a woman entered the corridor. “Seems like you have succeeded.”
“Ah, so you can tell if a person is alive or dead too, huh?”
“You can’t bring the dead back to life but can know if someone is alive or dead from far away?,” Dr. Brooks shot back.
“It seems like it,” she replied calmly.
“What do you mean by that? Don’t you even know what your power can and can’t do?” he pressed.
“No, it’s new to me. It’s only been five decades since I got this power. There’s still a lot I don’t know…”
“Haha”, a man chuckled from nearby. “Hahaha! You are so slow! Look at me—only two decades in, and I already know everything about my powers.”
“I wonder if that’s true,” she said skeptically.
Dr. Grant approached them. “Doc… Oh! The Creator and The Amender! I didn’t know you were here as well.”
“Well, now you know,” the woman replied with a hint of amusement.
“Exactly!” the man echoed with laughter.
“Could you shut up?” Creator interjected sharply.
“Hahaha, fine…” Amender replied with a grin.
Laboratory
Dr. Grant turned back to the patient. “Can you hear me?”
The subject mumbled weakly, “Y…e..s.”
“Can you see me?” Dr. Grant pressed on.
“Y…e..s,” came the faint reply.
“Vision and auditory response confirmed,” he announced.
“What did you see?” Creator asked, leaning closer with intensity.
“Please don’t interfere with our research,” Dr. Brooks cautioned.
“WHAT DID YOU SEE?” Creator shook the subject gently.
“Could you please not do that? He is in a weak state!” Dr. Brooks exclaimed.
The subject murmured again, “Lights… No… eyes.”
“What?” Creator asked, his curiosity piqued.
“They were glowing,” the subject managed to say.
“What was?” Amender inquired eagerly.
“The eyes,” the subject clarified.
“What color were they?” Creator pressed further.
“Red and blue.”
“Did you see the face?”
“No… the eyes were too bright.”
“Was it a male or a female?” Dr. Brooks asked urgently.
“Male…”
“How do you know that?” Dr. Grant questioned.
“I don’t know,” the subject replied weakly.
Creator, pointing at Amender, asked sharply, “Did that man look like this person here?”
“No,” came the reply from the subject.
“Did he look like this?” Amender pointed at a photo on the wall.
“No.”
“In a firm tone,” Creator pressed on, “Did he look old?”
“No… He was young.”
Looking at Amender, Creator asked, “Do you still have your powers?”
“Yes—”
“He was reaching out to me…” the subject interrupted suddenly.
“What?” both scientists and creator leaned in closer.
“He said he would free me if I did not leave.”
“What did his voice sound like?” Amender asked eagerly.
“I don’t know, I did not hear him speak” the subject replied weakly.
“No?”
“Then how do you know what he said?” questioned Dr. Grant, puzzled.
“He did not hear… He knew it,” Creator explained thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?” asked Dr. Grant, confusion etched on his face.
“It was put into his mind bypassing his senses. More like a forced dream.”
“So was he dreaming?” Dr. Brooks asked skeptically.
“No, he was made to dream… by someone,” replied Creator, her expression serious.
“Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? Brain function ceases when a person dies, he was dead for nearly four hours before we started the procedure!” said Dr. Grant.
“When did you see those eyes?”
“I don’t know.” The subject’s voice was barely above a whisper now.
“Of course, you wouldn’t know the time, you were dead. Did you see anything else?”
“Nothing.” He coughed weakly again.
Startled, Creator stepped back slightly.
“Can we let him rest now?” asked Dr. Brooks
“Okay, fine. Let’s go,” said Creator, reluctantly stepping away from the bed.
“Alrighty!” chimed in Amender, following suit with a lighthearted laugh as they exited the room together.
Private Room - 8 hours after revival
Creator asked, “Did you see the report?”
Unknown Speaker replied, “Yeah, I was surprised he saw the Amender in his dead state. Thought he would see you or—”
Creator said, “It wasn’t the piece of shit we call Amender that he saw; it was someone else.”
Unknown Speaker responded, “You are so mean. How could you call him that?”
Creator explained, “I felt it.”
Unknown Speaker inquired, “What do you mean?”
Creator continued, “I felt something scary; that’s why I rushed to the lab. I still get chills.”
Unknown Speaker remained silent.
Creator added, “He even heard that person… No, that person spoke to him using the Voice.”
Unknown Speaker asked, “What do you think of it?”
Creator replied, “I think… we might lose the Amender soon.”
Unknown Speaker suggested, “Then we should kill him before we lose his powers.”
Unknown Speaker reminded, “We can’t afford to lose what we made. And aren’t you supposed to be showing your chief some respect?”
Creator remained silent.
With anger, Creator said, “Yes, sir.”
Chief chuckled, “Hehe, why the angry look? Should we consider finding a new host for your powers?”
Creator answered, “No, sir.”
Knocking on the door and then opening it, Private said, “Excuse me sir, the Commander wants you to report to him.”
Chief replied, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Private insisted, “The commander says it’s important and that you be there now.”
Chief sighed as irritation crept into his voice. He said in a rude tone, “Fine.”
{The door opens}
Chief announced, “Sir, War Chief Ren Knud reporting.”
Commander responded, “Chief Dunn.”
Pointing at another person, Commander continued, “This is Commander Fredric Zachry.”
Chief asked, “Ah… what?”
Commander explained, “I’ve been transferred to a different base, so he’s going to be your commanding officer.”
Chief saluted and said, “War Chief Ren Knud sir.”
Commander Fredric Zachry shook hands with him.
Commander said, “I’ll be taking my leave now.”
Commander Fredric Zachry requested, “Brief me about the powers project.”
Chief replied, “Yes sir. Project Eclipse was started 200 years ago in this facility. The main goal was to create superhuman powers. We successfully created two superhuman powers called Creator’s powers and Amender’s powers. The wielders are called Creators and Amenders. The wielders can live longer than a normal human without aging; different wielders tend to show different lifespans. So far we’ve had 2 Creators and 7 Amenders. The Amenders always tend to die soon. The longest lifespan of an Amender so far is 85 years which was only 25 years after receiving the powers; the shortest is 3 years after receiving powers. The longest lifespan for a Creator is 85 years since getting the powers. The current Amender is 17 years after receiving powers and the Creator is 51 years after receiving powers.”
Commander Fredric Zachry asked, “How do you transfer the powers to new hosts?”
Chief explained, “We did not exactly transfer sir. We let the power choose by giving it options. We cannot transfer powers by any means other than making the power choose its next wielder. The wielder will know when he’s reaching the end of his term. During that time we find a new host and train them with the power.”
Commander Fredric Zachry questioned, “How do you train them when you can’t transfer them?”
Chief answered, “The wielder cannot transfer powers but can temporarily give a part of it to someone else; this way we train the new host and also let the power choose the host among those we have prepared. Resonance between the current bearer of power and the hosts is essential—a resonance that strengthens with their shared presence, facilitating the transfer of power. Like the name says Creator has the power to create anything and Amender has the power to change anything. We are using them more like a weapons factory than actual fighters. We are still working on powers that can be used to fight wars. Creating or changing lifeforms hasn’t been possible yet but once it’s achieved by the powers we will have unlimited manpower.”
Commander Fredric Zachry asked again, “None of the wielders rebelled against us? Superhuman power is no joke.”
Chief explained further: “The wielders serve merely as vessels for the powers. The powers seem to possess self-awareness, dictating events according to their own desires—sometimes diverging from the wishes of their wielders. If the wielders try to use the powers against us, the power seems to fight back and stop them. Sometimes other powers tend to fight rogue wielders to stop them; many of the Amenders died this way. So we keep the hosts ready just in case.”
Commander Fredric Zachry acknowledged “I see…”
Chief continued “The latest development has caused some of us to worry about the powers dropping out of our hands.”
Commander Fredric Zachry asked again “And what are those developments?”
Chief explained “In an experiment regarding bringing the dead back to life, a dead person was brought back to life. The subject saw one of the power wielders—the Amender—before he came back to life.”
Commander Fredric Zachry questioned again “Does it never happen?”
Chief replied “That wouldn’t be a problem if the person he saw as Amender was our current one; he saw a different one.”
Commander Fredric Zachry asked curiously “How does he know that? I thought these powers were kept a secret from the public.”
Chief clarified “The Amender was present when he woke up so he was asked if he saw the person standing here and he said he saw a different person—though he did not see his face but only his eyes glowing red and blue like a typical Amender’s eyes we’ve seen so far. We fear that the power has found a new host or that it has been hijacked by someone else. What’s more is that Creator felt something ominous when the subject came back to life.”
Commander Fredric Zachry pressed “What’s the problem in that? Don’t you have new hosts ready? Isn’t the next wielder one of them?”
Chief responded “It doesn’t seem like it. Neither did Amender feel his term come to an end nor did any of the other hosts feel anything different.”
Commander Fredric Zachry suggested “Why not put both powers in the same host then?”
Chief replied “We tried it sir; that isn’t possible either. The Amender’s power rejects the Creator’s power.”
Commander Fredric Zachry urged “So what do you plan on doing??”
Chief stated firmly “Kill the Amender before the power transfer takes place. We’ll lose one of our powers but it’s at least better than not having it at all. We don’t know whom the power might transfer to yet; if it’s going to go to an enemy nation it’s going to get worse.”
Commander Fredric Zachry questioned “Are you sure the power won’t transfer after you kill the Amender?”
Chief admitted “No sir; we don’t know that.”
Commander Fredric Zachry warned “What if the power rebels this time instead of its wielder?”
Chief reassured him “We’ll be using Creator to suppress Amender’s powers, sir.”
Commander Fredric Zachry asked skeptically “What if Creator rebels?”
Chief confidently replied “She won’t sir.”
Commander Fredric Zachry pondered Hmm…
Chief added “Her power has been consistent and always protected us like a guardian when other hosts went berserk.”
Commander Fredric Zachry ordered “Alright then go ahead with the plan. But let’s prepare for all possible outcomes beforehand.”
Chief responded “Yes si-…”
{Alarms blaring as footsteps approach} {The door opens}
Private exclaimed “Sir! The Amender is dead.”