Strong Hearts: The Legacy of Do Sisters- By: Tina Marie
Chapter 9 - Subject Zero
The sun hadn’t even risen yet, but the Doom Den was lit like a war room.
Do Rin had her laptop cracked open, three portable drives connected, and one mission in mind:
Find out who Subject Zero was.
Across from her, Do Rae paced with a slice of cold pizza and a thousand questions burning a hole in her skull.
Jin Seok leaned against the wall, still visibly stunned. He hadn’t said much since the fight. Just the occasional deep sigh like “Did I really just see that girl body slam a genetically modified guard?”
He finally broke the silence.
“So let me get this straight… you two have superhuman strength, your mom used to fight crime in secret, your aunt went rogue, and now a tech company is using your DNA to build black-market super soldiers?”
Rae: “Yeah, that about covers it.”
Jin Seok blinked. “Okay. Cool. Just making sure I’m still in reality.”
Rin cut in. “Guys. I found something.”
She turned the laptop toward them.
SUBJECT ZERO
Name: Unknown
Status: Terminated
Year: 2003
DNA Match: 98.7% match to Do Bong Soon
Condition: Irreversible cognitive damage. Partial success.
Rae leaned in. “What does ‘partial success’ mean?”
“It means they made someone strong,” Rin said, “but broke their brain doing it.”
Jin Seok pointed at the match percentage. “That’s… almost identical to your mom.”
Rin nodded. “Because Subject Zero wasn’t just a random test subject.”
She clicked on a subfile: a distorted photo of a young woman. Face blurry, timestamped, locked behind red tape.
“She was the first artificial strong woman.
And I think… she might’ve been related to Mom.”
Flashback — 2003.
A hidden lab.
Steel tables. Glass rooms.
A young woman thrashing in restraints, crying, then screaming—until her voice broke.
Standing behind the glass?
Do Mi Na.
She whispered, “She’ll survive. She has to.”
And when someone asked for her name?
“She has no name,” Mi Na said.
“She’s the proof.”
Back in the present, Rin’s hands were shaking.
“Blue Star isn’t trying to copy us,” she said. “They’re trying to finish what Mi Na started. Fix her mistake. Make the formula stable. And they think we’re the key to doing it right.”
Rae looked at her sister.
“We need to find Subject Zero. If she’s alive… she’s proof they’re lying to the public.
And she didn’t ask to be made. She deserves to be saved.”
Suddenly, Rin’s screen pinged.
A location file. A security log from three weeks ago.
SUBJECT ZERO — MOVED TO OFF-SITE HOLDING
Destination: Facility X13 – Busan
Rae’s eyes lit up.
“Road trip?”
Other Chapters
- Chapter 1 - Eighteen Candles and a Cracked Sidewalk
- Chapter 2 - The First Rule of Strength Club
- Chapter 3 - The Forgotten One
- Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Walked Away
- Chapter 5 - The Ones Who Never Hid
- Chapter 6 - The Prophecy We Were Never Meant to Hear
- Chapter 7 - Off the Grid, Into the Fire
- Chapter 8 - Masks, Lies, and a Familiar Face
- Chapter 9 - Subject Zero
- Chapter 10 - The Ghost Who Runs the Lab
- Chapter 11 - Prototype X
- Chapter 12 - Mom Already Knew
- Chapter 13 - The Broadcast Heard Around the World
- Chapter 14 - Symbols of Resistance
- Chapter 15 - The Lines We Draw
- Chapter 16 - The Warning Shot
- Chapter 17 - Beneath the Oath
- Chapter 18 - Legacy in the Dark
- Chapter 19 - Inhale the Fire
- Chapter 20 - The Second Vial
- Chapter 21 - Operation Chimera
- Chapter 22 - The Reckoning Broadcast
- Chapter 23 - Strike First
- Chapter 24 - Ghost in the Armor
- Chapter 25 - Escape Protocol
- Chapter 26 - War Council
- Chapter 27 - Island of No Return
- Chapter 28 - Queen's Gambit
- Chapter 29 - Ascension
- Chapter 30 - The Morning After
- Chapter 31 - Clean Slates and Cracked Foundations
- Chapter 32 - Awakening Protocol
- Chapter 33 - Smoke Signals
- Chapter 34 - Burn Notice
- Chapter 35 - Firestarter
- Chapter 36 - Frequency War
- Chapter 37 - Tower Storm
- Chapter 38 - Aftershock
- Chapter 39 - Sparks and Silence
- Chapter 40 - Reika
- Chapter 41 - Fog and Firewalls
- Chapter 42 - The Architect
- Chapter 43 - Descent
- Chapter 44 - Pulse Point
- Chapter 45 - Surfacing
- Chapter 46 - Embers
- Chapter 47 - Phoenix Rising
- Chapter 48 - Threshold
- Chapter 49 - Resonance
- Chapter 50 - Homecoming
- Chapter 51 - Glitches and Glances
- Chapter 52 - Echoes and Ultimatums
- Chapter 53 - Crossroads
- Chapter 54 - Mirrors and Misdirection
- Chapter 55 - Double Lives
- Chapter 56 - Fractures
- Chapter 57 - Ghosts and Codes
- Chapter 58 - Resurfaced
- Chapter 59 - Apex
- Chapter 60 - Bloodline Breakpoint
- Chapter 61 - Ashes and Walnut Trees
- Chapter 62 - Roots in the Ash
- Chapter 63 - The Final Whisper
- Chapter 64 - Echo Chamber
- Chapter 65 - The Reckoning Room
- Chapter 66 - A New Flame
- Chapter 67 - The Proposal
- Chapter 68 - The Choice Revisted
- Chapter 69 - The Ceremony
- Chapter 70 - Epilogue- Ten Years Later