Zaeryn rolled his eyes faintly. "Non-invasive you say. Funny how you say that right before doing something invasive."
Daphne grinned. "Well, guilty as charged."
The recliner tilted slightly, adjusting his posture automatically. Tiny, metallic tendrils extended from the armrests, snaking toward his wrists—not binding, but close enough to make him feel like this could change in an instant.
Zaeryn was nervous at this moment no lie, however he was trying to keep calm. Because if he showed them how he was feeling, then he was giving them exactly what they wanted.
A system notification popped In front of him, but only visible to him as always, making Zaeryn realize this could get bad real quickly.
[Zaeryn, a threat has been detected: External Probe. Adaptive Defense Engaged.]
He exhaled slightly, praying that the system was undetectable by anything. It was right? Honestly he didn't know. But he would guess that it shouldn't be detected.
"Neural scan, huh?" he drawled. "So, what happens if my brain melts?" At this point he was just trying to show his calmness.
"Then you'd better hope you're as rare as the data suggests," Daphne replied without missing a beat, her voice velvet-smooth, laced with that quiet dominance that made his pulse tick faster.
She bent closer, checking the connection nodes along his temple. Her hair brushed his cheek as she leaned over him, her scent hitting again—sharp, clean, almost electric, with that faint floral whisper.
'Why is this woman always in my space.' Zaeryn thought to himself. Her close proximity at this moment was unsettling him, because he didn't trust her or anyone in this room, frankly not anyone in this building honestly.
"Relax," she repeated softly, fingertips grazing his skin as she adjusted a sensor. Her voice dipped lower, so only he could hear. "You're safe… for now."
Zaeryn chuckled under his breath, getting even more nervous . "For now,' huh? Your words are comforting." He mocked.
Holographic streams of code bloomed above them, glowing symbols running in synchronized waves. A low hum could be heard in his ears as the machine powered on. A pulse of blue light washed over Zaeryn's body, scanning from head to toe.
The first readings appeared on the display, clean, neat, until the lines began to spike. Rapidly.
Warning detected!
Dr. Sylis's head shot up from her console. "Uh… Daphne?" she said, her voice suddenly tight. "Neural frequency is off the charts. I've never seen a reading like this. It's—it's rewriting its own patterns in real time."
Daphne didn't move, but Zaeryn caught the annoyance in her eyes—a crack in that perfect wall of control. It was satisfying to see that look in her face, maybe she would now realize that she would never figure him out.
She leaned closer to the display, her tone calm but edged. "Impossible. Run a verification cycle."
"It's verified," Sylis said, her fingers flying over the holo-interface. "Every neural map we try to overlay gets corrupted instantly. It's like… like he's resisting the scan."
Zaeryn's grin widened. 'Damn right I am.'
Daphne turned her gaze back to him, violet eyes sharp as a dagger. For the first time, her voice dropped into something almost hungry.
"…What are you hiding, Zaeryn?" She asked, however seeing his grin and no sign that he wanted to answer she gritted her teeth, turning to her colleagues and yelled out, "Fuck it, I want …a full body scan! No more games!"
Zaeryn's heart kicked up a notch, but his face stayed calm, like the king of a bluff he was unwilling to fold.
Daphne tapped a few commands on a floating holo-panel. The blue pulse intensified, the light crawling deeper beneath his skin, sending a subtle vibration through his nerves.
The sensors hummed louder, the lab silent except for the buzzing electronics.
Zaeryn's system flared quietly inside his mind, sending out countermeasures.
[Warning: Probe intensity rising]
[Adaptive shield engaging. Probability of detection is minus zero percent.]
Zaeryn exhaled a small sigh. 'Good, so that means, they will only get more questions, but never answers. I'm okay with that.'
After more tests, but with no results, Daphne and the others were clearly frustrated, and the fact that zaeryn seemed to know what was happening, but didn't want to tell them, was annoying to her. Daphne's voice cut through the hum, cold and sharp:
"Zaeryn, if you're going to resist, it will only make things worse."
He smirked, locking eyes with her. "Maybe I'm not the one you should worry about."
Her eyes narrowed, a flicker of something unreadable flashing behind her calm exterior.
"Fine, have it your way." She turned to Lirien and said, "Draw blood, maybe his biology will reveal something."
Dr. Lirien moved forward, her heels tapping lightly against the floor as she picked up a sleek injector. The chrome device hissed softly as she primed it.
"Run it,"Daphne ordered without taking her eyes off Zaeryn. "If his neural patterns won't cooperate, his biology will." She grinned at him, as if trying to intimidate him into spilling the truth, before she took things further.
And well, take things further she just might. Zaeryn was beginning to learn a lot about her, and frankly she scared him.
He frowned, his eyes meeting with hers, but he said nothing. He was annoyed by how invasive this was getting, as time went on. 'Oh sure, stick a needle in me. Why not? I wonder how far they'll go before they realize it's pointless?'
What worried him was them using the excuse that they couldn't figure him out to then make him a full time lab rat, researching him for as long as he was alive. Yikes. It would be better if they realized sooner that he was better as a friend than anything else.
"Don't look so down, you'll live," Lirien replied dryly when she saw the look on his face. "But you could make things easier you know, by telling us the truth."
"What truth? What makes you think I know what's going on?" Zaeryn finished, flashing her a lazy grin that didn't reach his eyes.
Lirien didn't answer. The injector's needle slid into his arm. A cold sting, a faint click, and a vial of shimmering crimson fluid slid into the chamber. Lirien held it up against the sterile glow of the lab lights.
Zaeryn noticed something, his blood wasn't the dull red he expected. It was richer and deeper, almost like liquid garnet.
Lirien frowned. "That's… unusual."
Daphne folded her arms, heels clicking against the floor as she stepped closer. Her violet eyes narrowed, scanning the vial with her usual scrutiny. "Interesting." She remarked.
More than ten minutes later, after putting the blood under a microscope and other advanced tests;
Lirien tilted the vial under the sterile glow.
The liquid shimmered faintly, almost iridescent when the light hit. "Male blood is supposed to be thin, low in active protein chains, and weak in cellular density. This…" She rotated it slowly, her brows furrowing deeper. "…is dense. Saturated. There's a regenerative factor here—completely off-scale."
Zaeryn smirked faintly, masking the feeling of unease in his chest. "Well, I drink a lot of water," he said flatly.
Neither woman laughed.
Lirien's voice dropped as she brought up the holo-screen. The display bloomed with streams of molecular data, and her frown hardened. "Daphne… look at this. His hemoglobin levels are many times the standard male range. Hormonal markers? Off the charts. And—" She froze, eyes widening. "…no trace of M-degradation."
Zaeryn didn't say anything. But goddess, the jargon was getting on his nerves. The way they tossed around scientific terms like verbal hand grenades. If he wasn't smarter or knowledgeable, he'd be sitting here clueless, wondering what the hell 'M-degradation' even meant.
But he knew. He'd read enough restricted material to understand. The M-degradation, or 'Male-Degradation' they were talking about was the genetic flaw that crippled every male in this world. The thing that made them weak and all the bad stuff. The reason the Matriarchy ruled and men were ornamental at best. Every male had it, from birth to death.
Except him.
Daphne's calm façade finally cracked, just for a second. Her lips curved into something sharp, dangerous—a smile that wasn't really a smile at all. "No M-degradation," she repeated softly, tasting the words like wine. "That's impossible. Every male carries it. It's the reason men can't handle magic, combat, or high-energy resonance without burning out."
Zaeryn tilted his head, smirking. "If you say so."
The holo-screen flashed red for a second before streaming more anomalies.
Dr. Sylis leaned in, her voice tight. "Uh… Daphne? This isn't just 'healthy.' Look at his adaptive markers."
Daphne strode over, gaze sweeping the data once, then again—slower this time.
Lirien whispered, almost reverent: "Zaeryn has zero Fade susceptibility. Perfect telomere integrity. No genetic decay. He's… biologically immaculate."
Sylis added, eyes wide now: "Not just perfect. Look at his hemoglobin density is higher than most War-Ladies. Oxygen efficiency, neural resilience Daphne, this isn't male baseline. It's optimized and enhanced."
Suddenly, the lab's main holo-screen flickered, then switched to a sharp, majestic but stunning figure, Lysara's distinctive silhouette.
"High Commander," Daphne greeted smoothly, masking the flicker of tension in her voice.
Lysara's gaze cut past them and landed on Zaeryn. For three long seconds, those glacial eyes held him in place, scanning him, before shifting back to Daphne.
"Virelith, what's the status?"she demanded.
Daphne straightened. "So far, we have… more questions than answers."
"Then stop wasting time," Lysara said coldly. "Enough tests for now. Send him to me when you're finished. I want a word with him!"
Zaeryn's pulse ticked up. He didn't like the way she said that. And what does she want to speak to him about?
"Yes, Commander," Daphne replied, her expression unreadable.