The infirmary lights buzzed faintly, dim and sterile. The air reeked of antiseptic and rain.
Elias lay restrained on the central cot, his wrists bound with magnetized cuffs that shimmered faintly blue. Beside him, a pulse monitor flickered erratically sometimes showing a heartbeat, sometimes… two.
Juno Kai stood in the corner, his cadet uniform still scorched from the explosion.
"He doesn't even look human right now," he muttered under his breath.
Dr. Rion Sava, scanning the vitals, didn't answer. He'd seen soldiers die in the field before but never something like this. The readings kept shifting, as if the device was trying to measure two bodies within one.
A low murmur escaped Elias's lips, incoherent. His fingers twitched against the cuffs.
"Rion," Juno whispered, "you sure this isn't killing him?"
Rion shook his head. "He's not dying." His eyes narrowed. "He's adjusting."
The room trembled slightly, the ceiling lights dimming. A static field spread outward from Elias's body. The cuffs hummed, strained, as if resisting a force trying to tear them apart.
Inside Elias's mind was chaos.
He floated in a vast, red-tinted void, hearing echoes of distant gunfire and screaming winds. The landscape around him flickered, one moment a battlefield, the next, a childhood street he didn't remember walking.
Then came the voice.
[System awakening…]
[Unquantifiable entity detected.]
[Soul merger: 47% synchronization.]
[Designation: Shadowborn.]
He turned in confusion, and through the darkness, a silhouette emerged, tall, armored, the same outline he'd seen in dreams he never remembered fully. The figure's eyes glowed with molten silver.
"Who are you?" Elias demanded. His voice sounded small in the void.
The figure smiled grimly.
"Not who," it said. "But what you were."
Images flashed, burning cities, men in black armor moving with perfect precision, a man's voice barking orders through static: Liam Blackwood, eliminate all hostiles.
Elias fell to his knees, clutching his head. "No… that's not me!"
[Correction: You are the continuation.]
[Biological host stabilized. Cognitive override in progress.]
The armored figure knelt in front of him. It pressed a hand against Elias's chest, and light flared, a rush of sensations followed. Pain. Power. Memories that weren't his. The metallic taste of blood. The rhythm of combat.
"You will learn," the voice said softly. "As I did. As we will."
Elias screamed, the sound echoing through the infirmary.
Back in the real world, Rion stumbled backward as a sudden pulse knocked over the medical tray. The instruments rattled, one by one, to the floor. Elias's eyes snapped open, pure silver again.
"He's awake!" Juno shouted, rushing forward.
Rion threw up a hand. "Stay back!"
Elias sat up sharply, breaking the restraints like paper. His movements were mechanical, precise. He scanned the room with the cold precision of a soldier assessing threats, even as his face showed confusion.
"Where am I?" His voice was deeper, layered with an undertone that wasn't his.
Rion swallowed. "You're at the academy infirmary. You suffered some kind of neural shock."
Elias tilted his head, gaze sharpening. "You're lying."
Before Rion could respond, Elias's left hand clenched, and every screen in the room shattered simultaneously, glass falling like rain.
Juno grabbed his arm. "Eli...listen to me, man..it's me! Juno!"
Elias froze. His head jerked slightly, as if two voices argued inside him. Then the glow faded from his eyes, leaving him trembling. He fell against Juno's shoulder, gasping.
"Something's inside me," he whispered hoarsely. "It's… showing me things. Killing things."
Juno tightened his hold. "Then we figure it out together, okay? You're not alone."
For a moment, Elias met his gaze and the shadow behind his pupils flickered, a reflection of another face entirely.
Liam Blackwood's.
Later that night…
Rain continued to fall. The academy's surveillance drones hovered silently over the damaged simulation dome, scanning for traces of the unknown energy.
Inside the director's chamber, Seren Kane reviewed the fragmented data streams. Her expression was unreadable, eyes flicking over fluctuating patterns frequencies that didn't match any known electromagnetic signature.
"Organic interference," muttered the AI assistant.
"No," Seren said softly. "Not interference. A pulse. Rhythmic. Controlled."
She paused the playback. The data spiked at one precise moment, the instant the electro missile detonated in the earlier battle report. The readings matched. Identical frequency. Identical pattern.
Her heart slowed.
She whispered, "Liam Blackwood…"
The computer pinged. "Cross-referencing restricted files requires Level Omega clearance."
"I am Omega," she replied coldly.
The archive opened. A single classified file appeared, its header blacked out, but the photo was clear: a man's face half-hidden by shadow.
Seren leaned closer. The resemblance was undeniable the same angular jawline, the same scar across the left brow. Only younger. Human.
She looked at the timestamp. Five years ago. Classified as deceased.
Her hands clenched. "Impossible," she murmured. "He was vaporized."
Then she remembered the blast signature, the one that shouldn't exist the same energy pattern now resonating inside a nineteen year old cadet.
Her pulse quickened.
She whispered into the dark room, "What have you become, Liam?"
The monitor flickered once… then a single, distorted line of code appeared on the screen:
[System online.]
[Host: Elias Torvic.]
[Synchronization: 53%.]
Seren's expression hardened. "Then we're running out of time."
The lights went out.
A faint, whispering static filled the room something almost human breathing through the speakers.
"You shouldn't have looked."
Seren froze. The monitor's reflection shifted, showing not her own face, but a faint outline of Liam's, smirking faintly from the dark.