KIRA'S POV
My body was eating itself from the inside.
That's what it felt like. Subject Zero burned through my veins like acid, rewriting every cell it touched. My bones cracked and reformed. My skin bubbled and stretched. I could feel my DNA unraveling like a pulled thread.
I tried to scream but the black liquid filled my throat, choking off the sound.
Atlas, I thought desperately. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't come to bed.
My spine arched backward so hard I heard it snap. No pain. Why wasn't there pain? There should be pain. Instead, I felt my vertebrae multiplying, adding segments that shouldn't exist. My shoulder blades tore open and something pushed through—extra limbs clawing their way out of my flesh.
The laboratory spun around me. Or maybe I was spinning. Convulsing. Dying.
Is this dying?
My left hand twisted, fingers elongating into black claws. I watched, detached and horrified, as the bones broke through my skin. But the skin didn't bleed. It turned dark and shiny, like beetle shells. Like armor.
No. No, no, no. This isn't happening.
My right eye burst. I felt it pop like a grape. But instead of agony, there was pressure—something new growing in the socket. When my vision cleared, I could see everything. The dust particles floating in the air. The heat signatures from the equipment. The microscopic cracks in the floor tiles.
I could see too much. My brain couldn't process it all.
The transformation accelerated. My legs bent backward, joints reversing. My jaw unhinged and reformed, adding rows of teeth that felt sharp against my tongue. My tongue split into three. My heart stopped.
For one crystal-clear second, everything went silent.
Then three new hearts started beating in my chest, pumping something that definitely wasn't blood.
I'm not human anymore.
The thought should have terrified me. But Subject Zero's consciousness was mixing with mine, showing me what I was becoming. Not a monster. An evolution. The next step. Something better than human. Stronger. Faster. Perfect.
No! I screamed inside my own head. I don't want this! Give me back my body!
But Subject Zero didn't understand "give back." It only understood forward. Change. Adapt. Survive.
My hearing sharpened so suddenly it hurt. I could hear Yuki's footsteps echoing three corridors away, running toward the security station. I could hear her heartbeat—racing, panicked. I could hear her whispered prayer: "Please let Kira be okay. Please, please, please."
I'm not okay, I wanted to tell her. I'm never going to be okay again.
The laboratory door exploded inward. Atlas burst through, plasma rifle raised. Three security guards flanked him. His gray eyes scanned the room, found me on the floor, and—
He froze.
I tried to say his name. Tried to form the word "Atlas" with my new, wrong mouth. What came out was a clicking, hissing sound that made all four men step back.
"Kira?" Atlas whispered. His voice cracked. "Is that... Kira, is that you?"
I reached toward him with my new hand—black, clawed, monstrous. I wanted him to see me. To recognize me. To know I was still in here.
But Atlas's face changed. Horror replaced recognition. His rifle came up, targeting my chest.
"It's wearing her face," one guard said. "Sir, that thing killed Dr. Chen."
"No," Atlas said, but his voice was hollow. Dead. "No, she's... Kira's..."
I tried again to speak. "Ahh... tuh... luss..."
His name. I was trying to say his name. Why couldn't I say his name?
"It's mimicking her," another guard said. "Trying to confuse us."
"Shoot it!" the third guard yelled.
"WAIT!" Atlas commanded, but his hands were shaking. The rifle barrel wavered. "I need to... I need to be sure..."
I stood up. My new body moved wrong—too fast, too fluid. I wasn't controlling it properly. Subject Zero's instincts were fighting with my human mind for dominance.
Atlas stepped back. Away from me. Like I was dangerous.
I am dangerous, I realized with sick horror. I killed those security officers. Their blood is on my claws.
I looked down. Three bodies lay crumpled near the door. Torn apart. When had I done that? I didn't remember. The transformation had blanked out whole minutes.
"Oh God," I whispered, and this time actual words came out—garbled and wet, but words. "I... kill... them?"
Atlas's face went white. "Kira? KIRA!"
I ran.
Not away from him—toward the vent shaft. Subject Zero's instincts screamed: HIDE. ESCAPE. SURVIVE. My body obeyed before my mind could protest. I leaped ten feet straight up, tore the vent cover off with my new claws, and squeezed inside.
"KIRA, WAIT!" Atlas's voice broke. "Please! Don't go! I can help you!"
But I was already crawling through the ventilation system, moving impossibly fast on four limbs instead of two. Behind me, I heard Atlas shouting orders. Heard boots thundering. Heard the entire ship's alarm system screaming to life.
The vents were dark and cramped. Perfect for hiding. Perfect for something like me—something that wasn't human anymore.
I curled into a ball in the darkness, wrapping my four arms around my knees. My three hearts hammered against my ribs. All I could think about was Atlas's face. The horror in his eyes. The way he'd looked at me like I was a nightmare.
He's right, I thought. I am a nightmare now.
My stomach cramped suddenly. Violently. A new hunger ripped through me—primal and overwhelming. I needed to eat. Not human food. Living tissue. Biological matter. My body demanded it.
No, I told myself firmly. I won't. I'm still Kira Chen. I'm still human inside.
But my enhanced hearing picked up sounds from the deck below. The animal testing lab. Dozens of rats in cages. Living, breathing, biological matter.
My mouth watered with saliva that burned like acid.
And I realized with absolute, crystal-clear terror:
I was going to eat them.
All of them.
Because the thing I was becoming was very, very hungry.